Fatty acids from cod-liver oil as skin penetration enhancers.

Abstract

A fatty acid extract is discharged during the refining of medicinal cod-liver oil. The fatty acid composition of the extract was determined and it was found to contain an vast variety of fatty acids. About 17% of the fatty acids consisted of saturated fatty acids, the rest was unsaturated fatty acids. The extract was an effective transdermal penetration enhancer and this effect was found to be associated with the unsaturated portion of fatty acids.