Millet extract for hair loss: what the Keranat® trial measured

Ingredient spotlight · Miliacin-rich golden millet in Health Royals’ Hair Beautification, hair vitamins with millet extract · 7 min read

Keranat® is a standardised extract of golden millet seed, rich in miliacin and carried by polar lipids, made by Robertet in Grasse. In a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in women, 300 mg a day for twelve weeks was followed by phototrichogram, which measured hair loss and the share of hairs in the resting phase; the study reported an average 50 percent reduction in hair loss, with a significant difference against placebo. Hair Beautification carries the same 300 mg.

More hair than usual in the brush. A few extra strands in the shower, a ponytail that feels thinner in the hand. When hair changes, the first instinct is to look for something to put on it. But every strand begins beneath the scalp, in a living follicle that works to its own rhythm, and what you see today reflects what happened there weeks or months ago.

That is why an ingredient for hair has to be judged differently from a shampoo, and why the question we ask at Health Royals before a raw material is chosen is a plain one: what exactly was studied, in whom, at what dose, for how long, and does the amount in our capsule match. This article goes through what golden millet has to do with hair, what Keranat® is and who makes it, what the twelve-week study measured, and why Hair Beautification contains the same 300 mg. How hair grows has its own article, and which hair supplements have support in research is a question we answer separately.

Hair is what we see. The selection starts much earlier.

Millet extract at Health Royals

Hair Beautification contains 300 mg Keranat® golden millet complex from Robertet per daily dose, the amount used in the twelve-week study, in one capsule a day. The same capsule contains zinc 10 mg as zinc citrate, biotin 50 µg and vitamin B6 1.4 mg. Zinc contributes to the maintenance of normal hair. Biotin contributes to the maintenance of normal hair and normal skin.

See Hair Beautification, hair vitamins with millet extract

What happens before a hair becomes visible?

The hair fibre above the scalp is the finished result of work done below it.

At the base of each follicle sit the hair bulb and the dermal papilla, where cells divide and build the growing strand. Each follicle moves through a growth phase that lasts years, a short transition phase and a resting phase of a few months, after which the strand is released and a new one begins. Some daily shedding is simply the cycle turning over.

When more follicles than usual enter the resting phase at the same time, more hair is released a few months later. This diffuse shedding is called telogen effluvium, and it is the pattern the women in the Keranat® study had. Common triggers are a period of intense stress, fever or illness, rapid weight loss, pregnancy, hormonal change and a low intake of some nutrients. A sudden, heavy or persistent change in hair is worth a conversation with your doctor, and the rest of this article is about what a well-chosen raw material can add to the everyday picture.

Two things follow from the biology. Changes start in the follicle, so a visible result takes time. And because the resting phase lasts months, any study on hair, and any routine worth the name, has to run for months as well.

The strand is visible. The cycle behind it is not.

What does golden millet have to do with hair?

Golden millet, Panicum miliaceum L., is an old cereal whose lipid-rich fraction naturally contains miliacin, a plant triterpenoid that has become a subject of research on the biology of the hair follicle.

The word millet on an ingredient list gives the plant. What decides quality is which variety was grown, how the lipid fraction was prepared, how the miliacin is carried so that it can be taken up, and whether that specific material has been tested in people. With botanical ingredients this is the whole question: two products can name the same plant and contain very different extracts, concentrations and daily amounts.

That distinction is where our selection starts. For us, the ingredient cannot be separated from its source, manufacturer and studied dose. Golden millet is the origin; the defined raw material, and the study on it, provide the precision, which is why the rest of this article is about Keranat® rather than about millet in general. What a branded ingredient name guarantees, and what it does not, we explain in a separate article.

Golden millet is the origin. The specific ingredient behind it provides the precision.

What is Keranat®, and who makes it?

Keranat® is a patented plant complex developed from a selected variety of golden millet grown in France, made by Robertet Health & Beauty in Grasse.

Robertet has worked with natural raw materials in Grasse since the nineteenth century, first for fragrance and flavour and, through its Health & Beauty division, for nutrition. Keranat® combines miliacin with polar lipids in a delivery system developed for oral use; according to Robertet, the polar lipids help disperse and carry the naturally fat-associated miliacin. It is therefore not powdered millet or a general millet extract, but a defined ingredient with a known origin, composition, daily amount and human study.

