Antifungal activity of dermatological shampoos.

The effect of several "medicated" shampoos on the growth of a variety of fungi was determined. Shampoos with as low as 0.5% coal tar were inhibitory to all strains, 2.5% selenium sulfide and 1 and 2% zinc pyrithione were significantly more inhibitory. Since these shampoos have substantivity for the human scalp, they may be useful as adjunctive therapy to griseofulvin in the treatment of scalp infections and minimize the risk of spread of viable spores to others in the environment.