10% salicylate doesn't work as analgesia but more of keratolytic. Any changes in pH results in death of most microbes. But fungus don't just harbour at the epidermis. It burrows to the dermis layer and produce pathological effect. Salicylate only able to remove the epidermis layer assuming the epidermis is still intact.
Old remedies have proven to be ineffective in reducing pathological effect, though there is a certain level of symptomatic relief.
Benzoic acid is carcinogenic in nature. No one uses it topically now.
What I'm trying to say is that old remedies can act as reference, but that does not mean it should be safe to use with current knowledge level.
As late as 1990, SAF still uses Whitfield ointment for fungus......... alas
In tropical primary health care, essential drugs should be safe, effective, and as inexpensive as possible. To treat the very common dermatophyte infections of the skin, one may use inexpensive Whitfield's preparations, more expensive topical imidazole derivatives, or extremely expensive oral antifungals.
A double-blind trial was performed involving 153 patients with a dermatophyte infection of the skin in Karonga District, Northern Malawi, including 25 patients who were HIV-1-seropositive, comparing Whitfield's cream with clotrimazole cream.
RESULTS:
75 patients were treated with Whitfield's cream and 78 with clotrimazole cream for a period of 6 weeks. Cure rates ranged from 80% to over 90% depending on the definition of cure. If positive cultures after treatment were used as criterion for treatment failure, six were found in each treatment group. One in each treatment failure group was an HIV-1-seropositive patient.
CONCLUSIONS:
The great majority of patients in the tropics with a dermatophyte infection of the skin can be cured with a topical antimycotic preparation and do not need expensive oral therapy. This also proved to be valid for HIV-1-seropositive patients. Whitfield's cream and clotrimazole cream are both very effective. The lower cost makes Whitfield's cream the treatment of choice in dermatophyte infections of the skin in tropical primary health care.
