Journal of Excipients and Food Chemicals (Mar 2018)
EVALUATION OF Passiflora tripartita var. mollisima SEED OIL AS POTENTIAL NANOEMULSION EXCIPIENT
Abstract
Passiflora tripartite var. mollissima fruits are used as food, especially for juices and desserts, discarding the seeds. Seeds are a source of vegetable oil that is used by the cosmetics, pharmaceutical and food industries. Nanoemulsions are kinetically stable liquid-in-liquid dispersions with droplets in the range of 50-500nm. The aim of this work was to evaluate the viability of the seed oil of P. tripartite var. mollisima as oil phase in oil in water (o/w) nanoemulsion. P. tripartite var. mollissima seed oil was obtained by solvent extraction and characterized chemically and physicochemically. For nanoemulsion formation, the required hydrophilic-lipophilic balance was determined, and stable nanoemulsions were obtained using a pseudo-ternary phase diagram. Based on the results, it was concluded that seed oil of P. tripartite var. mollissima is a potential excipient for the development of o/w nanoemulsions.