Allylamine are active against dermatophyte but less effective against candida and pityrosporum infection as compared to the azole derivatives. Polyenes are active against candida sp but not dermatophytes. Miscellaneous compounds including older products that are generally less active and more irritant than newer agents that do not fall into a particular class of drugs listed above. In the past few decades, a nice sun-tan has been equated with health and beauty. The awareness of the causative role excessive UVR exposure to sunburn, skin aging, photodermatoses and most important of all - skin cancers leads to increased popularity of sunscreens.
Examples are zinc oxide, titanium dioxide and magnesium silicate.
Hypersensitivity reaction to the components are uncommon, however, they are not as cosmetically acceptable as the chemical sunscreens. Recently, the active ingredients are made in micrenised forms which reflects the visible light to a lesser extent and hence less opaque whilst retaining the same effective UVR blocking range. However, it is less effective than PABA in the UVB spectrum. Commercial products are usually composed of more than one active ingredients. This means that a greater than 15 times of sun exposure is required to produce the same reddening of skin by comparison with unprotected skin.