Talk:Bergapten

Bergapten as an antipsoriatic
This page had a previous reference to Bergapten as being an antipsoriatic, but after careful review of the cited article I could find no supporting information in the article or any of the referenced articles in the referenced article. The article cited did make reference to another chemical, Xanthotoxin (also a phototoxin) which is used to treat psoriasis but nowhere in the cited article is there any reference to this use, and in any case should not be mentioned on this page.

If anyone can prove otherwise please re-edit the page and include more information that supports the claim

Itineranttrader (talk) 23:39, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Bergapten as a photosensitizing agent
The following statement is misleading: "While some can be very active, other furocoumarins like bergapten are weakly active." Given that bergapten is the primary compound responsible for lime-induced phytophotodermatitis, I think the previous statement needs to be clarified or removed. Tom Scavo (talk) 21:26, 25 October 2018 (UTC)


 * Ah, I finally see where this came from: "some compounds are very active (e.g. psoralen and certain methyl substituted psoralen derivates); others are only weekly active (e.g. 5-methoxypsoralen, 3-butylpsoralen); and many others are completely inactive (isopsoralen, isobergapten, and dihydropsoralens)." [ Scott et al. 1976 ] There is disagreement on this point in the literature, independent confirmation is needed. Tom Scavo (talk) 17:05, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

Major rewrite
A number of claims made in this article remain unsubstantiated while others are just plain wrong, I’m afraid. Moreover, some of the citations are irrelevant. One citation [ Scott et al. 1976 ] is somewhat overused.

It is true that bergamot essential oil contains a significant amount of bergapten but many other plant species do as well. Similarly, bergapten is a furanocoumarin but this isn’t the place to elaborate on furanocoumarins as a whole. As a result, the treatment here is unbalanced, I think.

With this in mind, I completely rewrote the introduction and the first section. Since the new material is minimal, some relevant facts may have been omitted, for one or more of the reasons given above. If something's missing, please add it.

Citations removed:


 * Calvarano et al. 1995
 * Gionfriddo et al. 2004
 * Tisserand 2014

Citations added:


 * Dugrand-Judek et al. 2015
 * McGovern and Barkley 2000

Tom Scavo (talk) 20:52, 1 January 2019 (UTC)