Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Track Tar with reminders and record whether it helped, in the app.
Tar here means pine tar, a thick, dark, smoky-smelling liquid made from pine wood. Most of it comes from the longleaf pine, Pinus palustris, and its close relatives. Wood is heated in a low-oxygen kiln until the tar runs out.
Today it is used on the skin. Soaps, shampoos, bath oils and salves are the usual forms. People reach for them for itch, flaking and scaly rashes.
Older American medicine also gave tar by mouth for coughs, as "tar water" or tar syrup. That practice is obsolete. No safe amount for swallowing is given on this page.
The evidence verdict: human trials of pine tar are few, small and old. It may ease itch and scaling for some people, and it is not a cure for any skin disease. A long record of traditional use is not proof that something works, and it is not proof that it is safe.
No one has pinned down how pine tar works on skin. The main idea is that it slows skin cells that are dividing too fast. That matters in psoriasis, where scaling builds up.
In laboratory work, tar compounds appear to slow skin cell growth. Most of that work used coal tar, which has been studied far more. Whether pine tar does the same on human skin is not settled.
Tar also seems to dull itch. In animal studies, tar compounds appear to quiet nerve signals linked to itching. Human testing of pine tar for this is thin.
Tar dries and coats the skin surface. In test tubes it slows some bacteria and fungi. That does not show it clears a skin infection in real life.
Tar makes skin more sensitive to sunlight. This is a known effect, not a theory. Skin doctors have long paired tar with careful, supervised light treatment for psoriasis.
Skin products are what you will actually find for sale.
- Pine tar soap bars, used as a body or face wash.
- Pine tar shampoos for dandruff and an itchy scalp.
- Bath oils and bath liquids, sold mainly in Australia and parts of Europe.
- Ointments and salves, blended with wax or petrolatum (petroleum jelly).
- Raw pine tar in tins, sold for animal hooves, rope and wood. This grade is not meant for human skin.
Tar water and tar syrup were once taken by mouth. They are no longer sold as medicines, and this page gives no amount for them.
Coal tar is a different product from a different source. It is stronger and richer in PAHs. The two are not swapped for each other.
Pine tar has a long, well-recorded place in American folk and Eclectic medicine. Eclectic doctors of the 1800s listed it for coughs, chest complaints and stubborn skin disease. Tar water and tar syrup were common household remedies.
The longleaf pine belt of the American South was the centre of the trade. Settlers burned the resinous wood in earth kilns to draw off tar and pitch. The same tar sealed ships' ropes and hulls.
Farmers used it on animals' hooves and on cuts. Its sharp smell was thought to keep flies off. Much of this use was practical rather than medical.
By the 1900s the medical use narrowed to the skin. Tar soaps and shampoos stayed on shelves. Doctors dropped the swallowed forms as safer cough medicines arrived.
This section records what was done in the past. It is not a suggestion to copy it.
Stop using it and see a doctor if:
- The rash spreads, blisters or weeps after you start.
- You get pus, swelling, heat or a fever, which can mean infection.
- You burn badly in the sun on treated skin.
- Itch or flaking has not improved after about four weeks.
- A sore, lump or mole on treated skin changes or will not heal.
Get emergency help at once if anyone swallows pine tar. Call your local poison centre or emergency number. Warning signs include stomach pain, vomiting, confusion, drowsiness or trouble breathing.
In the United States, pine tar is not an approved over-the-counter drug ingredient for skin disease. Soaps and shampoos containing it are sold as cosmetics, while coal tar products are regulated as drugs.
In Australia and parts of Europe, some pine tar skin products are registered as medicines, depending on the claims made. Raw pine tar sold for animals, rope or timber is not regulated for use on people.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
Reviewed by the HealisticMD editorial team How we grade evidence →
The published evidence for Tar is weak or absent. That usually means no controlled trial has tested it, not that a trial found it ineffective — the two are different, and we grade only what has been published.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
One email with the summary. We'll also send a short weekly evidence update — unsubscribe any time.
