Calamine Calamine Calamine, also known as calamine lotion, is a medication used to treat mild itchiness. This includes from sunburn, insect bites, poison oak, or other mild skin conditions. It may also help dry out skin irritation. It is applied on the skin as a cream or lotion. Side effects may include skin irritation. It is considered to be safe in pregnancy. Calamine is a combination of zinc oxide and 0.5% ferric oxide (FeO). The lotion is produced with additional ingredients such as phenol and calcium hydroxide. Calamine lotion has been used as far back as 1500 BC. It is on
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