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For whom is SalSearch suitable?

SalSearch has been especially designed to help people, who follow the Guaifenesin Protocol by Dr. St. Amand in order to reverse their fibromyalgia, to find salicylates in cosmetic products.

How does SalSearch work?

The evaluation is based on three pillars:

1) It is a constantly changing data base of ingredients often used in cosmetics which we evaluated manually. We have investigated exactly many different rules and researched the origin of unknown ingredients. We have been supported by a teacher for chemistry who reviewed among others the molecular formulas. For month all input from users into SalSearch was recorded and manually evaluated by us. The list includes today more man 8,000 manually evaluated ingredients. The complete list you can find here.
First of all SalSearch compares the ingredient to be checked to this list. If there is a hit, the appropriate evaluation will be shown, e.g. "Maris Sal" as salicylate-free, because in this case sal indicates salt. "Opuntia Ficus Indica Seed Oil" will of course appear as salicylate-containing.
 
2) The second pillar serves as automatically evaluation of an unknown ingredient. This works similar as if someone manually checks an ingredient with the quick-check of Dr. St. Amand. We have exactly studied the quick check, further rules and all exceptions together with our chemist and her advices. One rule works as follows:
SAL contained (except Maris Sal) => salicylate-containing
[plant name] in connection with oil/gel/extract (exception: PEG- preceding) => salicylate-containing
Acid (exception: salicylic acid) => salicylate-free
Currently about 130 rules are valid. This works much more accurately than if someone looks at an ingredient and evaluates it manually and with little knowledge whether it is salicylate-free or not. 
 
3) The third pillar is a list of about more than 1000 plants whose names are stored in minimum in Latin, English and German Language. Mostly even in English and German Language with multiple terms e.g.
(fragaria chiloensis|beach strawberry|chilean strawberry|coastal strawberry|strawberry|chile-erdbeere|erdbeer)
Therefore in total there are deposited at least 5000 plant names. SalSearch checks each input of a cosmetic ingredient now on the occurrence of each of these plant names and points out that the occurrence of a plant name requires caution. As far as this plant name is combined with oil/gel/extract, the ingredient will be indicated as salicylate-containing (if none of the 130 other rules invalidates this e.g. because PEG- preceded). "Strawberry Oil" for example today is not an INCI defined ingredient. Nevertheless SalSearch will indicate this ingredient as salicylate-containing according to its control system but also "Strawberry Gel", "Strawberry Extract", "Strawberry Leaf Oil", "Strawberry Root Extract", as well as "Fragaria Chiloensis Leaf Oil".
 
As far as all rules have been applied on an ingredient and there is still no decision the user gets the information that the ingredient could not be evaluated, e.g. “Some Unknown Substance”. In this case the user gets the advice to contact GUAI Group.
 
We have learned that users, especially if they suffer from fibro-fog, have problems, to use Dr. St. Amand's "Quick Check". We have received a lot of feedback, how happy people are to have SalSearch. Formerly in the German support forum people were asking several times a day whether this or that product with this or that ingredient is salicylate-free or not. These questions have been drastically reduced since users can check ingredients of their products independently and safely.

Why do I have to select what I would like to do first, even though there is only the possibility to check ingredients of cosmetic products?

SalSearch has been exclusively created for evaluation of ingredients of cosmetic products (INCI).
When we started, users entered also product names, drugs or ingredients of drugs as well as food (e.g. cucumber). To prevent them to do this we inserted a red colored information which indicated that SalSearch can only evaluate ingredients of cosmetic products. Unfortunately product names, drugs and food were furthermore entered. Therefore we decided to install a choice box where the users first have to choose what they want to do.
If one chooses that he wants to check food he receives an advice that on the one hand this is not possible with SalSearch and on the other hand is not necessary for food resp. only for concentrated foods.
Similarly we gave an advice for drugs that SalSearch cannot evaluate them because besides the active substance also excipients are contained and these are not indicated with INCI in Germany.
For the choice "find products without salicylates" we put a link to the site of Dr. St. Amand together with the advice that products often change and all their ingredients should be checked every time before buying. If you click the single choice possibilities on the SalSearch site you will see the corresponding advices.
 
If someone chooses "check ingredient(s) of a cosmetic product for salicylates it is not possible to enter a product name. It is only possible to enter the ingredients from the label into the text field. Text field shows the advice "enter the ingredients separated by commas". In case a manufacturer changes the ingredients of a product the user enters only the changed ingredients into the engine. SalSearch evaluates each single ingredient. As result SalSearch shows a list of all entered ingredients and the one with salicylates are marked colored. SalSearch does not work with products/product names/product categories/ manufacturers.
 
Conclusion:
SalSearch does not contain any product information or product compositions which have to be updated. The user buys a cosmetic product in a shop which he supposes to be salicylate-free. Afterwards he enters all ingredients into SalSearch and either he gets the confirmation that the product in his hands is salicylate-free or he gets an advice that he has overlooked one or more ingredients with salicylates.