What are the effects and functions of Korean horse oil?

I don’t know when many people’s circle of friends started to forward various information about horse oil crazily, and the efficacy of horse oil is very high according to the information. First of all, it can beautify the skin, remove acne, remove freckles, and has moisturizing and anti-allergic effects. Many friends will also buy horse oil to use. Horse oil itself is very popular in South Korea. It is made of raw materials such as horse fat, which has a very powerful repair effect and can relieve skin inflammation. However, horse oil has advantages and disadvantages. Long-term use of horse oil will make it overly greasy and clog pores. Try to be careful not to use too much horse oil. You can use it in small amounts and persist to see the effect.

What is horse oil?

What is horse oil? Do you even need to ask this? Of course it is the oil extracted from the fat tissue of certain parts of the horse's body. Therefore it is also called horse fat.

The application of horse oil has a long history in my country. As early as the 5th century AD, the medicinal effects of horse oil were recorded in "Ming Yi Bie Lu". The hair care, beauty and scar treatment effects of horse oil are also widely recorded. The Kazakh medicine, a unique medicine of the Kazakh ethnic group in Xinjiang, has also been using horse oil for hundreds of years. In addition, the medicinal use of horse fat was recorded as early as the 16th century by the famous doctor Li Shizhen in the "Compendium of Materia Medica": horse fat tastes sweet, flat, and can promote hair growth; it can treat dark face (whiten) and dry and rough hands and feet; it has a relieving effect on muscle spasms and facial stroke paralysis. Horse oil has been used in Japanese folk medicine for decades, mainly for treating inflammation of the hands and feet and knife wounds.

Modern research on horse oil: composition and characteristics of horse oil

Modern research has analyzed the composition of horse oil. The unsaturated fatty acid content of horse oil is over 60%, of which the relative content of polyunsaturated fatty acids is over 24%. It also contains relatively rich VE and a certain amount of VA (data from a research report from China Agricultural University). The composition of horse fat is significantly different from that of other animal fats. It contains active ingredients with natural antioxidant properties and is a good natural antioxidant. It is expected to be applied to industries such as health care products, medicines and cosmetics. Researchers in Japan, South Korea, and France attach great importance to the efficacy of horse oil and have developed corresponding products.

Regarding the important role of unsaturated fatty acids, especially polyunsaturated fatty acids, in the human body and skin, I will not go into details here. Interested readers can read this article (Gold in Vegetable Oils - Essential Fatty Acids). What Mr. Rui Ke from Zhenmei Blog wants to emphasize here is that although the unsaturated fatty acid content of horse oil reaches more than 60%, this content is not high compared to vegetable oil. But... the proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids in horse oil is higher than that in many vegetable oils. We know that the monovalent saturated fatty acid in vegetable oil (or animal oil), that is, oleic acid, if used excessively on the skin, is actually harmful to the skin barrier function (this is also one of the reasons why Zhenmei Blog does not support long-term soaking in pure vegetable oil). However, polyunsaturated fatty acids have a good repairing effect on skin barrier function. The relative content of polyunsaturated fatty acids in horse oil is as high as over 24%. In this sense, horse oil is better than many vegetable oils in repairing the skin barrier function and caring for sensitive skin.

Another feature of horse oil that needs to be mentioned is its good permeability: Zhang Xiaoping from Xinjiang Agricultural University once conducted research on the permeability of horse oil and concluded that among horse oil, mutton oil, lard and edible peanut oil, horse oil has the strongest penetration rate. Peanut oil can be considered as a representative of some vegetable oils, so this strongly proves that horse oil has strong penetration ability and good skin affinity.

Horse oil efficacy and function claims and analysis:

Horse oil is very popular now. Many merchants selling horse oil products are claiming the various effects of horse oil, which seems magical. So are the claims about the effects and functions of horse oil products reliable? Let's look at them one by one:

One of the functions and effects of horse oil: moisturizing and nourishing

Moisturizing and nourishing are common functions of cosmetics, especially when horse oil is used in cream products, moisturizing and nourishing is no problem at all. In fact, this is nonsense. With animal oil, is it difficult to moisturize?

Horse oil's efficacy and function claims 2: Anti-inflammatory and soothing

Linoleic acid has anti-inflammatory effects, and I will not explain the mechanism here. Horse oil contains high levels of linoleic acid. In addition, as early as the 1980s, Kiyohara Yoshie of Japan reported the use of horse oil to treat atopic dermatitis, and believed that horse oil was best used in combination with other Chinese herbal medicines. Based on this, we are optimistic about the anti-inflammatory and soothing effects claimed by horse oil.

Horse oil's efficacy and function claim 3: Antioxidant

Studies have shown that horse oil has antioxidant properties at certain concentrations. In fact, looking at the composition of horse oil, it contains unsaturated fatty acids and antioxidant ingredients such as VE and VC. Its antioxidant ability is unquestionable and there is no need for any research.

Horse oil's efficacy and function claims 4: acne removal

Some domestic scholars have done some research and concluded that horse oil has no significant antibacterial effect on Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Penicillium, Aspergillus niger, Proteus, and yeast, but has a significant antibacterial effect on Candida albicans.