TOPICAL PELOID AND HERBAL EXTRACTS THERAPEUTIC EFFICACY ON ACNE
In spite of a variety of established therapeutic approaches to the treatment of acne vulgaris, up to 12.7% of patients cannot be cured using these methods. To overcome the limitations of established therapies, botanicals and natural mineral preparations are also used to treat acne. Th e aim of our study was to investigate the effi cacy of topical preparations of peloid and medicinal plants from Montenegro in an acne therapy regimen. Th e study design was a retrospective cohort study, with two cohorts defi ned by the type of topical preparation used: one cohort (n = 70) was comprised of the patients treated with Peloderm (a topical preparation containing both peloid and medicinal plants’ extracts), and another cohort (n = 70) of the patients was treated with Antiacne (a topical preparation with only medicinal plants’ extracts). Patients in both cohorts were treated for 18 months. In both treatment groups, the FDA acne severity score improved gradually throughout the study visits. However, fi nal FDA acne severity score (after 18 months of topical treatment) was signifi cantly (T = 7.556, df = 1, p = 0.000) lower in the Peloderm group (1.0 ± 0.0) than in the Anitiacne group (1.8 ± 0.9). Both topical preparations of peloid and selected medicinal plants from Montenegro, in ratios observed in this study, are effi cacious and safe options for topical treatment of acne, with the peloid preparation demonstrating somewhat greater potency.