Glossary

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Anhydrous – means without water; anhydrous lanolin is used in Kabana products as a raw material so that it can mix with the Eldorado Springs water and emulsify the mixture.

Antioxidant – beneficial chemicals that are often botanic in origin and actively seek to react with oxidative chemicals. Often these oxidative chemicals are called free radicals, and have extra electrons that have been excited to a highly reactive state by UV radiation. Antioxidants act as a shield would to protect your skin from these dangerous oxidative compounds, which can attack critical elements of your skin cells and eventually lead to skin cancer. Wikipedia – Antioxidant

Cold Expeller Press – a continuous-feed machine used to extract oils from organic materials under high pressure yet without the use of heat that can damage the extracted oils.

Deionized (DI) water – water that has been stripped of all its normally occurring ions. It is a cheaper form of purifying water than distilling it, as in distilled water, but doesn’t remove non-ionic impurities such as hydrocarbons and sometimes has an acidic component due to absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide and production of carbonic acid. Deionized and distilled water can rob your body of the ions necessary for life via dilution, so while useful in terms of scientific experimentation, it is better to use water with a proper ionic balance. Wikipedia – Deionized water

Emollient – fatty compounds that associate with water and seal it in your skin, providing a moisturizing effect.

Emulsifying agent – a compound that can associate with both water and oil, and provides stability to oil and water mixtures to create a lotion.

Essential Fatty Acids – are certain unsaturated fatty acids that cannot be produced by the human body yet are essential to maintaining proper biochemistry and homeostasis. See Fatty Acids.

Fatty Acids – a hydrocarbon chain that has a carboxylic acid at one end. These biochemicals form triglycerides. Several are essential for life. Wikipedia – Fatty acid

Hydrocarbons – chemicals that contain hydrogen and carbon, hence hydrocarbon – and generally produced from petroleum oil. All FDA approved sunscreens are considered hydrocarbons, although these compounds also contain oxygen, Nitrogen and sometimes other elements.

Kabana Products:
a. Kabana Crème™
b. Green Screen™
c. Sunsei™

Lotion – an emulsified mixture of oil and water.

Oxidation – a chemical process, mediated by UV radiation that results in skin damage. See Antioxidant.

Retinol – the chemical name for Vitamin A.

Saturated fat – fats that contain no double bonds. (see Unsaturated fat below) Stearic acid is saturated. Take a look at its structure here.

SPF – an acronym for Sun Protection Factor. See Erik’s September newsletter article for more information. FDA uses the Minimal Erythemal Dose (MED) experiment to calculate this value. So far, FDA has not developed methods to evaluate how to label UVA protection, since the MED does not measure UVA damage – it only measures UVB which causes the burn (erythema – the medical term for redness).

There's a lot of misinformation governing the difference between 'sunblocks' and 'sunscreens.' Even we needed to update this page in regard to this information. In actuality all UV absorbing compounds that are approved for use on human skin to protect against UV damage should be called 'sunscreens,' whether or not they are mineral or carbon-based petrochemicals. FDA has wanted this to be the case because the term 'sunblock' implies such a product 'blocks' the sun, which no sunscreen can do. The mineral variants are not soluble in water or hydrocarbon solvents and are classified as refractory, which is another word for a ceramic. FDA has approved two such minerals for use in sunscreens – zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. Zinc oxide has a broader UV absorption profile than titanium dioxide, which is noteworthy, because much misinformation populates the media about how these chemicals protect us - they do NOT reflect and scatter in the UV spectrum - rather zinc oxide absorbs UV and does so very effectively. The media (and 'experts' alike) need to investigate the physical chemistry of these compounds, rather than assume they reflect UV light because they look white in the visible spectrum. They do reflect in the visible, but would look black in the UV.

Some new methods of manufacturing these mineral sunscreens have enabled them to be classified as 'nano,' which means sized in the less than 100 nanometer range as average particle sizes. Chemical companies manufacturing such sizes claim they go on the skin more evenly and are less white in appearance, however based on Kabana's observations (originally Kabana did use nano, we don't any more for numerous reasons) nanoparticle formulations are provide neither higher SPF nor are less white. Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are approved as sunscreens in concentrations up to 25% of a lotion’s weight. When nanoparticles at 25% are used, many questions remain about the safety at such high doses; while nanotech is great if it's for building a high efficiency solar cell, putting it on your skin grams at a time isn't likely a good idea. That's where the issue is, and that 20nm particles can penetrate through many cellular structures that larger particles simply can't physically fit.

The other types of sunscreens are hydrocarbon–based chemicals that are approved by FDA for use in UV protective formulations at various concentrations. There are currently fifteen FDA-approved sunscreens. Some absorb UVA, some UVB and some overlap a bit. They include the following (with maximum FDA-approved concentration %):

p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) (15%)
Avobenzone (3%)
Cinoxate (3%)
Dioxybenzone (3%)
Ensulizole (4%)
Ecamsule (Mexoryl) (10%)
Homosalate (15%)
Menthyl anthranilate (5%)
Octocrylene (10%)
Octyl dimethyl PABA (8%)
Octylmethoxy cinnamate (7.5%)
Octyl salicylate (5%)
Oxybenzone (6%)
Sulisobenzone (10%)
Trolamine salicylate (12%)

All petrochemical sunscreens have the benzene ring in their cores. This chemistry is known to be UV active and absorb UV readily due to their conjugated double carbon bonds. Problems with these petrochemicals are that they tend to be toxic, mimic estrogen in our bodies, bioaccumulate in tissue and organs, fail to biodegrade in the environment and damage coral reef systems. They are generally banned in aquatic parks for these reasons, and are quite inappropriate to be putting on your children who are naturally more sensitive to hormones and contaminating chemistries.

For more information, consult Wikipedia – Sunscreen

Triglycerides – fats that contain three fatty acids and one molecule of glycerol, less three molecules of water lost during the bonding (esterification) process. Wikipedia – Triglyceride. Fats that occur in nature are generally of this type.

Unsaturated or Polyunsaturated – This term describes how many double bonds a fatty acid chain may have. The monounsaturated essential fatty acid Oleic Acid has only one Carbon-Carbon double bond, whereas Linoleic Acid has two, and Linolenic Acid, three. As a general rule, the more unsaturated a molecule is, the lower its melting point. This is because the carbon chains don’t align evenly, due to the bend created by the double bond. Take a look at Linolenic acid here Wikipedia – Unsaturated Fat

USP – An acronym for United States Pharmacopoeia – this is a regulatory body that oversees the standardization of personal care and pharmaceutical chemical purity. Any compound labeled USP must meet the strictest of purity qualifications. USP

Vitamin A – Otherwise known as retinol has important roles in maintaining bone and vision health. It is also used in skin care formulas to promote a youthful appearance, and works by increasing skin cell growth rates and collagen production. Wikipedia – Retinol Recently evidence has been presented that vitamin A should be avoided in sunscreen preparations or for use in concert with UV exposure - this is biochemically obvious but for some reason has been largely overlooked by medical doctors. The potential for increasing cancer rates is a result of vitamin A encouraging UV damaged cells to divide - cell division results in propogation of UV-induced DNA damage in more cells, which is a prerequisite for carcinogenic processes and skin cancer.

Vitamin E – a potent antioxidant that also encourages skin healing and reduces scarring after injury. More in depth information can be found at the following link: Wikipedia – Tocopherol