Henna beyond skin arts: literatures review

Henna is the dried and powdered leaf of Law Sonia inermis and is a natural dye for hair, nails and skin for body arts in Islamic and Hindu cultures. Recently, it has been widely used in western countries as temporary black henna tattoo. Different experimental in vitro studies showed many pharmacological effects of L. inermis. Topical pure henna is generally safe and well-tolerated in humans but oral and topical henna with additives like para-phenylenediamine have many side effects some of them life threatening. This review highlights pharmacological effectiveness and adverse effects of henna

Association of CYP2C9 Genetic Variants with Vitiligo

BACKGROUND: Vitiligo is a depigmenting skin disorder in which genetic factors play an important role. OBJECTIVE: To examine the association of CYP2C9 *1/*2/*3 gene polymorphism with vitiligo. METHODS: In this case controlled study, 95 Saudi patients with vitiligo (50 men and 45 women), with a mean age of 27.3 years, were analyzed. Patients were compared to 86 healthy controls from the same locality (76 men and 10 women), with a mean age of 20.1 years. In all participants, DNA was extracted and processed for characterization of 2C9 *1/*2/*3 gene variants using real time-polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Vitiligo patients have a significantly higher CYP2C9 *3 allele carriage rate compared to controls (32.7% versus 4.7%, p=0.00, odds ratio=9.9, 95% confidence interval=3.3~29.6). On the other hand, frequencies of CYP2C9 *2 genotypes and alleles did not show any significant difference between vitiligo cases and controls. When the frequencies of CYP2C9 genotypes were compared among subgroups of age, gender, family history, and disease patterns, the cases with positive consanguinity had significantly higher frequencies of homozygous genotypes than others (p=0.029). CONCLUSION: CYP2C9 *3 allele carriage is probably associated with vitiligo susceptibility.