Kabana's Ingredients Information
Eldorado Springs
Artesian Spring Water
Eldorado
Springs Artesian Spring Water is used in Kabana’s formula because
it is one of the purest natural water sources in the world. Kabana doesn’t
use deionized or distilled water like most skin care companies because
we recognize the importance of maintaining an ionic balance similar to
the fluids of your body. Water from the Eldorado Springs source begins
as rain and snow and percolates through the Rocky Mountains just east
of the continental divide into an aquifer 8,000 feet below the source.
Its geological isolation leads to unsurpassed purity and ionic balance,
and the bottling process undertakes no chemical adulteration in any form.
Additional information about the Spring Water used
in Kabana Products:
Source: Eldorado
Springs
Spring
Water Chemical Analysis
Spring
Water Chemical Analysis (pdf)
Certified Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil has been an important commodity in many civilizations for millennia, both in the diet and as a cosmetic. The ancient Greeks knew its beneficial properties for skin and its use is described in many of their classic literary pieces. Extra Virgin Olive oil is called Extra Virgin because it comes exclusively from the first pressing of olives, and contains the most vital nutrients compared so subsequent pressings. Often this product looks greener in color than the other pressing products as a result.
One of the reasons extra virgin olive oil is particularly good for use in and on our bodies is because it is rich in essential fatty acids, otherwise known as EFAs. EFAs are called essential, because like certain amino acids, they cannot be synthesized by directly by our bodies - the sole way for them to become functional parts of our cell membranes and other structures is via diet. EFAs are specific unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (unsaturated fats have double bonds between carbon atoms, which makes them bend and prevents even stacking, as occurs with the saturated fats that lead to cardiovascular disease) You can think of them as boulders in a brick wall, whereas saturated fats are the bricks.
EFAs have been found to be very important in many metabolic processes, yet often our diets are deficient in these critical nutrients. Fish oil is another good source for EFAs.
Kabana's Certified Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil is imported from Sicily.
Organic Unrefined Shea Butter
All Shea Butter is inherently wild crafted organic because as yet the Karité tree, from which the shea nut is produced, cannot be cultivated. Unlike
synthetic skin care chemicals that have been used on people only for decades
and compose the majority of all mass marketed skin care products, Shea
Butter has been used by humans to protect their skin and in their diets for thousands of
years. It is very rich in Omega-6 linoleic and Omega-9 oleic Essential
Fatty Acids (EFAs) which comprise over 50% of Shea Butter by weight. It
also contains large, naturally occurring concentrations of retinol, which
has been clinically shown to reduce wrinkles, as well as various highly
beneficial naturally-occurring UV absorbers, antioxidants and Omega-3 EFAs.
Shea Butter comes from the nuts of the Karité
tree, which grows wild along the rivers and within rain forests and savanna of sub-Saharan
and West Africa. It is prized by local communities as both a skin treatment
and an edible commodity. The Shea Butter used in Kabana’s products
comes from Ghana, and is produced by the Naasakle fair trade cooperative.
Naasakle'’s fair trade development policies promote a standard of
living otherwise unachievable by other indigenous economic activities.
For more information on the history of shea butter, free
trade and sustainability, please see Kabana’s shea butter supplier’s
website, Naasakle.
Additional information about the Shea Butter
used in Kabana Products:
Shea Butter
Supplier
Shea
Butter Certificate of Analysis (pdf)
Shea
Butter Technical Specifications (pdf)
Shea
Butter Material Safety Data Sheet (pdf)
External sites with information on Shea Butter:
1. American Shea
Butter Institute
2. Wikipedia
– the free encyclopedia – Shea Butter
Interesting Abstracts
1. Regional
variation in shea butter lipid and triterpene content in four African
countries
2. Influence
of climate on the tocopherol content of shea butter
3. Phenolic
constituents of shea kernels
Prime Press Cocoa Butter
Cocoa
Butter is similar in fatty acid content to Shea butter, which can be used
in place of cocoa butter for manufacturing chocolate when cocoa butter
prices are high. Also like Shea butter, Cocoa butter is a solid at room
temperature that melts on contact with skin. It’s an excellent emollient
that actively moisturizes skin by sealing and protecting it. It contains
various vitamins, essential fatty acids and antioxidants that further
protect the skin, particularly when exposed to sunlight, which is one
of the reasons it is often found in sun care products. The cocoa butter
used in Kabana products is qualified as prime press and also smells exquisitely
chocolaty. It’s the same type of cocoa butter used to make chocolate!
