To obtain a moisturizing plant extract with sustainable moisture retaining effect for many hours, an external preparation, a cosmetic, a bathing agent and a detergent composition.

The moisturizing plant extract comprises an extract of a mixture of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, Platycodon grandiflorum A. De Candolle, Gardenia jasminoides Ellis, Cnidium officinale Makino, Angelica dahurica Bentham et Hooker, Saposhnikovia divaricata Schischkin, Forsythia suspensa Vahl, Coptis japonica Makino, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Citrus aurantium Linne, Schizonepeta tenuifolia Briquet and Mentha arvensis L. var. piperascens Malinvaud. The cosmetic, the bathing agent and the detergent composition each comprises the extract. The product made by decocting a prescribed ratio of the above-mentioned crude medicine has the same composition as that of a medicine called Seijouboufuutou in the traditional Chinese medical science. The extract of the mixture of these crude medicines contains a moisturizing plant component with sustainable moisture retaining effect for many hours and exhibits effects, by external use, on preventing, mitigating or ameliorating dry skin, rough skin, crack, chapped skin, dandruff, itching and inflammatory diseases, and on the hair, in curing dryness, looseness, split hair and broken hair and imparting gloss, and the like.