Efficacy of topical 4% liquiritin compared with topical 4% liquiritin mixed in 5% ascorbic acid in the treatment of melasma

Objective: To compare the efficacy of topical 4% liquiritin alone with combination of topical 4% liquiritin and topical 5% ascorbic acid for the treatment of melasma. Patients and methods: This randomized control study was carried out in the Outpatient, Department of Dermatology, Nishtar Hospital, Multan. The duration of the study was six months. Eighty two patients with epidermal melasma belonging to either sex and 16-45 years of age, were divided into two equal groups. Group A was given topical 4% liquiritin and group B was given topical 4% liquiritin mixed with 5% ascorbic acid. Patients were followed up after 8 weeks of treatment to find out the efficacy of both the treatments. Results: In group A, 25 (61%) patients showed improvement in MASI score and 16 (39%) had no improvement in MASI score. In group B, 36 (87.8%) patients showed improvement in MASI score and 5 (12.2%) were without improvement in MASI score. The observed difference of MASI score improvement between group A and group B was 26.8% (p 0.05). Conclusion: Topical 4% liquiritin mixed in 5% ascorbic acid is more effective than topical 4% liquiritin alone in the treatment of melasma.