Therapeutic Effects of Topical Minoxidil or Rosemary and the Combination of Both on the treatment of Alopecia areata

Background & Objectives: Considering the prevalence of Alopecia areata, , failure of treatment, and the unknown pathogenesis of this illness, a comparative study was performed by using topical Minoxidil 2% and topical rosemary solution alone and in combination to treatment this disease. Materials & Methods: This study is a clinical trial performed on 200 patients with Alopecia areata referring to Hamzeh clinic of Fasa during the years 2012 and 2013. They were divided into four groups by random permutation, each group contained 50 patients. Group one received the combination of topical Minoxidil 2% and topical rosemary, group two received only topical Minoxidil 2% solution, group three received only topical rosemary solution and the fourth group, the case-control group, did not receive any medication and were just advised to rub the site of the disease for the same period of time. The patients were under observation for one year. Results: The Results of this investigation showed that the best remissions after treatments were as follow (respectively): combination of topical Minoxidil 2% and topical rosemary (27 patient=54 %), Minoxidil 2% solution (23 patients =46%), rosemary solution (21 patients =42%), and case- control group (9 patients =18%). These results showed that despite better response to the combination of rosemary and Minoxidil solutions in comparison to the two other treated groups, the changes were minimal and statistically insignificant (P-value =0.0411). Conclusion: Using the combination of both rosemary and Minoxidil is more effective than the individual one on treatment of Alopecia areata.