Cocoa butter is produced from a nut that grows in long
pods on the cocoa tree, called Theobroma cacao. You’re probably
primarily familiar with it in chocolate, as it is a key component along
with sugar, lecithin and the other cocoa nut extract, cocoa powder. The tree grows
in tropical climates 20 degrees north and south of the equator. Ghana
is one of the largest exporters of cocoa commodities, where it is raised
as a cash crop, often grown utilizing sustainable organic agriculture
processes without damaging rainforest ecosystems, because the cocoa tree
will grow in the shade below the rainforest canopy. There are 30 to 40
beans per cocoa pod, which must be harvested by hand, broken apart to
release the bean, dried, lightly fermented, roasted, crushed and pressed
to recover the cocoa butter – quite a process! All cocoa butter
used in Kabana products is the prime pressed variety, which has absolutely
no additives and is as pure and natural as cocoa butter can be.
Additional information about the Cocoa Butter used
in Kabana Products:
Cocoa Butter
Supplier
Cocoa
Butter Certificate of Analysis (pdf)
Cocoa
Butter Technical Specifications (pdf)
Cocoa Butter
Material Safety Data Sheet (pdf)
External sites with information on Cocoa Butter:
1. Wikipedia
– the free encyclopedia – Cocoa Butter
2. Purdue
Horticulture New Crop Database – Cocoa
3. Purdue
Horticulture New Crop Lecture 18 - Cocoa
4. Food
reference website
5. Natural
Health Products Technology Cluster – Coco and Chocolate as Functional
Foods
Interesting Abstracts
1.
Cocoa and chocolate flavonoids,: implications for cardiovascular health
2. Chemopreventative
effects of cocoa polyphenols on chronic diseases
3. Regular
consumption of flavanol-rich chocolate can improve oxidant stress in young
soccer players
Mango Butter
Mango
butter is yet another tropical butter that has a similar composition to
Shea and Cocoa, however the fatty acid content profile is slightly different
and enhances the spectrum of natural EFAs, antioxidants and vitamins that
Kabana products offer. It smells sweet and nutty in its pure form, generally
has a warm creamy color and is solid at room temperature. It also melts
at body temperature or upon contact with skin and disperses smoothly,
providing a protective, emollient layer.
Mangos are another tropical plant that can be cultivated
in union with the rainforest, providing a viable livelihood for both humans
and ecosystems. The mango butter used in Kabana products is sourced from
organic farms. Its production method uses no solvents or other chemicals
which can remain in the finished product and result in unnecessary consumer
exposure.
The Mango Butter used in Kabana products is refined by
a physical filtration process, which removes undesirable components such
as nutshell particulates, and filtration through activated charcoal, which
removes other undesirable and unpleasant odors to yield the purified oils.
It is sourced from a company that specializes in tropical butters and
oils, Biochemica.
Additional Information about the Mango Butter
used in Kabana Products:
Mango Butter Supplier
Mango
Butter Certificate of Analysis (pdf)
Mango
Butter Technical Specifications (pdf)
Mango
Butter Material Safety Data Sheet (pdf)
External sites with information on Mango Butter
1. Wikipedia
– the free encyclopedia – Mango Butter
2. Purdue
Horticulture New Crop Database –
Mango
Interesting Abstracts
1. Mango
seed uses: thermal behavior of mango seed almond fat and its mixtures
with cocoa butter
2. Preventing
hepatocyte oxidative stress cytotoxicity with Magnifera indica L. extract
(Vimang)
3. Accumulation
of all-trans-beta-carotene and its 9-cis and 13-cis stereoisomers during
postharvest ripening of nine Thai mango cultivars.
