Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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BATH ADDITIVE AND ITS USE
Background of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bath additive having a base of
vegetable and/or animal raw materials, as well as the use of the bath
additive for the treatment of skin diseases.
Skin diseases from which a large number of persons suffer can be
classified first of all on the basis of their cause into inflammatory skin
diseases caused by bacteria, protozoa, viruses, parasites or fungi, for
instance syphilis, shingles, scabies, allergic and autoimmue-induced skin
diseases, for example endogenic eczema, and skin diseases of unknown
cause, for instance psoriasis. As a rule, antimicrobically-acting ointments
are used for mycotic, bacterial and viral skin diseases, they, however,
having a skin-irritating action and possibly so negatively affecting the acid
covering of the skin that a new attack by fungi and bacteria takes place. For
the treatment of psoriasis, cortisone-containing ointments or a combined
treatment consisting of a photosensitizer, for instance a retinoid, followed
by UVA-radiation is generally employed. In this way however, on the one
hand, the mineral balance can be disturbed and the skin become flaccid
while, on the other hand, very extensive damage to the skin can occur.
Treatment with these agents, however, is successful usually only for a short
time and is accompanied by very strong side effects.
The increasing doubts as to the use and the, in part, unpredictable
side effects of these drugs have led on the part of the persons affected by
these skin diseases, as well as on the part of the manufacturer of these
drugs, to a search for gentle means having a vegetable or animal base for
the treatment of these skin diseases.
From U.S. Patent No. 4,581,230 there is known a cosmetic
composition for the treatment of the hair and skin. The known composition
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comprises particles of pulverized flowers or flower tops of a definite size in
an aqueous medium. Nothing can be derived from that patent that a
cosmetic composition should be used for the treatment of microbically-
induced as well as chronically endogenous skin diseases.
, The object of the present invention therefore is to provide a bath
additive having a base of vegetable and/or animal raw materials and the use
thereof in medicinal baths by which the consequences of skin diseases can
be extensively eliminated, or even completely eliminated, without injurious
effects on the skin.
This object is achieved in accordance with the invention by a bath
additive having a base of vegetable and/or animal raw materials in
accordance with the features set forth in Claims 1 and 1 1. Preferred further
developments of the invention are contained in the other claims.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the bath
additive contains at least one aqueous solution of a mixture of amphoteric,
anionic and/or nonionic substances (surfactant mixture) having a base of
vegetable and/or animal fats and oils and an alcoholic solution having a base
of one or more medicinal plants. By aqueous solution as used in this
invention, there is understood the mixture of dissolved surfactants or
surfactants present in solution and added water. As vegetable and/or animal
fats and oils, use may be made in accordance with the invention of those
obtained from sebaceous glands of sheep, coconut, castor oil plant, soya
bean or the like. By the use of these solutions in the bath additive, both an
antibiotic action and a mitigating of inflammatory processes is possible.
Due to the absence of injurious chemical substances, for instance
cortisones, no accompanying phenomena which have a negative action on
the skin or the mineral balance occur.
The bath additive of the present invention obtained from the raw
materials contains 85 to 95% by weight of the aqueous solution having a
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base of vegetable and/or animal oils and fats, 5 to 15% by weight of the
alcoholic solution having a base of medicinal plants, and up to 1.5% by
weight and preferably 0.5 to 1.3% by weight of inorganic salts. With this
composition, the skin-friendly action of the medicinal plants as well as the
desired adjustment of the viscosity and the adjustment of the pH in the
neutral to slightly acid range which is favorable for the skin add to the
synergistic effect of the surface-active substances.
The inorganic salt used as thickener or viscosity- regulator is
preferably sodium chloride and the pH of the 1 % solution of the bath
additive is 6.5-7.5, and preferably 7.3.
It has been found advantageous for the aqueous solution to contain
solids in an amount of 18 to 24% by weight, 4 to 8% by weight of a
solvent or solublizer, as well as 70 to 75% by weight of water, referred to
the total weight of the aqueous solution. As the solvent which prevents the
solids from flocculating out in water a lower alcohol is used, preferably
ethanol or isopropyl alcohol of a purity of at last 90% by volume, the
medical doubts inherent in other organic solvents being thus excluded. It
has been found in this connection that with a composition of the aqueous
solution lying within the range of the invention, the action on the affected
regions of the skin is greatest.
In order to achieve the intended effect, the solids of the aqueous
solution having a base of a vegetable and/or animal fat or oil can contain 2
to 3% by weight and preferably 2.5% by weight of amphoteric substances,
1 1.1 to 12.5% by weight, and preferably 12.0% by weight of anionic
substances, and 4.8 to 5.9% by weight, and preferably 5.5% by weight, of
nonionic substances. With this composition, as well as a content of 73%
by weight water and 5% by weight of solubilizer, the aqueous solution of
the bath additive of the invention is particularly advantageous.
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In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the bath
additive contains 91 to 97% by weight of the aqueous solution having a
base of the vegetable and/or animal fat and oil, 0.01 to 8% by weight of
the alcoholic solution having a base of the medicinal plants, and up to 4%
by weight and preferably 2.7 to 3.8% by weight, of inorganic salts. The
same vegetable and/or animal fats and oils as in the first embodiment are
used, the bath additive exhibiting substantially the same action. The
inorganic salt used as thickener or viscosity regulator is preferably sodium
chloride and the pH of a 1 % solution of the bath additive is from 6.8 to 7.4.
