AVAILABILITY AND COMPOSITION OF "KOHLS" 121 the positive (and mostly correct) medicinal effects of antimony. However, as already stated, this sample has no antimony (sulphide) present, only lead sulphide-which most certainly does not have the stated positive medicinal effects mentioned (i.e., acting as an anti-parasitic/bacterial material). The remaining five such samples from Table I (i.e., "Nimco No. 96. Neem Ka Tez Surma (Special)" and two each of the "Surma Harmain Al Sherfain" and "Surma Noor- Ul-Ain" samples), plus the sample "Surma Al-Sherifain" from Table II, were all found to have the same statement of medicinal effects on usage: "Most helpful in the treatment of all kinds of eye troubles such as: eye weakness, haziness, tears, eye dirt, burning eyes, scratching and redishness etc. Strengthens the vision and gives a cooling effect to the eyes while it fights disease. Used daily or once a week, helps keep eye ailments away in both young and old alike." Four of these six samples are made in India (by three apparently different companies) and two are made in Pakistan (by the same company). Having identical medicinal effects of usage "statements" implies either common own- ership of the various companies and/or common employment of the same "copywriter." Also, three of these six samples have galena present as the major phase and another two have it present as a minor phase. Thus for the three samples with galena as the major phase, the above-listed medicinal effects are highly suspect, and for the other three samples (having talc, calcium carbonate, or zincite as their major phases), they are merely very questionable. Additionally, the sample named "Surma" in Table I was said (by the Fujairah city souk shopkeeper) to be "very good for sore eyes." It was a white powder whose major and minor phases were calcite and quartz, respectively. Even given the general non-toxicity of these compounds, we would question this therapeutic claim. Four samples had the words "hot" or "cold" on their labels, and another, while not so labelled, was said by the shopkeeper to be "hot" (one of two "Surma Noor-Ul-Ain" samples purchased). A "hot" symbol (in Arabic) or word (in English and/or Arabic) on the sample's container/box is often used to indicate that the kohl can be used as an eye medicine and so will sometimes be placed inside the eye, while a "cold" symbol/word indicates that it is to be used solely for beautification and so is usually placed on the outside of the eye. The "hot" kohl often contains, or is thought to contain, a special "active ingredient" that acts as the eye medicine. This "active ingredient" is often stated (verbally by the shopkeeper or in writing on an enclosed leaflet) to be antimony sulphide (stibnite), but is nearly always found to be lead sulphide (galena) when the sample is chemically analyzed. The sample "Al Athmad" ("Eyes Kuhl." "Cold") contains no galena as expected, but "Kohl Original Stone. With Zam Zem water. Cold" does contain galena as its main phase. Also, for our only clearly labelled pair (i.e., one labelled "hot" and one "cold" on their container boxes) of samples ("Surma Harmain Al-Sherfain"), both were found to contain galena as their major phases and to have identical minor phases (anglesite and cerussite, both lead compounds). Also, these two samples had identical quantitative "contents data" on enclosed leaflets (see Table III). However, the two samples of "Surma Noor-Ul-Ain," which had containers that were almost identical and were labelled neither "hot" nor "cold," were found to have different chemical composi- tions. The sample stated to be "hot" by the shopkeeper was found to contain galena as a minor phase (zincite being the main phase), and the other sample (by implication "cold") had no galena present (calcium carbonate being the main phase). On the basis of these findings, it should be clear that such labelling is not to be trusted when trying to determine if an "active ingredient" is actually present in a sample purchased

122 JOURNAL OF COSMETIC SCIENCE in the UAE. By contrast, in a very recent study in Saudi Arabia (14), all the samples labelled "hot"/"cold" did/did not have lead present. COMPARISON WITH OTHER STUDIES Of the 5 3 observably different kohl samples available in the six emirates studied here, it was found that twenty (38%) contain a lead compound (galena, PbS) as the major phase. This percentage is identical to that found for lead-containing samples in all the samples available in the souks of both Dubai and Sharjah it is slightly higher than that found (36%) for the souk of RAK and is substantially different from the values found for the much smaller souks of Umm Al-Quwain (14%) and Ajman (57%). For the Fujairah city souk, it was found that while 40% of the samples purchased contained galena as a major phase, this value was calculated for only two of five samples purchased (a "selection"), and so is possibly not a true representation for that emirate. The overall percentage (38%) is also smaller than that found by us for Abu Dhabi city (50% (1)), but is higher than our values found for Oman (32% (2)) and Cairo (33% (3)). By comparison, the lead-containing percentages given in Table IV, for other previous publications where kohl samples were analyzed, are almost all 2::50% (the one exception being the kohls purchased in Bahrain, where only 33% of the samples studied contained lead). The fifteen studies listed in Table IV, done over the twenty-five year period 1979-2004, have a range of 32% to 100% for those samples that contain lead. The "average" is 63% of samples found to contain lead. The non-lead elements or compounds found in our present study (Figure 1 and Tables I and II) are broadly similar to those found in the previous studies of Table IV. However, several authors (14-17) did find antimony (usually in small/very small amounts) in some of their kohl samples, whereas we found no antimony whatsoever despite the verbal assurances of several Emirati shopkeepers and from information on enclosed leaflets. Also, in the fifteen previous studies listed in Table IV it can be seen that India and/or Pakistan are mentioned as the origin of at least some of the kohl samples in ten of the studies. In Abu Dhabi city the percentage of samples originating in India and Pakistan was 89%. This value is similar to the values found in this study for five of the individual emirates: 81 % each for Dubai and Sharjah, 86% for Ajman, 100% for Umm Al-Quwain, and for RAK only 68%. In Fujairah city souk's "selection," all (100%) originated in Pakistan, but this is probably not a true representation for that emirate. By contrast, the percentages in Oman and Egypt (Cairo) were only 40% and 22%, respectively. The reason for this difference in values between the UAE and these other two Middle Eastern countries is that samples were made locally in both Oman (38%) and Egypt (61 %), unlike the UAE where only one such sample ("Zikra Al Haramain," which was made in Dubai) has ever been encountered. The eight samples seen before by us in previous studies, but re-analyzed here (Table II), were all found to have essentially the same chemical composition regardless of locations of purchase. CONCLUSIONS In the 5 3 observably different kohl samples, found overall in the six emirates covered in this study, the main component of twenty was determined to be galena (with three more