Zinc Oxide
Zinc
Oxide is the safest broad spectrum and effective mineral sunscreen active ingredient
on Earth. Although approved by FDA for use in sunscreens to only 25%, the Zinc Oxide is approved for use in diaper rash creams to 50%, which illustrates its safety, since inflamed babies' bottoms are perhaps the most sensitive human skin on the planet. It is the most common ore for the
production of zinc metal, and is extracted directly from the Earth. A common misconception by the popular media and physicians including dermatologists is that Zinc Oxide functions by reflecting and scattering UV light. This is logical in that the compound is white because it reflects in the visible spectrum, but is simply not the case in the UV spectrum - it absorbs UV light via band gap absorption. Zinc
Oxide is a refractory mineral, or, in other words, classified as a ceramic.
As such is it extremely non-reactive, which is a very good thing since
a significant amount of energy is associated with the absorbance of UV
radiation. In fact, most other carbon-based chemicals, like methoxycinnamate, oxybenzone,
benzophenone, etc., which are commonly encountered hydrocarbon-chemical
sunscreens, absorb UV but become reactive chemicals (otherwise known as 'free radicals') due to this energy absorbance
and can subsequently damage your DNA and cells. Repeated hits to your DNA and skin cells from both free radicals and high energy UV radiation eventually result in various forms of skin cancer, which is why avoiding repeated
sunburn is so important. Unlike the hydrocarbon or petrochemical sunscreens that are used in all the mass marketed sunscreen products,
Zinc Oxide converts the UV energy it absorbs into harmless heat (infrared radiation), which is the best possible place for this energy to go.
The carbon-based sunscreens are problematic in other ways too, as many do not biodegrade and often mimic normal human hormones (see references below) such as estrogen. This is the primarly reason most tropical aquatic parks in Mexico and other vacation destinations have outlawed petrochemical sunscreen use. In Humans, excess exposure
to these compounds can disrupt our endocrine system and normal bodily
functioning, potentially leading to diseases such as breast and cervical cancer, allergies, and have also been associated with early puberty in young girls. Avobenzone (also known under the trade name of Parsol 1789), which is one of the most common synthetic sunscreen chemicals, has been found to accumulate on the sea floor off California and feminizes male fish, disrupting normal reproductive capacities. Oxybenzone, which is one of the more potent xenoestrogenic sunscreens, was recently measured in the blood of 97% of American test subjects in this study done by the Center for Disease Control. Given what is commonly understood about these chemicals, why take the added risks when safe alternatives like Green Screen exist?
Regarding petrochemical sunscreen exposure, consider the following simple math:
Petrochemical sunscreen actives are easily 30% of formula weight for an SPF 30 product.
American Academy of Dermatology recommends 1 ounce applied if wearing a swim suit - that’s 30g.
30% of 30g is 9g of petrochemicals applied to the skin.
60-80%, depending upon the study, gets absorbed through the skin into bodily fluids/tissue/blood, so conservatively, 60% of 9g = 5.4g of systemic exposure to compounds that have been well substantiated to have estrogenic activity and are fundamentally toxic benzene-based hydrocarbons. Even if these compounds have estrogenic activity only 0.01% that of estrogen, (1/10,000th) a single dose of sunscreen has the same estrogenic potential of a single dose of estrogen prescribed for menopause, (0.6 mg) which is pretty shocking! The fact that parents ubiquitously put this junk on their developmentally-sensitive children is even more disturbing.
In terms of toxic compound exposure levels - petrochemical sunscreens are Public Enemy #1 precisely because the relative amounts are not measured in nano, micro or miligrams, but GRAMS! FDA regulates these compounds as drugs because they are toxic and have significant side effects.
