Pix

A variable mixture of various substances, especially aromatic hydrocarbons, obtained by dry distillation of wood, coal or oil shale; pix (pitch) is also used to describe the residue of tar and petroleum distillation.

A distinction is made between:

• Wood tars:
  • Pix betulina (birch wood tar)
  • Pix fagi (beech wood tar)
  • Pix juniperi (junipertar)
  • Pix pinaceae (coniferous wood tar)
• Coal tars (pitch): Pix lithanthracis, Liquor carbonis detergens.

Medicine: Psoriasis vulgaris, eczema. Remember! The patient must be informed before use, especially about phototoxicity!

Naturopathy: Indications see below Plant tars.

Cosmetics: For cosmetic preparations, wood tars (birch, beech and juniper tar) and oil shale distillates are used in addition to the INCI designation "Pix".

The therapeutic significance of tar products in dermatology is increasingly disappearing due to their toxicological component. Obsolete are the large-scale applications of tar products for inflammatory skin diseases (e.g. at the atopical eczema) which were common in former decades. Oil shale products extracted from natural sources still play an important role (e.g. in seborrhoeic eczema).