Lead and traditional Moroccan pharmacopoeia

The use of traditional cosmetics and remedies such as kohl and henna is ver y common in Morocco, especially among women, children and babies. Kohl is a dangerous eye cosmetic. It is usually mixed with other harmful substances, then applied on women's eyebrows and used in skin treatments for infants. Henna is another traditional product, with religious associations, which ha s been widely used over the centuries for cosmetic and medical purposes. Ma ny people add various herbs or other substances to the henna in order to st rengthen it or to give it a stronger colour. Our results were reassuring in that the concentrations of lead found in non-elaborate (henna only) sample s of henna were low. However, when henna was mixed with other products (ela borate henna), these concentrations increased. Lead concentrations in kohl were very high however, unlike henna, were lower in mixed kohl as mixing wi th other products diluted the concentration of lead. Nevertheless, in both ty es of kohl, lead concentrations were very high and consequently constitu te a risk for public health, particularly for children. (C) 2001 Elsevier S cience B.V. All rights reserved.