It's a simple fact that the safest sunscreen approved by FDA is non-nano zinc oxide.
Zinc Oxide also has other beneficial properties for skin. It has
been used as the active ingredient in baby powder and diaper rash creams for decades to eliminate
fungal infections associated with diaper rash. The fact that FDA has approved the use of zinc oxide in diaper rash preparations to the level of 50% further illustrates its safety, indeed the inflamed and sore skin of a baby's bottom is probably the most sensitive skin on the planet! Zinc Oxide
has been demonstrated by medical researchers to be effective against more pathogenic organisms than
fungus and mold, including Staph, which is one of the most common infectious
bacteria that our skin comes into contact. Staph in turn, has been found
to be present in various skin problems at levels undetectable by traditional
dermatological culture methods that can be difficult to treat by conventional
medicine. The fact that Kabana Crème™ contains
Zinc Oxide that is effective in killing Staph bacteria could be one of
the reasons many of Kabana’s customers have found Kabana Crème™
extremely useful in helping to heal skin problems when dermatological treatment has failed. Another product, Kabana's Naturally Effective Deodorant works similarly in that it keeps you smelling fresh because it controls bacterial populations that cause body odor.
The Zinc Oxide used in Kabana products is not a nanoparticle form. Years ago we used nanoparticle Zinc Oxide but decided to eliminate it from our ingredients given the negative information on nanoparticles that was and has increasingly been published in the media. (There is lots of this hype in the media that is weakly scientifically supported - prior to nanotechnology these particles were called "dust" and "smoke" - but why increase risk? Kabana products are designed to minimize health risk and keep you as healthy as possible!) For a long time Kabana was the only manufacturer of non-nano zinc oxide sunscreen, but in 2009 some other manufacturers have realized the potential problems with this material's use and has chosen to use larger particles as well. The Zinc Oxide we use is not processed
directly from zinc ore; rather, it is made from ultra-pure zinc metal,
which enables it to be free of other commonly occurring metals present
in the environment, such as heavy metals like lead and antimony that should be avoided. The company that manufactures
this Zinc Oxide is US Zinc, which is now a subsidiary of Aleris. This Zinc Oxide is produced via a gas-phase
(as in oxygen and zinc gas) process that results in no waste water or
other liquid pollutants. US Zinc has ongoing dedication to producing its
products in ways that are environmentally sustainable.
Additional Information about Zinc Oxide used
in Kabana Products:
Zinc Oxide Supplier
Summary of Antimicrobial
Effects in Literature (pdf)
Zinc Oxide
Material Safety Data Sheet (pdf)
How FDA calculates SPF - The Minimal Erythemal Dose (MED) Test (pdf)
External sites with information on Zinc Oxide:
1. Wikipedia
– the free encyclopedia – Zinc Oxide
2. WholeHealthMD.com
– Zinc Oxide
Interesting Abstracts
1. Intact
skin – an integrity not to be lost
2. Skin
benefits from continuous topical administration of a zinc oxide/petrolatum
formulation
3. Sunscreens
– Which and What for?
4. Ultraviolet
light and Rosacea
5. Sunscreens
– the ultimate cosmetic
6. Distribution
of sunscreens on skin
7.
Microfine zinc oxide is superior sunscreen ingredient compared to microfine
titanium dioxide
8. Bioconvertible vitamin antioxidants improve sunscreen photoprotection against UV-induced reactive oxygen species.
Scientific Papers about negative effects of synthetic sunscreen petrochemicals
1. Estrogenic activity and estrogen receptor Beta binding of the UV filter 3-benzylidene camphor - Comparison with 4-methylbenzylidene camphor.
