A study of chemical light screening agents

In a group of 104 non-photosensitive subjects and seventy-eight suffering from a variety of photodermatoses, the most effective protective preparation against irradiation by short UV sunburn wavelengths (smaller than 320 nm) was found to be a mixture of 5% para-aminobenzoic acid and 2.5% of the ester amyl dimethylaminobenzoate in 70% ethanol with para-aminobenzoic acid being usually more effective than the ester, and mexenone the least effective individually. The protective capacity was found to be reduced by showering but not by exercise. The addition of glycerol to the formulations did not affect their protective capacity although the addition of propylene glycol did increase the protection obtained.