Xylitol as an Antiirritant

A recent study published in the scientific journal Dermatitis examined the possible antiirritant effects of various agents, one of those was xylitol. Antiirritants are used to prevent or treat skin irritations. Besides xylitol, the other agents that were tested were:

• glycerol
• taurine
• glycine
• mannitol

In order to test those agents, researchers induced skin irritation by applying a patch with 0.1% sodium lauryl sulfate to volunteers in the presence of absence of each one of the agents that were being examined. The efficacy of each agent was assessed by measuring the transepidermal water loss(TWL) which is often used to measure skin damage caused by chemicals and high values mean greater skin damage.
The results showed that xylitol successfully and significantly suppressed the artificially induced increase of TWL (skin irritation). These findings suggest that xylitol might be useful as an antiirritant agent in cosmetic products and it a feature that can be added to the list of xylitol benefits.

Reference:
Korponyai C, Kovács RK, Erös G, Dikstein S, Kemény L. Antiirritant properties
of polyols and amino acids. Dermatitis. 2011 Jun;22(3):141-6