2. Lack of in vitro protection by a common sunscreen ingredient on UV-induced cytotoxicity in keratinocytes
3. Endocrine disrupters: A human risk?
4. Changes in ultraviolet absorbance and hence in protective efficacy against lipid peroxidation of organic sunscreens after UVA irradiation (organic in this case means carbon-based chemical/petrochemical)
5. Determination of the In Vitro SPF and comparison to In Vivo methods
6. An In Vitro Systematic Spectroscopic Examination of the Photostabilities of a Random Set of Commercial Sunscreen Lotions and their chemical UVB/UVA Active Agents
7. Multi-Organic Endocrine Disrupting Activity of the UV Screen Benzophenone-2 (BP2) Ovariectomized Adult Rats After 5 Days Treatment (lack of ovaries prevents production of estrogen and allows measurement of BP2's estrogenic effects)
8.
Concentrations of the Sunscreen Agent, Benzophenone-3 (Oxybenzone), in Residents of the United States: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003–2004. Published March 21 2008 by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Essential Oils
Essential
oils impart Kabana Crème™’s delightful fragrances.
All the Essential oils used in Kabana products have been extracted from
botanical sources by processes that use no petroleum oil or solvents,
so as to eliminate the chances of residual contamination. Generally these
oils are steam distilled or pressed directly from the leaves and flowers
of the plant. Wherever possible, Kabana uses the highest grade of essential
oil that is approved for use in foods; so you can be confident that you’re
treating your largest organ – skin – with the same high quality
nourishment you ingest on a daily basis for maintenance of the rest of
your body.
Essential Oil suppliers
www.mountainroseherbs.com
Jujur Mujur Co, Indonesia
www.lebermuth.com
www.royalaromatics.com
Essential Oil Descriptions
A good description list
Certified Organic Golden Jojoba Oil
Jojoba,
a Spanish word pronounced “hohoba,” is quite a different emollient
compared to the other butters used in Kabana products. Instead of being
composed of fatty acids and triglycerides like the tropical butters, jojoba
is a liquid wax composed of long chain esters. Its structure is more similar
to lanolin. Traditionally, liquid wax used in cosmetics came from the
bodily fats of the Sperm Whale, which became internationally protected
in the 1970s due to its endangered population status, eliminating it as
a source for this material. Jojoba oil proved that is was actually much
better than sperm oil as a cosmetic ingredient, which paved the way for
agricultural development of this sustainable oil that originally grew
wild in the Sonoran Desert of Mexico and the southwest United States. The shrub is an amazing organism; it can
live up to 100 years and grow over 10 feet tall; it resists drought, demands little
water and tolerates weak salty soils, so it’s a great crop in areas
where little else grows well.
As with most of Kabana’s ingredients, local indigenous populations
used Jojoba for myriad purposes, including medicinal applications for
wound healing and scar reduction, as well as appetite suppression due
to its production of Simmondsin, a hunger-reducing compound that accumulates
in the bean. Today, the Jojoba plant, Simmondsia chinensis, is grown as
an agricultural commodity in dry regions such as Chile and the sonoran deserts of Arizona and Mexico. The waxy compounds
it produces to enable its survival in adverse climates are what makes
it so beneficial to human skin. These fabulously emollient liquid waxes are primarily found
in the leaves and nuts, which are processed with a cold expeller press to extract the substance. The agricultural process Purcell Jojoba supports
is free from pesticides, fungicides and herbicides, yielding an unsurpassed
raw material for inclusion in Kabana products.
Organic Jojoba Jojoba oil in Green Screen™ serves multiple purposes. It helps
maintain the liquid emulsion that allows Green Screen™ SPF 15 to remain
in a lotion state at a warm room temperature, and more importantly, serves
as an additional antioxidant that protects your skin from reactive compounds
produced when your skin absorbs solar radiation. The more antioxidants
that are present to quench these free radicals, the less damage the sun
does, which in turn limits cancer risk and the amount of premature aging your skin will
experience over time.
