Mineral salts: Yoshizawa et al. report on the use of mineral salts to protect the lipid skin barrier. The authors recently reported that open application of seawater for 20 minutes ameliorated irritant contact dermatitis induced by sodium lauryl sulfate. The efficacy was attributed to 500 mM of sodium chloride and 10 mM of potassium chloride present in seawater. In furthering this investigation, the authors now report that a synthetic mineral water with 250 mM sodium chloride and 50 mM potassium chloride was found to be most effective to prevent disruption of the skin barrier layer and skin water content after cumulative irritation by sodium lauryl sulfate. Moreover, improvement of skin dryness and pruritis was shown two weeks after the application of the mineral water.
Melumad has recently been granted a patent on the stabilization of Dead Sea salts and/or black mud containing emulsions by combinations of ethoxylated fatty alcohols with glyceryl stearate or with sorbitan esters or with cetearyl alcohol.2 Medicinal preparations of Dead Sea salts may be produced as stable formulations containing emulsions of ethoxylated fatty alcohols, glyceryl stearate, or sorbitan esters. An example is shown in Formula 1.