Survey of chemical substances in consumer products, 65 – Survey of chemical substances in kohl and henna products

Survey of chemical substances in kohl and henna products

Summary and conclusions

In the Danish Environmental Protection programme on survey of chemical substances in consumer products, a project was initiated to analyse which chemicals were contained in kohl and henna products. The project survey of chemical substances in kohl and henna products has been performed as a study including a survey of the market and qualitative and quantitative analyses of the content of chemical substances in selected products.

The study of the Danish market is performed from information gathered via:

Search on the Internet (telephone numbers and addresses on importers and dealers)
Purchases of kohl and henna products at retailers and importers and simultaneous interviews
Contacting retailers and importers for information on the market, data on imports, sales and knowledge on other dealers, etc.

The market for kohl products includes some products as powders but most products are in solid forms. The product is placed around the eyes with a brush or hard or soft pencil. The use is wide spread in the population. The consumption is assumed to average 10% of the population based on a Dutch report. The consumption is assumed to be primarily by women.

The market for henna products includes mostly hair dyeing products. The professional market has been declining and according to the Danish retail organisation on cosmetics almost non-existing. This indicates that the primary use is by private consumption. The products are found as powders, pasta or shampoo.

No specific statistics on kohl or henna products were found.

The conclusion was that the Danish market is fairly chaotic. No kohl or henna products are manufactured in Denmark. The import is scattered among an unknown number of small and large importers. Import and purchase via the Internet is assumed to take place. A large part is assumed to be brought in via travellers or sent by families in foreign countries. The attention around problems with the use of henna products may have influenced the decline in sales within recent years.

The consumption was estimated to approximately 1 tonnes of kohl products and approximately 10-15 tonnes of henna products.

In the analyses of kohl products, lead was measured in the major part of the examined products. Lead was only found at high levels in 1 product (280 µg/g) that was of Indian origin. The measured 280 µg/g is equivalent to ca. 0.028 % of the product and thus far below the concentrations reported in foreign studies.

Besides lead analyses for several elemental substances were performed by screening. Among others antimony (Sb), arsenic (As), barium (Ba), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr) and thallium (Tl) were found.

Substances found in substantial amounts in the screening were measured quantitatively. Single products were found with high concentrations of boron (3.2%), bismuth (7.5%) and zinc (11.5%).

In henna products, lead was found in 10 out of 17 studied products. The contents in the 10 products were measured in the range from 0.5 mg/kg to 2.0 mg/kg.

p-Phenylenediamine was observed in 3 out of 17 henna products. The content in sample no. 11 and 58 was 0.5% (m/m) and 0.003% (m/m), respectively, while the content in sample no. 57 was 17% (m/m). The highest concentration of 17% (170 g/kg) exceeded the limit stated in the Directive on cosmetics.

Lawsone was found in 14 out of 25 analysed products above the detection limit. The 23 of the 25 samples had declared to contain lawsone (Lawsonia inermis, henna extract or herbal henna). One product did not declare to contain Lawsonia inermis but a different plant species. One product did not have an ingredients list.

The highest concentrations of lawsone were found in henna products of powdered plant parts of Lawsonia inermis where 6 products contained more than 1000 mg lawsone/kg product corresponding to more than 0.1% (m/m). The highest concentration of lawsone was found in a product that was a foreign import from India and without an ingredients list. The highest measured concentration was 3400 mg/kg corresponding to 0.34% (m/m). The next highest concentration of lawsone was found in a product imported from United Kingdom that contained 3300 mg/kg corresponding to 0.33% (m/m). A product from the same manufacturer contained 2100 mg/kg corresponding to 0.21% of the product. The concentrations in the remaining products were between 0.004 and 0.15% (m/m) of the product.

A comparison between this analysis and the results from literature research indicate a difference between” Western” and ”Eastern” manufactured kohl products.

The same appears to be the case for henna products where for instance the highest concentrations of barium, p-phenylenediamine and lawsone were measured.