Rotorua is located in the middle of an extremely active thermal region in New Zealand. Visitors to the area can experience active geysers, boiling mud pools, smoking fumaroles and hot water springs. The thermal mud in Parr’s Thermal Mud Range is obtained from this historically volcanic area and is enriched with many more minerals churned up to the surface from deep down in the earth by this thermal activity. Rotorua Thermal Mud is particularly rich in the following minerals: silica, aluminium, magnesium, calcium, iron, titanium, sulphur, phosphorus, sodium and potassium. There are also trace elements present of: copper, zinc, selenium, cobalt, manganese and molybdenum.

The thermal mud used in the Thermal Mud Range is sterilized first and then refined to remove any foreign matter such as traces of volcanic ash. The thermal mud in these products is used in a suspension of mineral spa water.

The high sulphur content of Rotorua Thermal Mud is very effective in killing bacteria on the skin and preventing or eliminating acne. Rotorua Thermal Mud also has the following beneficial properties:

• it is antiseptic – and can destroy pathogenic agents without attacking adjacent healthy tissue
• it is healing – the presence of silica, aluminium and zinc all aid tissue regeneration and scar prevention it is absorbing – which helps absorb excess fluid and drain infections
• it is sedative – having a sedative effect for sore skin
• it is rebalancing – necessary mineral salts can be transferred to help restore equilibrium and additional mineral salts can aid your body’s immune system

In previous findings the lipidic fractions extracted acc. to Folch from the mature muds of the majority of the Italian thermal springs hot baths was studied, with the aim to identify the organic substrates of their therapeutical activity. The organic components of the "mature" peloids are produced by the metabolism of the microphytozooplankton growing spontaneously in the clay-substrate, in contact with the hot water. The Popes thermal springs (Bagnaccio's Lake) are characterised by an unique environmental situation, because the muds are naturally matured in the hot thermal water, but not in artificial baths. The morphohistochemical aspects of thermal algae growing in the Bagnaccio's lake have been studied by means of Computerised Optic Probe Video-Microscopy, using a not contact zoom objective 70-400x. Peloid types, both the "white" and the "black" contains yellow pigments, fragments of hyphae, monocellular algae, Diatomeae, Cyanophyceae and few other species. The biochemical aspects of the muds extracts are characterised by the presence of Phospholipids (PC, PE, PS, SP), a series of Hydrocarbons ranging from C30 to C38, Phytosterols (beta-sitosterol, Campesterol, Stigmasterol and traces of Cholesterol), Free Fatty Acids (Palmitic, Palmitoleic, Myristic, Stearic, Oleic and Linoleic, heptadecenoic and heptadecanoic) and Terpenes (beta-amirrhyne, 24-methylene-cyclo-arthanole). In our opinion, the therapeutic effects of the mature muds are related to its organic components, with special regards to Phospholipids, Phytosterols and Terpenes. The richness of these components in the Popes Thermal springs seems to be great interest in the dermatological and cosmetic applications, other then the traditional use.