Safety Assessment of Cuticle Remover Cosmetics In Vivo and In Vitro

Recently, the issue of the harmful effects of nail care products has been posed. In case of cuticle remover, information on hazards of chemical substances is limited and product safety reports are also insufficient. This study evaluated the safety of the top three commercially selling cuticle removers that are widely used in nail care: Blue cross, Zero cleanser and Flower vita cuticle cares. To measure the pH level of cuticle remover cosmetics, distilled water and DMEM. The toxic effect of cuticle removers on cultured HaCaT was identified by MTT-assay. The patch test was performed to evaluate the occurrence of erythema on the patch area according to the criteria of ICDRG after applying the cuticle remover cosmetics (as is). Adherence to the cosmetic pH measurement guidelines, it w as confirmed that the blue cross product did not meet the pH standard of the final product of the domestic cosmetic method. When measuring the pH by diluting DMEM with a solvent, Flower vita product maintained a pH close to Neutral 7.0 overall. All three cuticle removers demonstrated dose-dependent cytotoxic on HaCaT cell. The viability of cells treated with 10 μg/mL Blue cross or 10 μg/mL Zero cleanser was presented below 10%. Otherwise, Flower vita treatment at concentrations of 0.5~20 μg up to 20 μg/mL did not affect the viability (above 70%) in the HaCaT. Of the patch test, there was positive in one case (3.3%) at 2 weeks. It was observed that a doubful reaction (-/+) to Flower vita and weak positive reactions (+) to Blue cross, and zero cleanser. Taken together, it was shown that the Flower vita product have the lowest cytotoxicity in HaCaT cells and slight allergic reaction, proving more safer than other tw o products in vivo and in vitro.

Evaluation of Uncertainty in Determination Methods of Seawater pH Standard Material

Seawater pH standard material is determined by potentiometric methods with hydrogen electrode silver / silver chloride electrode in non-liquid junction cell. As a standard material, uncertainty is an important quality parameter. The sources of the uncertainty of determination methods mainly include measurement repeatability and temperature, atmospheric pressure, electrode potential, chloride concentration and so on. According to the experimental data, the expanded uncertainty of the method is 0.004. Finally, through in-depth analysis of the influence weight of each component, it is found that the quality control of the standard electrode potential, measurement repeatability and chloride ion concentration of the electrode in the ion system is the key to ensure the accuracy of the setting value, which provides a reliable guarantee for the replication of reference materials.

Natural Moisturizer Based Formulation of Green Leaf Jelly (Cyclea Barbata Miers) with Bengkoang Addition (Pachyrhizus Erosus)

This study is aimed to know the use of green grass as a healthy alternative in preventing the occurrence of diseases caused by carcinogens and related to skincare. Sun exposure can cause various problems, especially on the skin, such as dry skin. Natural moisturizers can be the solution. Formulations of green grass jelly and bengkoang leaves can be an alternative use of natural moisturizers. One of the ingredients in green grass jelly leaves is the content of polyphenols and flavonoids contained in green grass jelly leaves can function as antioxidants. The research uses a draft of 2-Factor complete randomized design (RAL) type by using 4 treatment variations of green grass jelly formula (2.5%; 5%; 7.5%; and 10%) + Bengkoang (0%, 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, 10%) and treatment of formulations without green grass. The results of the study are moisturizer based on green grass with the addition of bengkoang that has been made to meet the pH standard. Based on SNI-16-4399-1996, all samples that have been made meet the existing standards and the formulation samples that comply with the standard are F (D), ie green grass jelly concentration of 2.5% and Bengkong 5%

Overheating risk in Passivhaus dwellings

Highly insulated and airtight homes designed to reduce energy consumption are perceived as having a greater summer overheating risk than less insulated homes. If true, dwellings built to the well-known low-energy Passivhaus (PH) standard could be at greatest risk due to the use of superinsulation, especially as the climate warms. Existing studies are inconclusive and even contradictory, mainly due to small sample sizes. Hence, this paper presents the first large-scale overheating risk analysis of UK Passivhaus dwellings using high-resolution internal temperature data from 82 homes across the UK. Both the Passivhaus and the recently published Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers TM59 criteria are analysed. Results show that the whole-dwelling Passivhaus standard, which uses a fixed temperature threshold, is met more frequently (83%) than when applied on a room-by-room basis (e.g. only 60% of bedrooms in houses meet the standard). TM59-1A, which uses an adaptive temperature threshold, is easier to meet with 100% of flats and 82% of houses in compliance. However, 55% of bedrooms assessed under TM59-1B fail, with little difference between flats and houses. This is a remarkable finding given that the summers under consideration were either typically mild or cooler than average, and that sleep impairment can significantly affect both physical and mental health. These results suggest that highly insulated dwellings such as Passivhaus should consider overheating in individual rooms, rather than at whole-dwelling level. Analysis should be undertaken throughout the year with particular attention to bedrooms, using either the good-practice PH-5% exceedance threshold which maps well to TM59-1B, or TM59-1B itself. Practical application: Overheating risk in new dwellings is an industry concern. Having the correct tools to predict this risk at design stage is important to help design comfortable and healthy dwellings for both today's climate and future, hotter climates. Comparing two different tools and their methodologies using in-use data is critical to gain confidence in their application at the design stage and to further understand overheating risk, including which dwelling types and rooms are more vulnerable to overheating.

UV-absorption studies of interaction of karanjin and karanjachromene with ds. DNA: Evaluation of binding and antioxidant activity

Two flavonoids, karanjin (Kj) and karanjachromene (Kc) have been investigated spectrophotometrically for their mode of interactions with double stranded (ds)-DNA at blood (7.4) and stomach (4.7) pH and at human body temperature (37°C). Benesi-Hildebrand equation was used to evaluate the binding constants, K b . Binding constants at both pH values and at body temperature showed stronger binding of both the flavonoids and formation of 1:1 flavonoid-DNA complex via intercalative mode. However, K b values for karanjin were evaluated to be comparatively greater than karanjachromene at both pH values. The highest value of binding constant (1.32×105 M−1) for karanjin at blood pH (7.4) demonstrated its comparatively stronger binding and greater effectiveness at this pH. Standard Gibbs free energy changes (ΔG) of flavonoid-DNA complexes were calculated as negative values and indicative of spontaneity of their binding. Both flavonoids showed significant DNA protection activity.