Melasma (also called chloasma) is a condition in which portions of the skin become darker than the surrounding skin. Doctors call this hyperpigmentation. It typically occurs on the face, particularly the forehead, cheeks and upper lip. The dark patches often appear on both sides of the face in a nearly identical pattern. The darker-colored patches of skin can be any shade, from tan to deep brown. Rarely, these dark patches may appear on other sun-exposed areas of the body. Chinese herbs are often used in combinations when combating an illness.
Chinese herbal doctors have reported some successful applications of these herbal combinations. During observation on 53 patients receiving treatment with herbal remedy, 27 cases were judged as healing (full recovery and symptom free), 20 cases other significant improvement, 6 cases other moderate improvement. Physicians judged the clinical efficacy to be good or excellent in 100. Check the table below for details.
The most powerful feature of Traditional Chinese Medicine is that it allows you to easily combine multiple ingredients to form a recipe to suit the specific need of individual.
Chinese hawthorn (sanzha) for treating facial brown patches (melasma). Results are described for shanzha treatment of 12 patients with melasma, afflicting mostly the forehead and cheeks, and less so the nose and upper lip. Patients\' ages ranged from 23 to 45 years. Shortest duration of illness was 5 months and longest 12 years. Method: Grind 300g of dried raw shanzha to fine powder and reserve for later use. Wash face with warm water and wipe dry with towel. Mix 5g of shanzha powder with an adequate amount of fresh egg white to form a paste and apply it to the face to form a thin film. Let it sit for 1 hour, during which time the face can be massaged to help the herb\'s absorption.
Do this once in the morning and once at night. Sixty (60) applications constituted one course of treatment. Results: After treatment, pigmentation disappeared in 6 patients, whose skin color had returned to normal; it turned lighter in 4 patients; and 2 did not respond. A case example was described for a 23-year-old single woman with melasma on her cheeks, which had been unsuccessfully treated for 6 months and had started to spread to her forehead and bridge of the nose. After 2 courses of shanzha treatment (120 applications; 2 months), the patient\'s melasma was completely resolved.
In western medical practice, melasma is usually treated with bleaching agents such as hydroquinone, which is rather harsh. Chinese hawthorn fruit has never been known to be toxic and is a common food and medicine. If it doesn\'t work, it certainly won\'t hurt. You can buy shanzha from any Chinese herb shop and probably many food markets in Chinatown. But be sure to get the dried raw kind (usually in twisted slices of 1-2 cm in diameter and about 0.5 cm thick), and not the shanzha candy that comes in thin wafers stacked 3-4 cm high and wrapped in paper. If the raw shanzha is not dry enough for grinding, you can dry it in the oven at low heat until it is brittle.
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