Investigation of Oil in Water Emulsion properties depending on the change of Emulsifiers combinations

Abstract

Oil in water emulsion formulations as dosage forms for topical application are intended to produce the therapeutic effect in the skin. Their quality features mainly depend on the choice of emulsifying combination composition. This work aimed at establishing a mixture of oil phase, water and combinations of different kinds of emulsifiers to screen factors that affect the quality features of oil in water emulsion cream`s formulations. Eleven formulations were prepared with different ratio of different kinds of emulsifiers by a high temperature method. The emulsions were prepared with oil phase having calculated HLB value range 10.96 and emulsifiers having HLB values ranged from 0.20 to 14.60. The formulated oil in water emulsion compositions were evaluated for physical stability, rheological properties, colloidal and thermodynamic stability, microscopy observation. The results showed that not all formulations were physically stable after 24h storage period. Stable formulations were subjected to rheological properties studies. Some of samples presented the flow which was close to the Newtonian fluid, others showed pseudo-plastic flow type. The results of colloidal and thermodynamic stability evaluations allowed to establish the regularities between the type of the flow and formulations` stability. When varying the ratio of emulsifiers, the total HLB range of the mixture changed, which also affected the dispersion properties of emulsion systems. With certain ratios of emulsifiers the dispersion of the system increased.