Talk:Calamine

topical pharmacology?

Anybody know why it's good for poison ivy? Relationship to zinc oxide?

"Calamine is a mixture of zinc oxide (ZnO) with about 0.5% iron(III) oxide (Fe2O3)."

Calamine

I need to know the family, color, shape, who discovered it, scientific formula, where found, what it is used in, value, specific properties, & any other areas of interest about the calamine. 70.171.70.233 21:15, 11 January 2007 (UTC)Kayla

Start with http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/zinc.htm -69.87.202.67 16:52, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Calamine Lotion

Calamine Lotion U.S.P. UPC 0869-2154-10
Active Ingredients: Calamine, Zinc Oxide. Inactive Ingredients: Bentonite Magma, Calcium Hydroxide, Glycerin and Purified Water. Store at 59-86 deg F. Warnings: For external use only. Avoid contact with the eyes... Directions: Apply liberally as often as necessary. Indications: Dries the oozing and weeping of poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac. -69.87.202.31 20:30, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

pink

What gives Calamine Lotion that characteristic pink color?-69.87.203.67 00:53, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

The iron (rust) seems to be included just to give the pinkish hue. Why is it there? Who first put iron in? When? Which ingredients, if any, actually have anti-itch characteristics? When was this discovered?-69.87.204.36 12:41, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Bentonite magma

"...calamine lotion, are suspensions for external use only. Magmas and milks are thick, viscous, aqueous suspensions of insoluble inorganic compounds; the particle size is usually larger than in gels. Bentonite magma, for example, is produced by hydration of bentonite, a colloidal hydrated aluminum silicate, and is used as a suspending agent, as, for example, in calamine lotion. Milk (cream) of..." [1]

"Calamine Lotion: Experimenting with a New Suspending Agent
The use of a new suspending agent is investigated. Calamine lotion, USP contains bentonite magma as a suspending agent. In this study, bentonite magma was partially or completely replaced with a new suspending agent called tahini. Tahini is sesame paste composed of crushed sesame seeds in sesame oil... Overall, the use of tahini in calamine lotion has improved the physical stability of the formula." [2]

The standard lotion is labelled "shake well", and really does need shaking -- the suspension does not seem to work very well, and seems to separate out again after just a few minutes.-69.87.204.36 12:41, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

phenol

Anyone know why phenol is included in calamine lotion, and is this commonplace to all of them? Andy Dingley (talk) 23:25, 27 June 2008 (UTC) (still scratching his midge bites after a holiday in Wales)

Too much can be bad?

South Park is making me think that too much calamine lotion can be bad for you.. why?

According to Matt and Trey, too much will cause testicular cancer of the anus.

Do you expect anything else from research based on South Park?

Actually, I am surprised that such a common product has such a slim article, the comments in Discussion is about three times larger than the article, and more informative.

And before anyone suggests it, no, I do not have time to do a proper job of researching acceptable references to improve the article. Kid Bugs (talk) 03:52, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Content moved

I moved the relevant discussion content from Talk:Calamine (mineral). Seems at some point this page was incorrectly redirected there. Vsmith 04:46, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

effectiveness

i'm surprised that the fda says calamine lotion has no effect on itching because it works for me - but only for mosquito bites. I recently got bedbugs and was surprised to find it barely worked at all. however, hydrocortisone cream also didnt work so maybe i just have an extreme reaction to bed bugs. i use actually caladryl clear, should this be mentioned or would you say its irrelevant? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Samiam1611 (talk • contribs) 22:41, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't say that. It says it's ineffective on urushiol (poison ivy) Andy Dingley (talk) 08:09, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Funnily enough I started reading Wikipedia after using the stuff on poison ivy after I've had about a dozen people tell me to just buy a bottle of it. The stuff grows wild out here, and usually I can watch out for it quite well, but I guess it got me this go around. After using Cortisone and some bullshit pills that the nurse gave me to keep me from scratching by knocking me completely out I thought I'd give it a shot. It's the only thing I've tried so far that stops the itching completely. Unsure what the test entailed, but I think they were high on something else they tested prior to putting calamine lotion through the ropes. Khadgar(talk) 12:55, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Most things are an anti-pruritic, especially if you mix them with a dash of placebo. If you've a _mild_ attack of plant-induced itchiness, almost anything helps. Just rubbing it, let alone rubbing it with anything cold.

The problem we're really running into here is the balance between wikipedia's requirement for reliable sourcing and reality. Sourcing means that we can't have "My old granpappy said...", even if he was right. Equally a single USGov study that found nothing doesn't mean it stops working overnight. Getting the style right is hard, but still important. Even reading it carefully isn't easy - watch out for misleading weasels. Andy Dingley (talk) 14:45, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Actually, what we are running in to is a notorious defect with the FDA process. It should be noted firstly that the FDA did not say that calamine was ineffective for these applications -- that would make them liars or idiots, because anyone who has ever tried the stuff knows that it does, in fact, work. No, what the FDA said is that no-one has ever submitted the necessary evidence to them.

The reason for that is that FDA approvals have become colossally expensive. So astonishingly, jaw-droppingly, horrifyingly expensive that even multinational corporations balk at the cost, and will not even consider obtaining an FDA approval until after they have strong patent protection in all relevant markets worldwide.

That means that materials like calamine, which have been in use for far too long to get patent protection, rarely get FDA approval regardless of whether or not they work. The way to find out if they work is to see if there has been any independent university research on it (often conducted in a developing country with a growing biomedical sector, i.e. India.) -- 203.20.101.203 (talk) 23:41, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

Calamine-a dreamy pop band,famous for writing a soundtrack for sealab 2021, funny animated series. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.136.0.180 (talk) 03:40, 2 September 2009 (UTC)