A natural approach to soothing atopic skin.

Nature's solutions have been used to combat health problems since antiquity. A 60,000-year-old burial site excavated in Iraq was found to contain a variety of medicinal plants. Use of botanicals to treat diseases of the skin was documented 3000 years ago in the Egyptian papyrus of Ebers. The traditional description for use of medicinal plants, however, is usually not linked to topical application. It is not unusual to read about the claimed medicinal benefits of a botanical which is lacking appropriate in vitro and in vivo data to support the claims. The ability to identify new cosmetic uses for botanicals is enhanced when science is able to advance beyond anecdotal information to elucidation of the mechanism of activity.