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Black pepper to help in pigment
disease treatment
London:
A key component in black pepper, known as piperine,
can help in developing new treatments for curing Vitiligo
skin disease, according to researchers at King's College
London. Vitiligo is a chronic skin disease that causes
loss of normal pigment, resulting in white patches
on the skin. The current treatments used for alleviating
the disease include corticosteroids applied to the
skin, and phototherapy using UV radiation (UVR) to
re-pigment the skin. The team of researchers conducted
the study using a mice model. They applied the piperine
and its synthetic derivatives on the skin of mice
either alone or followed by UVR. The findings revealed
that piperine and two of its derivatives, when used
alone, stimulated pigmentation to an even, light brown
colour within six weeks. It stimulates the production
of the skin's pigment cells, called melanocytes. "We
have shown that topical treatment with piperine stimulates
even pigmentation in the skin," BBC quoted researcher
Professor Antony Young, as saying. "Combining this
with UVR significantly enhances the pigmentation with
results that are cosmetically better than conventional
vitiligo therapies," he added. Nina Goad, of the British
Association of Dermatologists said that Vitiligo affect
patients psychologically and emotionally and any breakthrough
in treatments of this disease is most welcome. "These
findings could potentially lead to the development
of treatments that not only provide improved results,
but could also reduce the need for UV radiation in
vitiligo treatment, in turn lowering the risk of skin
cancer," she said. The study appears in the British
Journal of Dermatology.
- Feb
15, 2008
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