The aqueous solution of the bath additive in accordance with the
above embodiment contains 3 to 7% by weight and preferably 4.8 to 6.5%
by weight, of amphoteric substances, 40 to 55% by weight, and preferably
43 to 49% by weight, of anionic substances, 1 to 8% by weight, and
preferably 3.8 to 6.5% by weight, of nonionic substances, 30 to 40% by
weight, and preferably 33.5 to 38.5% by weight, of water, as well as 1 to
5% by weight and preferably 2.5 to 4.2% by weight, of a solvent or
solubilizer, the percentages by weight referring to the total weight of the
bath additive. The solubilizer, which prevents the flocculating of the
surfactants in the water is, as in the case of the first embodiment of the
invention, a lower alcohol, preferably ethanol or isopropyl alcohol of a
purity
of at least 90% by volume.
In accordance with the invention, an aminocarboxylate or an amino
compound of betaine structure is used as amphoteric substance, a salt of an
alkylpolyglycolethersulfate as anionic substance, and a fatty alcohol
polyglycolether as nonionic substance all having a base of coconut oil.
These substances are obtained in known manner from the coconut fatty
acids contained in the seeds of the cocoa palm and suitably converted, and
are substantially physiologically and medicinally unobjectionable in the
above-indicated amount.
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The amphoteric substance obtained from coconut oil is, in accordance
with the invention, an alkyl-substituted ammonium betaine, a
dicarboxyldiamine of betaine structure, or a fatty acid amide derivative of
betaine structure, the anionic substance is the sodium salt of sulfated C,Z to
C,4 fatty alcohols of an ethoxylation number (EO number) of 2 to 3, and a
C,z to C~4 fatty alcohol polyglycolether of an EO number of 4, 5 or 6. As
amphoteric substances mention may be made here of ordinary
cocoalkyldimethylammoniumbetaine and
laureldimethylcarboxymethylammoniumbetaine and dimethylcarboxymethyl
cocofattyacid propylamidoammoniumbetaine (Rewoteric R AM B 13 of the
Rewo Company) which, like the commercial anionic and nonionic
substances mentioned above, are frequently used in the pharmaceutical and
cosmetic industries and are physiologically unobjectionable. Sodium
laurylethersulfate (Rewopol R NL 3 of the Rewo Company) as anionic
substance and laurylalcoholpolyglycolether (Rewopal R LA 6 of Rewo) as
nonionic substance have proven particularly suitable for the invention.
In order to mitigate the inflammatory processes caused by the skin
diseases as well as to neutralize the inherent odor possibly present from the
raw material of the substances coming from fats or oils, use is made, in
accordance with the invention of plant extracts obtained in known manner
by glycol extraction from yarrow, oat straw and/or camomile, the
disinfecting, pain-alleviating and detumescent action of their active
substances, for instance essential oils, alkaloids, amino acids and
glycocides, being known from phytotherapy. The use of yarrow, oat straw
and camomile extracts in an amount of 2 to 8% by weight of each extract,
referred to the total weight of the bath additive, in accordance with the
first
embodiment or in an amount of 0,01 to 8% by weight of each extract,
referred to the total weight of the bath additive in accordance with the
second embodiment is advantageous for the present invention, the amount
depending essentially on the concentration of the medicinal-plant extract in
the alcoholic solution in the two embodiments. The use of a vegetable oil
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instead of an alcoholic solution of the vegetable extracts of course also
falls
within the scope of the present invention.
The bath additive having a base of vegetable and/or animal raw
materials in accordance with the present invention is used as agent for the
treatment of microbically caused as well as chronically endogenous skin
diseases, and preferably for the treatment of psoriasis, in medicinal baths.
The bath additive can be used by itself or as support for the medical
treatment of skin diseases. A mixture of 90% by weight of the aqueous
solution and 10% by weight of the medicinal plant extracts according to the
first embodiment which is used in a ratio of bath additive to water of 1:400
to 1:1000 or of about 97 to 99,98% weight of a solution consisting of
about 96 to 98% by weight of aqueous solution and about 1 to 4% by
weight of inorganic salts, as well as 0.02 to 3% by weight of medicinal-
plant extract in accordance with the second embodiment which is used in a
ratio of bath additive to water of 1:250 to 1:800, has proven particularly
promising. Repeated sitting or lying for 25 to 30 minutes in the
aforementioned bath water leads to success in 90 to 95% of all cases of
psoriasis.
The invention will be described in further detail below with reference
to an example.
A first solution of a commercially available camomile extract in the
amount indicated in the following table, together with a partial amount of
laurylalcoholpolyglycolether (EO No. 6) in ratio of camomile extract to
laurylalcoholpolyglycolether of 1:50 to 1:100, is first of all prepared in a
container of suitable size and stirred for five to ten minutes. Thereupon the
sodium chloride required for the adjustment of the viscosity is completely
dissolved in either water which has been freed of microbial impurities
("purified water") or tap water of a temperature of 60 to 80°C in the
amounts indicated in the Table in order to prepare a second solution. The
first solution, the remaining amount of laurylalcoholpolyglycolether, the
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amounts of isopropyl alcohol, commercially available dimethyl-
carboxymethyl-cocofatty-acid propylamidoammoniumbetaine, as well as
sodium laurylethersulfate (EO No. 3) indicated in the Table and the second
solution are then introduced, one after the other, into a third container and
stirred with a turbo agitator or the like with a power of 2 KW for about ten
minutes. The solution obtained in this way is then set aside for 18 to 24
hours and then again mixed thoroughly for five minutes with the turbo
agitator and packed after the bath additive of the invention is completely
free of foam.
TABLE
Camomile extract 0.03 g
Laurylalcoholpolyglycolether
(Rewopal R LA 6) 5.50 g
Isopropylalcohol 3.00 g
Dimethylcarboxymethylcocofattyacid-
propylamidoammoniumbetaine,
(Rewoteric R AM B 13) 6.00 g
Sodiumlaurylethersulfate (Rewopol R NL 3) 45.00 g
NaCI 3.5 g
Water (purified water) 36.97 g
