ISSN (Online) : 2277-4572
Author(s): Ashitha Saffrin M*, Raman Sureshkumar
The sunlight consists of harmful radiations which affects the skin. The Ultraviolet radiations are of 3 types Ultraviolet A, Ultraviolet B and Ultraviolet C. This article gives a detailed review on different types of Ultraviolet radiation. To protect our skin from Ultraviolet radiation sunscreen formulations are used which either absorbs scatters or reflects the radiation. The harmful effects on skin like photo aging, skin cancer, DNA damage are explained. The present review explains the various types of sunscreen formulations and the agents used for the purpose of sun screening. The agents are of two type’s physical and chemical sun screening agents. The physical agents which block the sun light and the chemical agents which absorb the sunlight are listed and explained. To know the efficacy of the formulation sun protection factor calculation is done. The equation used to calculate the Sun Protection Factor value is explained in detail. The ultraviolet spectroscopic method is employed to calculate the Sun Protection Factor. The proposed method is found to be easy and rapid for the calculation of Sun Protection Factor values in the in vitro studies. The herbal formulation is more advantageous than the chemical formulation because of its fewer side effects. Few herbal sun screen agents are listed and explained its activity
