On 11/1/2012 10:13 AM, Melly Bag wrote:
MGP,
As i mentioned in my post, the jojoba oil is a very thin oil that can
easily penetrate the nails. This is why you dilute it 50-50. DMSO
only carries anything lower than 1000 daltons.
The tea tree oil and most other oils you mentioned are essential oils,
not carrier oils.
Melly
A quick review of some of the literature shows that jojoba can be a skin
penetration enhancer. The stratum corneum presents the greatest skin
barrier and some fatty acids are thought to reversibly disrupt the
barrier function. One study showed none of the oily penetration
enhancers were as effective as ethanol, although jojoba was the highest
of the 4 or so oils studied.
How about tea tree?
tea tree contains several terpenoids of which terpinen-4-ol shows a
favorable skin penetration. One study starts out saying this;
Since its introduction, transdermal drug delivery has promised much but,
in some respects has still to deliver on that initial promise, due to
inherent limitations imposed by the percutaneous route. The greatest
obstacle for transdermal delivery is the barrier property of the stratum
corneum. Many approaches have been employed to breach the skin barrier,
of which, the most widely used one is that of chemical penetration
enhancers. Of the penetration enhancers, terpenes are arguably the most
highly advanced and proven category and are classified as generally
regarded as safe (GRAS) by the Food and Drug Administration
Terpenes are included in the list of Generally Recognized As Safe
(GRAS) substances and have low irritancy potential. Their mechanism of
percutaneous permeation enhancement involves increasing the solubility
of drugs in skin lipids, disruption of lipid/protein organization and/or
extraction of skin micro constituents that are responsible for
maintenance of barrier status. Hence, they appear to offer great promise
for use in transdermal formulations. This article is aimed at reviewing
the mechanisms responsible for percutaneous permeation enhancement
activity of terpenes, which shall foster their rational use in
transdermal formulations.
The thing about tea tree however is that it will likely evaporate before
significant penetration occurs. Use of an occlusion method may therefor
increase its therapeutic action. Perhaps jojoba or coconut would retard
the evaporation and perhaps increase the penetration by other means. It
is said that jojoba is more like a wax than an oil. An ointment made
with bees wax might increase the occlusion and reduce evaporation rate
even further. Coconut has anti fungal properties and so a combination
of coconut, bees wax, oregano and tea tree might be good.
Another study on transdermal drug delivery found that of lemon grass
oil, eucalyptus, menthol and clove, that clove oil had the highest
penetration enhancement. Since clove is also antibiotic, it could be
useful. Perhaps clove, or any combination of clove, oregano, tea tree
incorporated into a bees wax base with the viscosity controlled by
coconut and or jojoba oil could make a useful ointment. This is what I
do and it seems effective for many skin problems although I havent tried
it on nail infections
There are medicated nail lacquers that are said to be effective with
minimal side effects. One could just go with it, or try to make their
own by using tee trea, clove, oregano and some kind of lacquer. The
constant exposure and diffusion of the actives is the benefit of the
lacquer, so this could have some value....
