Indian Dermatology Online Journal (Feb 2024)

Detection of Steroids in Topical Fairness Preparations Using Histamine Wheal Test

  • Satish Nithya,
  • Chakravarthi R. Srinivas,
  • Surendranath Lal

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/idoj.idoj_321_23
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 3
pp. 504 – 506

Abstract

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Topical corticosteroid (TC) abuse is a common, worldwide, problem. One of the recent emerging concerns is the adulteration of TC in fairness cream. The presence of TC in skin-whitening cosmetic creams can be detected by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Since HPLC is expensive, time-taking and not easily available, we suggest the use of histamine wheal test as a simple and inexpensive test to detect the presence of topical steroids in fairness cream.

Keywords