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Topical pine tar: History, properties and use as a treatment for common skin conditions
Pine tar is the end product of pine wood carbonisation following distillation using extreme heat. An extensive literature search was conducted back to the 1950s for this review. Pine tar has been used in medicine for more than 2000 years to treat a range of skin conditions because of its soothing an...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5434829/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26790564 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ajd.12427 |
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author | Barnes, Tanya M Greive, Kerryn A |
author_facet | Barnes, Tanya M Greive, Kerryn A |
author_sort | Barnes, Tanya M |
collection | PubMed |
description | Pine tar is the end product of pine wood carbonisation following distillation using extreme heat. An extensive literature search was conducted back to the 1950s for this review. Pine tar has been used in medicine for more than 2000 years to treat a range of skin conditions because of its soothing and antiseptic properties. Pine tar should not be confused with coal tar, which has been produced from coal for approximately a hundred years. Pine tar is thought to exert its effect by reducing DNA synthesis and mitotic activity, which promotes a return to normal keratinisation. In addition, pine tar has been shown to be antipruritic, anti‐inflammatory, antibacterial and antifungal. These properties make pine tar suitable for the topical treatment of eczema, psoriasis, seborrhoeic dermatitis and other dry, itchy, flaky or inflamed skin conditions. Topical products available over‐the‐counter in Australia today contain up to 2.3% pine tar, and come in several different formulations that can be used on the entire body, including the face. Modern day pine tar is manufactured with increased purity to eliminate toxic phenol and carcinogenic components, which have been of concern in the past. Primary irritation is uncommon. In conclusion, the long experience with topical pine tar therapy and its worldwide usage, together with the evidence presented in this review, suggests that pine tar is an effective treatment with minimal safety risk. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5434829 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-54348292017-06-01 Topical pine tar: History, properties and use as a treatment for common skin conditions Barnes, Tanya M Greive, Kerryn A Australas J Dermatol Review Articles Pine tar is the end product of pine wood carbonisation following distillation using extreme heat. An extensive literature search was conducted back to the 1950s for this review. Pine tar has been used in medicine for more than 2000 years to treat a range of skin conditions because of its soothing and antiseptic properties. Pine tar should not be confused with coal tar, which has been produced from coal for approximately a hundred years. Pine tar is thought to exert its effect by reducing DNA synthesis and mitotic activity, which promotes a return to normal keratinisation. In addition, pine tar has been shown to be antipruritic, anti‐inflammatory, antibacterial and antifungal. These properties make pine tar suitable for the topical treatment of eczema, psoriasis, seborrhoeic dermatitis and other dry, itchy, flaky or inflamed skin conditions. Topical products available over‐the‐counter in Australia today contain up to 2.3% pine tar, and come in several different formulations that can be used on the entire body, including the face. Modern day pine tar is manufactured with increased purity to eliminate toxic phenol and carcinogenic components, which have been of concern in the past. Primary irritation is uncommon. In conclusion, the long experience with topical pine tar therapy and its worldwide usage, together with the evidence presented in this review, suggests that pine tar is an effective treatment with minimal safety risk. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2016-01-20 2017-05 /pmc/articles/PMC5434829/ /pubmed/26790564 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ajd.12427 Text en © 2016 The Authors. Australasian Journal of Dermatology © 2016 The Australasian College of Dermatologists. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. |
spellingShingle | Review Articles Barnes, Tanya M Greive, Kerryn A Topical pine tar: History, properties and use as a treatment for common skin conditions |
title | Topical pine tar: History, properties and use as a treatment for common skin conditions |
title_full | Topical pine tar: History, properties and use as a treatment for common skin conditions |
title_fullStr | Topical pine tar: History, properties and use as a treatment for common skin conditions |
title_full_unstemmed | Topical pine tar: History, properties and use as a treatment for common skin conditions |
title_short | Topical pine tar: History, properties and use as a treatment for common skin conditions |
title_sort | topical pine tar: history, properties and use as a treatment for common skin conditions |
topic | Review Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5434829/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26790564 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ajd.12427 |
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