Abstract

FTIR AND CARBON ANALYSIS AS TOOLS FOR MONITORING CLINICAL RESPONSE TO MUD THERAPY IN PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM SKIN DISORDERS: CORRELATION OF CHEMICAL AND CLINICAL DATA

Shah Bina A.* and Sawant Krutika K.

ABSTRACT

Many studies have been conducted worldwide on muds for their dermatological potential to treat psoriasis, eczema, and acne in humans. As no such studies were reported for Indian muds, we chose four topographically different Indian muds, applied them on patients suffering from psoriasis, eczema and acne and tried to correlate the chemical data with the clinical findings. Four different samples of muds were first scanned for FTIR spectra and analyzed for its carbon content by different methods. They were then applied on affected part of skin in patients with psoriasis, eczema and acne. The applied mud was then removed and once again analyzed by FTIR and carbon content by same methods and the disease symptoms were evaluated clinically. Mud is a very good adsorbent and it is reported that the above mentioned skin lesions show over expressions of some of the trigger compounds containing carbon, like free arachidonic acid, phosphoesters, sebum etc. It was observed that there was statistically significant increase (p<0.05) in concentration of carbon content in mud after application and there were changes in FTIR spectra and their intensities, related to the chemical structures present in free compounds like arachidonic acid etc., along with improvement in disease symptoms, possibly indicating adsorption of some skin compounds by mud which helps in healing the diseases. Hence we hypothesized that mud therapy could be effective owing to the removal of such compounds from skin due to adsorption by mud.

Keywords: FTIR, carbon content, muds, skin diseases, adsorption.