History of Sunscreen – Background

History of Sunscreen – The global sunscreen market expects to reach $24.4 billion worldwide by 2029, demonstrating the increasing awareness of the damaging effects of sunlight. Sunscreen has been gradually evolving, and new photoprotective ingredients remain produced in response to growing scientific evidence on the impact of solar radiation on the skin.

Aims

This literature review aims to provide an updated view of the history of sunscreens.

History of Sunscreen – Methods

A literature search remained revealed with the keywords “Sunscreen, history, regulation, ultraviolet A, ultraviolet B, visible light” from PubMed, Medline, and online search engines.

Results

Humankind has always found  ways to provide photoprotection since 4000BC Only. In the last century, evidence-based sunscreens have existed. The first ultraviolet B filters remained produced in 1928. The sign of effectiveness and  safety remained discovered in 1956, and then the sun defence factor developed in 1974.

Similarly, sunscreen cover ultraviolet A filters stood released in 1980, and then the ultraviolet A star rating system remained formed in 1992. Regulatory bodies for sunscreen were announced in the 1970s and sought to review ingredients’ safety and efficacy. The need for photoprotection beyond ultraviolet has been increasing due to the increasing research on the effects of visible light on hyperpigmentation over the past decade.

History of sunscreen:

4000 BC: Egyptians remained the first civilization to use the extracts of rice bran, jasmine, and also lupine to block the tanning effect of the sun, where rice absorbs UV light, jasmine repairs DNA, and lupine lightens the skin. The lighter skin was cosmetically and  culturally needed by then.

800–500 BC

The Greeks protected their skin with olive oil and sand while training under the sun for the Olympic games. Later olive oil was well-known to have an SPF rating of

1600

Fair skin was specified important among upper-class females. The women covered their faces with uncomfortable visards to protect them from sunlight.

• 1798: Robert Willan defined a skin condition, eczema Solare, abnormal skin sensitivity to sunlight.
• 1801: Johan Wilhelm Ritter first discovered UV radiation.
• 1820: Sir Everard Home reveals  the part of sunlight in skin burns. He proposed that a component of the sun, not heat, caused a “scorched pigmentation” o.
• 1889: Erik Johan Widmark experimentally proved that UV radiation could cause skin erythema and burns
• 1891: Friedrich Hammer formulates the first chemical sunscreen in Germany. By using acidified quinine sulphate in lotion and ointment, which reduces the UVB-induced sunburn effect.
• 1896: An association between skin carcinoma and sunlight remained first described by a German Physicist, Dr Paul Unna
• 1910: Dr Unna developed a sunscreen from a chestnut oil and marketed it in the name of “Zeozon” and “Ultrazeozon.”
• 1920: The idea of “sunbathing” and tanning became popular in Western culture after Coffee Chanel’s famous photographs. However it remained taken on a Mediterranean cruise.
• 1928: The two German Scientists, Hausser and Vahle, created the first commercially available sunscreen, which contained benzyl salicylate and benzyl cinnamate, which absorbed UVB effectively…
• 1935: Eugene Schueller, the founder of L’Oreal, formulates a tanning oil and named it “Ambre Solaire”, which contained benzyl salicylate and para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA]
• 1938: Swiss chemist Franz Greiter gets sunburnt while  climbing  Mt. Piz Buin. It has  inspired him to create the first modern sunscreen a decade later.
• 1942: In a “top-secret experiment” done by the American Medical Association Council of Pharmacy and Chemistry. It was done to stop sunburn in airmen. They find that dark red veterinary petroleum is the ingredient that possessed the qualities of waterproof, inexpensive, and free of toxicity.

Conclusion

Towards providing consumers with evidence-based sunscreen, challenges remain  in acquiring further evidence, regulation, and  rating systems—Ory Of sunscreen. In light of these recent discoveries,  dermatologists must be able to recommends  a sunscreen suitable for their patients.