2. ABSTRACT
• Abstract: The media is targeting young women on their production in the T-zone area and saying that the nose region
produces more sebum when it comes to skin products. However, in an article called Analysis of Latent Fingerprint
Deposits by Infrared Microspectroscopy it is said that sebaceous residue is mainly from the forehead. Between the
two areas which is more productive is the question that needs to be answered. My question is, “ Which of these two
areas does produce more sebum( oils from the sebaceous glands).My project is to answer this question for my
demographic, young African American woman from ages 18-23 years old.The objectives are to determine the relative
amounts of sebum produced in each area of the T-zone using FTIR analysis. Samples of sebum will be collected from
the two areas of the faces of volunteers who will wear sebutape ( a non-adhesive tape that collects the sebum which
reproduced from the sebaceous glands on the face ) .The sebutape will be on those two zones for three hours each day
for three days. Then the samples will be-extracted from the tape with hexane and analyzed by FTIR to find out which
area has more sebum. My hypothesis: The human body produces more sebaceous glands from the nose than from the
forehead because its right in the middle of the “T-zone” on the face. In addition the sebaceous glands are larger in the
nose region ,which suggests that there would be more production of sebum in this area than in the forehead are of the
T-Zone. The results of this analysis will be discussed.
• Kante, Gayathri. Analysis of Fingerprint Residues using attenuated total Reflectance-fourier transform Infrade (ATR-
FTIR) Spectroscopy to differentiate smokers from nonsmokers.
• Master of Science in Chemistry. Lamar University.August2009.
3. PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVE
• The question is, which of these two areas does produce higher sebum (oils
from the sebaceous glands)? My project is to answer this question for my
demographic, young African American woman from ages 18-23 years old. The
objectives are to determine the relative amounts of sebum produced in each
area of the T-zone using FTIR analysis.
• My hypothesis: The human body produces more sebaceous glands from the
nose than from the forehead because its right in the middle of the “T-zone” on
the face. In addition the sebaceous glands are larger in the nose region ,which
suggests that there would be more production of sebum in this area than in the
forehead are of the T-Zone. The results of this analysis will be discussed.
4. BACKGROUND
• The media targets African American woman on different products to use on the nose region because it’s
said that the production is higher there than the forehead region. In a scientific article called Analysis of
Latent Fingerprint Deposits by Infrared Microspectroscopy said that the production of sebum was
higher in the forehead region than the nose region.
• Salisbury, Mary.SebumOverview. http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-
care/information/anatomy/sebum.htm.April2015.
• Sebum-oils from the sebaceous glands and it is made up of triacylgycerides , diacylglycerides , and fatty
acides.
• Tiolein is the lipid standard that was used to determine the fatty acid methyl ester which would be
looked in the range of 2700-32000 cm-1 wavenumber.
• The FTIR is used in this experiment because of its technique on the intrerferogram indentifying
unknown materials within the sample , determine theaconsistency of the sample in infrared frequencies
that are absorbed from a molecular fingerprint of the sample.
5. APPROACH OF THE EXPERIMENT
• To solve this problem samples were collected from African American females ages 18-23.
Each volunteer put the sebutape ( a non-adhesive tape that collects the sebum which
reproduced from the sebaceous glands on the face ) on the two main regions in the T-zone
which are the forehead area and the nose region. The sebutape was there for three hours each
day for four days. Then the samples were taken and analyzed using the analytical instruments
IR ( hexane extraction )and FTIR with ATR to analyze the sebum production from each region
to see which one had high production.
• The FTIR is a technique in which to obtain emission , Raman scanning of a solid , and
spectrum absorbance. ATR (Attenuated Total Reflection ) significantly enhances surface
sensitivity . An advantage of FTI R is t he measuring of all the infrared frequencies
simultaneously rather than individually.
7. PROCEDURE
Collect samples
The sebutape
was cut in
half One half was used
for the hexane
extraction
(quatitative )
Then that half was
ran on the salt
plates
The other half
was test on
the FTIR with
ATR.
Results of the
two regions
was then
compared
8. RESULTS
• The background had multiple errors along with just running the hexane as a sample .
• Making the standard :triolein .2023 g diluted in a 10mL volumetric flask with hexane. And
then the absorbance was run for the solution to see how high it was compared to the samples
absorbance. The absorbance was .0681 and 20,300 ppm .Three other dilution were made
doing a 1:2 dilution.
• A calibration curve was made for the standards to find the concentration of triolen used in the
experiment. And to narrow down exactly how much of the triolen is being absorbed from the
samples. The sebum increased as the time period increased in both regions. Both regions
were compared based on the amount of absorbance from each sample within the wave
number 2925.48-2969.32 to pinpoint the production of sebum.
9. RESULTS
CONT..
y = 0.1x + 1.1
R² = 1
1.15
1.2
1.25
1.3
1.35
1.4
1.45
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
Absorbance
Time (hours)
Absorbance vs Time (FH)
Series1
Linear (Series1)
y = 0.094x + 0.538
R² = 0.9836
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
0 1 2 3 4
absorbance
length of time
Absorbance vs Time ( NR)
Series1
Linear (Series1)
10. RESULTS
y = 3E-06x + 0.0016
R² = 0.9528
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08
0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000
Absorbance
concentraction ppm
Calibration curve of Standard
Series1
Linear (Series1)
11. RESULTS CONT..
-0.0100
0.0100
0.0300
0.0500
0.0700
0.0900
0.0 500.0 1000.0 1500.0 2000.0 2500.0 3000.0 3500.0 4000.0 4500.0
Absorbance
Wavelennumber
Production from the Forehead region from 1hr-3hr
H-1 BC H-2 BC H-3 BC
-0.0200
0.0000
0.0200
0.0400
0.0600
0.0800
0.1000
0.1200
2500.0 2600.0 2700.0 2800.0 2900.0 3000.0 3100.0 3200.0 3300.0 3400.0 3500.0
absorbance
Wavelnumber
Production from the Nose Region 1hr-3hr
N-1 BC N-2 BC N-3 BC
13. CONCLUSION
• The production of the sebum increases as the time increase is a conclusion from the two graphs above
and that the data of the two regions are somewhat similar in the wavelength of 2900.
