[Leica] IMG: Henna, M8

[freakscene at weirdness.com (Marty Deveney)]

Hi Tina,

>But that's all henna applied directly to the infant, not the mother's 
>belly.? I wouldn't think it would have time to penetrate before this 
>baby is born!? Maybe a reason to do it as late in the pregnancy as 
>possible, if you're going to do it!

When you paint henna on your body, you absorb enough lawsone the 
napthoquinone pigment that gives henna its colour to detect in in blood.  
This freely crosses to the fetus and can induce haemolysis.  Late stage 
heena application also massively increases the risk that the child will be 
allergic to henna (3-4 orders of magnitude).  It is also mildly carcinogenic 
(but probably no moreso than many foods we eat).

A lot of henna sold in the west is actually a processed indigo dye 
p-phenylenediamine - this stuff is really toxic.  If you ever buy henna that 
someone says you need to 'activate' it with peroxide (not lemon juice or any 
other mild acid) or stains skin very darkly in under 1 hour, do not use it.  
It should be illegal but I routinely see it being sold as henna here in 
Australia.

I'm certainly not advocating a completely risk-averse philosophy here, but 
be aware that G6PD deficiency is almost unheard of on the subcontinent 
because the genes for it were selected out of the population by mortality 
through henna use.  An allergy to henna generally makes you allergic to a 
group of common diamines, which means that the allergy will be triggered by 
a lot of common and not necessarily obvious products.  G6PD deficiency is 
vastly more common in westerners than in South Asian people.  I'm just 
trying to emphasize that 'very safe' is relative, before anyone goes 
painting their pregnaant significant others/friends/whomever with henna.

Marty



Gallery:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/main.php?g2_itemId=7617

Most people can only judge of things by the experiences of ordinary life, 
but phenomena outside the scope of this are really quite numerous.
        Shen Kuo - 'Dream Pool Essays'


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