Organic Golden Jojoba
Oil Supplier
Cold Expeller
Press Extraction Process (pdf)
Jojoba
Oil Technical Specifications (pdf)
External sites with information on Jojoba Oil
1. Wikipedia
– the free encyclopedia – Jojoba Oil
2. Purdue
Horticulture New Crop Database – Jojoba
3. Gale
Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine – Jojoba oil
Interesting Abstracts
1. Anti-inflammatory
effects of jojoba liquid wax in experimental models
2. The
satiating effect of a diet containing jojoba meal (Simmondsia chinensis)
in dogs.
3. Combined
modality treatment of aromatherapy, footsoak, and reflexology relieves
fatigue in patients with cancer.
Soy Lecithin
Depending upon the degree of purification and application as an ingredient, Soy Lecitihin is either a tan to brown syrup-like liquid or tan granular material. The Soy Lecithin used in Kabana Creme™ (Lecithin is NOT used in Green Screen® Organic SPF 20 and SPF 22 formulas!) is unbleached and unrefined, and looks like deep-brown honey. Lecithin is a complex mixture of phospholipids, triglycerides, EFAs, sterols and glycolipids, all of which are primary biochemical building blocks of cell membranes, and together maintain membrane flexibility and proper physiological functioning. Various compounds in lecithin are also key components of and maintenance material for the nervous system, and the various components of lecithin are prevalent in large amounts in our brains. Some research suggests dietary lecithin is useful for limiting neurodegenerative processes involved in multiple scherosis and senile dimentia as well as reduced cholesterol levels in blood. Choline, another component of lecithin is a precursor for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is involved in memory processes.
Integration of Soy Lecithin into the formula serves numerous purposes. It is primarily effective in enhancing emulsion stability, but it also makes Kabana products creamier, increases spreadability on your skin and acts as an additional antioxidant which is directly beneficial for your skin and also enhances product shelf life.
For more in-depth information, please consult The History of Soy Lecithin.
Soy Lecithin Supplier
Soy Lecithin Technical Specifications (pdf)
Soy Lecithin Guide (pdf)
External sites with information on Soy Lecithin
1. Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia - Soy Lecithin
2. The History of Soy Lecithin A fascinating look into how lecithin is produced, how it became a ubiquitous ingredient in foods and cosmetics and the studies undertaken to investigate its medicinal and dietary effects. Complete with numerous references.
Interesting Abstracts
1. Effects of soy lecithin phosphatidic acid and phosphatidylserine complex (PAS) on the endocrine and physiological responses to mental stress.
2. Fat-free foods supplemented with soy stanol-lecithin powder reduce cholesterol absorption and LDL cholesterol.
Vegetable Vitamin E
A supreme antioxidant, fortification of Kabana products with Vitamin E elevates protection from free radicals and promotes healing of skin ravaged by harsh environments or sunburn. In contrast to synthetic Vitamin E, which is a mixture that contains mostly the biologically inactive forms, natural Vitamin E is composed of the biologically active forms making it more potent and beneficial, though five times as expensive! It is isolated from soy beans and is a thick, viscous liquid that resembles molasses.
Vegetable Vitamin E Supplier
Vegetable Vitamin E Technical Specifications (pdf)
External sites with information on Natural Vitamin E
1. Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia - Vitamin E
Interesting Abstracts
1. Changes in ultraviolet absorbance and hence in protective efficacy against lipid peroxidation of organic sunscreens after UVA irradiation. (full text pdf)
Vegetable Glycerin
Vegetable glycerin has long been known as an excellent humectant which are ingredients attract and retain moisture in your skin. Vegetable glycerin is present in Kabana's Green Screen Organic Sunscreen SPF 20 and SPF 22 formulas, as it has dual purposes in that it also enhances the creaminess and stabilty of the formula. It's also a key component of all triglycerides, which are highly important biomolecules in our bodies. Glycerin basically acts as the glue that holds the fatty acids of triglycerides together and enhances the formation of the complex membranes that enable life. 'glycer' in 'triglyceride' reflects the presence of glycerin, which is also known as 'glycerol' in the biochemical community.
