Development and Evaluation of Herbal Sunscreen Formulation

Solar radiations will produce both beneficial and deleterious effects on the skin. When the skin is exposed to solar radiation for a long time it will produce various harmful effects. Sunscreens are intended to protect the skin from these harmful effects. The sunscreen agents in the formulation may scatter, reflect or absorb UV radiations and prevent its penetration into the skin and thereby skin damage. The efficacy of sunscreen is expressed by Sun protection factor (SPF).A higher value of SPF indicates more protective effect of sunscreen. In this study, the SPF of few herbal oils were determined and the one with high SPF value was selected and formulated. The samples were evaluated for in vitro SPF, physical appearance, presence of unwanted substances, pH, viscosity and spreadability. The in vitro SPF is determined according to the spectrophotometric method of Mansur et al.