Looking at artistic portrayals of ancient Egyptians, the excessive amounts of deep, black eyeliner portrayed on almost everyone is noticed. While we know that the eye make-up contained lead and that lead contributes to problems including brain damage and miscarriages, research now reveals that the lead used by the ancient Egyptians to darken their eyes may have had a beneficial effect.

Analytical chemist Philippe Walter and colleagues at French National Center for Scientific Research and the Louvre Museum in Paris examined actual samples of the black eyeliner (owned by the Louvre) and found lead salts in the make-up that do not occur naturally. The chemists concluded that ancient Egyptians went to the time-consuming trouble of synthesizing these lead salts used in their eye make-up. Ancient documents revealed that similar lead salts were commonly used to treat eye ailments, scarring, and discoloration.

Several groups of researchers offer explanations as to how the lead in Egyptian eyeliner might have impacted eye diseases in ancient times. Lead may have stressed the cells in the eyelid area and stimulated production of hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide. The nitric oxide ultimately leads to the immune system responding by sending macrophages to the area where the irritant exists. Other scientists support the idea that the nitric oxide released in response to the lead could directly kill bacteria by damaging bacterial DNA. Additionally the lead itself could have directly stimulated immune system cells already existing in the eyelids.

With an age expectancy of 30 years, most ancient Egyptians, if they had lived longer, would have increased their risk of cataracts and more of the lead-related problems that we are concerned with today. Adding lead to modern day make-up is obviously not advisable. Epidemiologist Jennifer Weuve of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois notes that the beneficial use of lead can be explained through the principal of hormesis: "The premise behind hormesis is that, for certain exposures, there might be a window where the exposure is harmful but also one where it's helpful."

Source: Cottingham, K. January 8, 2010. Egyptian eyeliner may have warded off disease. ScienceNOW Daily News. Available athttp://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2010/108/1. Accessed on January 17, 2010.

Submitted by: Robin Pattillo, PhD, RN, News Editor at[email protected].