Compositions comprising flavonoid-containing extracts from plants of the genus citrus and/or isolated citrus flavonoids and specific cationic surface active agents, and said composition for use as an agent for treating infestations with head lice

Abstract

A composition having anti-lice properties comprising effective amounts of at least one monoalkyl and/or dialkyl quat and/or amidoquat in combination with flavonoid-containing extracts obtained from Citrus plants and/or one or more isolated Citrus flavonoids. Advantages are: said preparation has strong physical insecticidal effects and facilitates the removal of lice eggs and nits from the hair.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The invention relates to a composition having anti-lice properties comprising effective amounts of one or more specific quaternary ammonium salt surface active agent(s) (named monoalkyl, dialkyl quat and amidoquat, respectively, in the context of the present invention) in combination with flavonoid-containing extracts obtained from plants of the species Citrus and / or isolated Citrus flavonoids. Further, the invention relates to said composition for use in a method for treating infestation with head lice, and said composition for use as a medicinal product or cosmetic product.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) are parasitic insects that live permanently on humans. Lice occur worldwide and are remarkably widespread in children aged between 3 and 15 years. In many industrialized countries the cases of infested individuals have been observed to increase significantly during the last years. Lice infestations have remained a ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0021]The second constituent of the composition according to the present invention are specific cationic surface-active agents. Compounds with cationic moieties typically are used for conditioning in hair care, though silicone compounds gained a dominant role for this purpose. Hair bears negative charges to which cationic agents can be bound in order to impart an antistatic effect and to obtain a smooth hair surface. Cationic emulsifiers comprise one or two charged nitrogen atoms and one or two alkyl chains. To the present state of the art, monoalkyl and dialkyl quats and amidoquats are not known to have any licidical effect have not been employed for treating lice infestations.

[0022]Surprisingly it was found by the inventors that flavonoid-containing extracts obtained from plants of the species Citrus and/or one or more of isolated

Problems solved by technology

However, the results were not corroborated by experiments in our laboratory where even a thousand fold hi