Infantile seborrheic dermatitis: a pediatric Siddha medicine treatise

Siddha medicine is one of the oldest (5000 years old) well-documented Indian traditional medicines, compared with Ayurveda, Unani, and traditional Chinese medicine, by way of keen observation and experimentation. It mentions 108 diseases that occur in childhood, which are further classified and described into various subtypes based on the clinical features and different stages of a particular disease. The authors translate the elegant and detailed description of one neonatal disorder, infantile seborrheic dermatitis (cradle cap), called kabaala kuttam (KK), described in 17 stanzas of four lines for each stanza from Tamil language script into English. There are five different types of cradle cap, including white type, dark black type, red type, weeping type, and toxic type. Four polyherbal formulations are described for external and oral administration, in which there is mention of 39 herbals and pure sulfur as ingredients. The safety and efficacy of these herbal products varies and has not been fully explored in infants, but may represent options for clinical development.