Kabana's vegetable glycerin comes from the hydrolysis of soybean triglycerides, each of which breaks up into three free fatty acids and glycerin, upon the addition of three water molecules. A very mild soap is also made from this ingredient - translucent glycerin soaps are often recommended for facial use because it is a gentle cleanser.
More info on glycerin is forthcoming!
Vegetable Emulsifying Wax
Vegetable Emulsifying Wax also comes from vegetable fats and is a mixture of several long chain solid at room temperature alcohols. This special kind of molecule can mix with both water and fats to make the mixture creamy and remain so over time.
It is used in very small amounts in Kabana's Green Screen® Organic Sunscreens because it enhances the stability of the formula and also helps to keep the active ingredient zinc oxide on your skin for optimal UV protection while you're in the water or sweating.
Lanolin
Lanolin
– Humans have known about the skin healing effects of Lanolin for
millennia, however this knowledge was originally primarily limited to
shepherds who regularly handled sheep and wool. As wool textiles became
an industry, Lanolin became a by-product of wool production. It serves
sheep as a natural water-proofing and strengthens their hair. Since it’s
produced by a sheep’s hair follicles, it’s a major component
of raw wool. People found that by heating the wool, the lanolin could
be removed, which makes the wool easier to manipulate and more appealing
to people who want to wear wool clothing. No one wants to smell like a
sheep while wearing a wool sweater!
The medical community has long recognized Lanolin as
an excellent emollient. Emollients are compounds that have the capacity
to seal moisture in the skin, which makes it soft and youthful. Lanolin
is a particularly special emollient since it allows the skin to breath,
unlike many of the synthetic petroleum-derived moisturizers on the market.
Lanolin also has the capacity to molecularly bind to water, which further
increases its emollient properties when applied to skin. In fact, anhydrous
Lanolin can associate with twice its weight of water, making it an excellent
emulsifying agent and providing stability to oil/water mixtures, otherwise
called lotions and creams.
Since Lanolin is a thick waxy substance at room temperature
and has a mild but characteristic odor, it’s not a particularly
pleasant material to use in its pure form. As a result, all consumer products
cut it with various other materials, normally from petroleum oil, like
petrolatum. Kabana was originally conceived by
appreciation of a particular Lanolin formula – Vitamin A & D
Ointment, which contains petrolatum and Lanolin, and has been regularly
recommended by doctors for treatment of babies’ diaper rash as well as mothers' sore nipples. The
original Kabana formula, Unguent E, used tropical butters to replace the
petrolatum, making it an entirely botanical product, and even more effective.
Unguent E may be resurrected in the future as a product line, though the
addition of zinc oxide to Kabana Crème™ is an even more effective
diaper rash treatment, since zinc oxide also acts against fungus and is also a skin protectant.
In the past, Lanolin has received some bad press because
it was believed to cause allergic reactions in some people. This problem
was found to be caused not so much by the Lanolin itself, but instead
the fact that low quality Lanolin is often contaminated by other fat soluble
toxic chemicals used in agriculture, such as pesticides and fertilizers,
which can be quite allergy inducing when applied to skin. Compounding
the contamination problem were pesticides that are no longer legal to
use in the United States. The Lanolin used in Kabana products and distributed
by our supplier Fanncor is the finest, highest quality Lanolin available and the only
one still produced in the United States – it is called Superfine
Anhydrous Lanolin USP, and is approved by the most stringent ingredient regulatory
agency, the United States Pharmacopoiea.
Additional information about the Lanolin used
in Kabana Products:
Lanolin Supplier
Lanolin
USP Certificate of Analysis (pdf)
Lanolin USP Technical
Specifications (pdf)
Lanolin USP Material Safety Data Sheet (pdf)
External sites with information on Lanolin:
1. Natural
oils in personal care products
2. Wikipedia
– the free encyclopedia – Lanolin
3. Lanolin
– Demythologized – Dr. Steve Orr
Interesting Abstracts
1. The
myth of lanolin allergy
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