Calamine the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines for being one of the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health system. Calamine is available over the counter as a generic medication. The wholesale cost in the developing world is about US$0.25–3.85 per 100-ml bottle. In the United Kingdom, it costs the National Health Service about £0.44. Calamine is used to treat itchiness. This includes from sunburn, insect bite, or other mild skin conditions. Calamine is mixed with either zinc oxide (ZnO) with about 0.5% ferric oxide (FeO) or a zinc carbonate compound. Calamine lotion is a component of
Calamine (mineral) century demand for latten (brass) in England came from the needs of wool-carding, for which brass-wire combs were preferred, and battery pieces (brassware formed by hammering sheet brass in a battery mill.) The only known method for producing the alloy was by heating copper and calamine together in the cementation process and in 1568 a royal charter was granted to the Society of the Mineral and Battery Works to search for the mineral and produce brass, to reduce dependence on imported metal from Germany. Factories to exploit the process were established at Isleworth and Rotherhithe. By the late 17th century