Before the human study, the complex was examined in a laboratory model of the dermal papilla, published by Boisnic and colleagues in 2016, which looked at growth-factor secretion and the extracellular matrix of the follicle. The laboratory work was the starting point, and the twelve-week study in women is the one that matters.

Health Royals works with specialist manufacturers, researchers and supplier networks when raw materials are selected, and Robertet is the kind of manufacturer we look for: the plant, the extraction and the study belong to the same company, and the documentation follows the material all the way to our capsule.

The point is not that it comes from millet. It is that this particular golden millet complex has been studied.

What did the twelve-week study on Keranat® measure?

Hair loss, measured by phototrichogram, in women with telogen effluvium who took 300 mg a day or placebo for twelve weeks.

The study, published by Keophiphath and colleagues in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, was randomised, double-blind and placebo-controlled: the women were assigned by chance to Keranat® or placebo, and neither they nor the investigators knew who took what until the study was over. Hair loss was assessed with a phototrichogram, an imaging method in which a defined area of the scalp is photographed under magnification at fixed time points, so that hair density and the share of hairs in the growth and resting phases can be followed in the same area over time. It removes most of the day-to-day noise of counting hairs in the shower, which vary with how often the hair is washed, brushed and styled.

After twelve weeks, the study reported an average 50 percent reduction in hair loss in the Keranat® group, with a significant difference compared with placebo.

The study programme also included investigator assessments and the participants' own assessments. Among the reported findings:

91 percent of the women perceived less hair loss.

75 percent noticed improvements in qualities including shine, softness and flexibility.

Reduced scalp dryness was also reported compared with placebo.

Measured outcomes and perceived outcomes are two different kinds of evidence and are best read separately. The phototrichogram gives the measurement; the self-assessments describe how the change was experienced day to day. Together they cover shedding, visible hair quality and scalp comfort across the twelve weeks, which is the picture a raw material for hair needs to be able to show.

Why twelve weeks?

Because hair moves slowly.

A follicle that shifts back towards growth needs weeks before the change reaches the visible strand, and the resting phase itself lasts months. Studies on hair therefore run for months rather than weeks, and a daily routine has to be simple enough to keep up for the whole period. Taking more than the studied amount does not speed the cycle up. Taking the studied amount every day, for as long as the study ran, is what the evidence is built on.

Hair care from within is not a quick fix. It follows the hair's own rhythm.

Why does the study on Keranat® matter?

It shows what a raw material for hair should be able to show. A defined complex from a named manufacturer, at a stated daily amount, was tested in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in women with exactly the kind of shedding it was developed for, with an objective measurement as the main outcome and a reported difference against placebo. That is the standard we apply before an ingredient goes into a jar, and it is why Keranat® is the centre of Hair Beautification.

Hair shedding has many causes. Where hair loss is sudden, heavy or persistent, a doctor is the right first step.

Why does Hair Beautification contain 300 mg of Keranat®?

Because 300 mg a day is the amount the study used.

Keranat® was studied at 300 mg per day. Hair Beautification contains 300 mg per daily dose, in one capsule. That is a decision, not a coincidence: where a branded raw material has a human study, the product carries the dose the study used. A larger amount of plain millet powder would not be a higher dose of the same thing, only a different and untested material, and a smaller amount of Keranat® would be a dose nobody has studied.

A higher number is not automatically a better or more evidence-based dose. What matters is the specific raw material and the dose that was actually studied.

The ingredient name creates interest. The studied form and dose provide the context.

How does Keranat® fit into Hair Beautification?

Hair Beautification is a focused hair supplement rather than a long list of fashionable ingredients: four named components, each with a reason to be there.

Keranat® is the centre, at 300 mg. Around it sit three nutrients with authorised claims on the hair itself and on the processes behind it. Zinc, 10 mg as zinc citrate: zinc contributes to the maintenance of normal hair, normal skin and normal nails and to the normal function of the immune system. Biotin, 50 µg: biotin contributes to the maintenance of normal hair and normal skin. Vitamin B6, 1.4 mg: vitamin B6 contributes to normal protein metabolism and to the regulation of hormonal activity, and a hair strand is largely protein.

The three nutrients sit at a nutritional level, the reference intake, because nothing in this jar is dosed higher than there is a reason for. Keranat® sits at its studied dose. The claims belong to zinc, biotin and vitamin B6; Keranat® contributes the human study. That is the whole formula, and the reason there is one capsule rather than a shelf of them.

