Is henna pasting totally safe hygienically?

Is henna pasting totally safe hygienically?

PROF WAQAR HUSSAIN

     Now, mehndi is gaining popularity in Europe and America. Mehndi is a suitable alternative of tattoos which are painful in making, permanent, costly and harmful in many ways.

 Hollywood actors have played a pivotal role to make it popular. It is believed that actress Demi Moore and crooner Gwen Stefani are the pioneers in using, sporting and favoring the art of mehndi. Many other stars like Madonna have, Drew Barrymore, Naomi Campbell, Liv Tyler, Nell McAndrew, Mira Sorvino, Daryl Hannah, Angela Bassett, Laura Dern, Laurence Fishburne, and Kathleen Robertson have all used henna tattoos and made it popular. Some glosses like Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, and Wedding Bells, etc, have further enhanced the hinna tattoo trend.

                 

 Its entrance in the West and America brought it under scientific scrutiny. It is learnt to be dangerous for people with glucose-6-phoshate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency. It is a cytosolic enzyme which is involved in glucose reaction chain and ultimately helps to protect the red blood cells against oxidative damage..  Its deficiency is more common in males than females. Perhaps this is the reason that this harmful effect remained hidden for years as 

most of its user are female rather than males; who generally don’t have the deficiency of G6PD.Then, It causes allergy in rare cases. Some quoted other negative effect i.e. in henna paste some chemicals are added to darken stain so the health risk of such pre-mixed paste can be significant. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of USA does consider these risks to be adulterants and therefore illegal for use on skin. Some paste have been analyzed and found to contain silver nitrate, carmine, pyrogallol, chromium, 

etc. These compounds have been found to cause allergy, chronic inflammatory reactions, etc. Thus FDA has not approved henna for direct appliance on skin. It is unconditionally approved as a hair dye, and can be imported for that purpose. Henna imported into US that appear to be used as body art is subject to seizure, though prosecution is rare. (Source Wikipedia).From the above discussion, it can be concluded that its use on skin is not totally harmless as one time it was supposed. However, its use as hair dye is safe as it clear by the evidence that FDA has allowed its import.