Present day synthetic detergents and lipid free cleansers have a neutral or slightly acidic pH which closely matches the skin pH.Ĭonsidering all these factors, it can be concluded that synthetic detergents and lipid free cleansers have the least irritancy potential compared to other market products. However, other workers have shown that the pH of a cleanser appears to have little effect on its role in damaging the skin. Soaps with an alkaline pH have also been said to cause damage to the lipid bilayer of the stratum corneum thus causing dryness of the skin. PH of cleansing agent: Although controversial, but still many dermatologist believe that maintaining the skin surface at its physiological pH (4–6.5) during cleansing prevents overgrowth of certain microorganisms, like Propionibacterium acnes. Residual levels of different products on the skin vary, and these levels correlate with irritation reactions. Skin cleanser residue or rinsability factor: The irritancy potential of a cleansing agent may increase the longer it is left on the skin. Although anionic surfactants are considered to have the greatest irritancy potential, their proportion in a cleansing agent and their combination with cationic acrylate polymers or nonionic surfactants and humectants like propylene glycol modifies the irritation potential. Surfactant chain length is also an important factor in determining the irritant potential with Kellum opining that the most noticeable irritant reactions developed with fatty acids having chain lengths from C8 to C12 coming in contact with the skin. This in turn leads to adverse cutaneous responses. Surfactant ingredients: Surfactants after binding to keratin cause protein denaturation, thus leading to damage to the cell membrane of keratinocytes. The major factors affecting the drying and irritancy potential of cleansers, include type and rinsability of surfactant ingredients and to a lesser degree pH. Synthetic detergents now form the basis of many present day skin-cleansing products.įactors causing dryness and irritation in cleansers
The soap market continued to expand and during the Second World war (1948), the development of synthetic detergents came as a major breakthrough.
The English have been credited with developing the first wrapped soap bar in 1884. The details of saponification-the process of soap making was published in 1775. The Greek physician Galen (130–200 AD) and the eighth century chemist Gabiribne Hayyan were the first to have written about the use of soap as a body-cleansing agent. The importance of soap as a cleansing agent was recognized only after the first century. Roman legend says that soap was discovered near Mount Sapo, a site of burnt animal sacrifices located outside Rome. By 600 BC, tree ash and animal fat had been used by the Phoenicians to prepare soap. The earliest mention of the soap making process can be found in Sumerian clay tablets dating to ca. Many different civilizations can be given credit for discovering soap. Later civilizations used materials of plant origin along with water for cleansing. In earliest times, cleansing was done by using a piece of bone or stone to scrape the skin. The idea of cleansing dates back to the origin of human race, only the ritual would have been performed in different ways.