Lemon Essential Oil Nanoemulsion containing Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate: Investigating the Relationship Between Surfactant HLB and Size

Vitamin C (Vit-C) and lemon essential oil have several notably benefits for human skin physiology such as stimulating the biosynthesis of collagen, reduce acne and dark spot. But, they poorly bypass the epidermis stratum corneum barrier. Also, lemon essential oil has high vapor pressure. To address these challenges, our aim was preparing and size optimizing a lipophilic version of Vit-C (Ascorbyl tetraisopalmitate) and lemon essential oil by encapsulation of them inside of nanoemulsion droplets (used as oil phase of nanoemulsion), for improving skin diffusion and delivery across the stratum corneum cells. Lemon essential oil was characterized with gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. Multiple regression analysis was used for obtaining of the HLB required of mix Lemon essential oil and Vit-C. The results revealed that the concentration ratio of Tween 80 to Tween 85 is important for achieving nano-range particle size with good stability. Particle size was determined by Dynamic light scattering method. FT-IR showed encapsulation of Vit-C and lemon essential oil inside of nanoemulsion droplets. The pH of final formulation (F1) was 4.8. Current study indicated that the stable lemon essential oil nanoemulsion contain Vit-C is a good candidate for increasing dispersity and protection of lemon essential oil and Vit-C in water.