The study ran on daily intake for twelve weeks, so the capsule is meant to be taken every day for three months, and that is why the jar is designed to stand out on a shelf rather than at the back of a cupboard.

We have done the selection so that you do not have to. Hair Beautification gives you Keranat® at 300 mg a day, the amount in its placebo-controlled study, together with zinc, biotin and vitamin B6 at doses we publish and can explain. Which other hair ingredients have support in research, and which do not, we go through in our guide to hair supplements, and our hair page collects the wider context on thinning hair. You can stop looking.

See Hair Beautification, hair vitamins with millet extract

Go deeper

• Guide: hair from within
• Which hair supplements have support in research?
• How hair grows: the follicle and the growth phases
• The scalp: the foundation that rarely gets attention
• Thinning hair in women
• Branded ingredients: what the name actually guarantees
• Biotin for hair, skin and macronutrient metabolism
• Zinc for resilience, recovery and everyday cellular defence
• Vitamin B6 for protein metabolism and hormonal activity
• The biology of stress
• Why we use capsules and not powders

Frequently asked questions

What is Keranat® and where does it come from?
Keranat® is a patented plant complex developed from a selected variety of golden millet grown in France, made by Robertet Health & Beauty in Grasse. It combines miliacin with polar lipids in a delivery system developed for oral use; according to Robertet, the polar lipids help disperse and carry the naturally fat-associated miliacin. It is not powdered millet or a general millet extract, but a defined ingredient with a known origin, composition and human study.

What is miliacin?
Miliacin is a plant triterpenoid found naturally in the lipid-rich fraction of golden millet, Panicum miliaceum L., and it has become a subject of research on the biology of the hair follicle. A named complex such as Keranat® tells you which variety was used, how the lipid fraction was prepared and which human study it rests on, which is why the named complex, not the plant, is what we look at.

What did the study on Keranat® measure?
In a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in women with telogen effluvium, published by Keophiphath and colleagues in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, participants took 300 mg a day or placebo for twelve weeks. Hair loss was measured by phototrichogram, an imaging method in which a defined area of the scalp is photographed under magnification at fixed time points. The study reported an average 50 percent reduction in hair loss with a significant difference against placebo, and the programme also included investigator assessments and the participants' own assessments of shine, softness, flexibility and scalp dryness.

Why is the routine built around twelve weeks?
Hair follows a biological cycle in which the resting phase alone lasts months, so a change in the follicle takes time to reach the visible strand. Studies on hair are therefore run over months rather than weeks, and the study on Keranat® used a daily routine across twelve weeks. Taking more than the studied amount does not speed the cycle up.

How much Keranat® is in Hair Beautification?
Keranat® was studied at 300 mg per day, and Hair Beautification contains 300 mg per daily dose, in one capsule. Around it sit zinc 10 mg as zinc citrate, biotin 50 µg and vitamin B6 1.4 mg. Zinc contributes to the maintenance of normal hair, normal skin and normal nails. Biotin contributes to the maintenance of normal hair and normal skin. Vitamin B6 contributes to normal protein metabolism and to the regulation of hormonal activity.

Is it normal to shed some hair every day?
Yes. Each follicle moves through a growth phase, a short transition phase and a resting phase, after which the strand is released and a new one begins, so some daily shedding is the cycle turning over. The balance can be influenced by age, hormonal change, stress, illness, nutrition and general health. A sudden, heavy or persistent change is worth a conversation with a doctor.

References

Keophiphath, M. et al. Miliacin encapsulated by polar lipids stimulates cell proliferation in hair bulb and improves telogen effluvium in women. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. 2019. PMID: 31135099.

Boisnic, S. et al. Miliacin associated with polar lipids: effect on growth-factor secretion and extracellular matrix in a dermal papilla hair-follicle model maintained in survival conditions. Hair Therapy & Transplantation. 2016.

Robertet Health & Beauty. Keranat® ingredient, sourcing and clinical research information.

Disclaimer: This article is intended for general information and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. It summarises ingredient characteristics, published research and manufacturer-provided information. Hair loss can have many causes and individual experiences may vary. Consult a qualified healthcare professional with sudden, heavy or persistent hair loss, or with questions about supplementation, medication or personal health.