Many methods have been introduced to test irritant effects of topically applied medications and cosmetics: Schwarz-Peck test, Draize test, Shelansk-Shelanski test, Brunner-Smilijanic test and Kligman-Wooding test.
We believe the Kligman-Wooding´s method is the most effective, and used to measure the irritant effects of topically applied Ginseng saponin on human skin.
Through pilot study, we found Ginseng saponin being one of less irritant substances and tried to measure IT_(50); the number of days required to produce erythema in half of subjects by continued topical application of Ginseng saponin solution.
The first experiment included 10 females aged between 20 and 24.
Cotton fabric of 1/2 inch square soaked with 0.2ml of 25 % Ginseng saponin solution was patched on the back below scapular bone.
The patch was occluded with Blenderm surgical tape which is in turn fixed with Micropore surgical tape. The control site was treated similarly with 2% soap solution. No subject developed erythema on Ginseng saponin applied sites, whereas the control site showed erythema in 1 case after one day of application, 6 cases by 2 days and 9 cases by 3 days of application, the remaining case did not developed after 10 days of continued application.
On second experiment we extended the length of application to 15 days and the number of sujects to 15 persons. There developed erythema in 1 case after 13 days of application and the others never showed erythema after 15 days of application, whereas with 2 % soap solution erythema developed in 2 cases in 24 hours, 9 cases by 48 hours and 13 cases by 72 hours of application. The other 2 cases never showed erythema after 15 days of application. With above result there is no need to ca.lculata IT_(50) as Kligman already mentioned.
It is apparent that topically applied Ginseng saponin is essentially non-irritant material to the skin.
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