With increasing awareness about skin cancer and its relation to UV radiation, there is much focus on sunscreen agents and products. Sunscreens provide protection by absorbing, reflecting and / or scattering the radiation. Sunscreens are rated according to their effectiveness by sun protection factor (SPF). The present study evaluates ultraviolet (UV) absorption ability of Citrullus colocynthis (Bitter Apple, Indrayani) seed oil, Punica granatum (Pomegranate) seed oil and few other vegetable fixed oils. The in-vitro SPF is determined according to the spectrophotometric method of Mansur et al. The UV absorbances of alcoholic solutions of the oils were studied by UV spectrophotometer in the range of 290 nm to 320 nm at 5 nm increments. The in-vitro test results show that Pomegranate seed oil shows an SPF at par with synthetic sunscreens at 1.0 % level, with Indrayani seed oil following closely.

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