Melly
I follow you, noting you had the promise of good results, if only you
had not forgotten to continue treatment. Thats good.
Its perhaps worth clarifying that the actives in tea tree (especially
terpinen-4-ol) are quickly evaporated and the wax was thought to slow
down the evaporation and allow a continual application which seems to be
important. We might think that something was absorbed when a large part
of it simply evaporated. As long as you have some pungent wax visible,
some of the actives are perfusing out, but an application of volatile
oils may have simply evaporated instead of being absorbed. The barrier
function of skin is so good that many of the volatiles in essential oils
like tea tree barely make it through. So slow diffusion through the
nail and skin might be the answer for the people that didnt have the
same promising results you have.
Im not convinced that jojoba can penetrate the nail which is like
plastic. But maybe you are right. Imagine a bottle made of nail
material, you could probably store oil in it....seems like. The
terpines in tea tree seem like they could get through easier than the
oil, if only they didnt evaporate first!
On 11/2/2012 10:57 AM, Melly Bag wrote:
MGP,
All i can say is that when i applied the combo of tea tree oil and
jojoba oil, i saw it disappear, so it was absorbed, after a few
minutes. My nails had improved. Had i not forgotten to continue
treatment, i am sure it would have healed nicely.
I stopped using nail polish as most in the market now have toulene.
Terpentenes are so drying, if the nails are dry all the more it would
crack if you use terp.
I tried coconut oil without any other oil as it is touted as
antifungal and no dice.
Another thing, it is easier to penetrate the skin than the nail. As i
originally said jojoba is very thin, it could penetrate the nail.
In my experience, if i make cream with beeswax, the wax stays visible
on top of the skin while vco is absorbed by skin.
Melly
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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....
