Avaliação da estabilidade e atividade antioxidante de emulsões cosméticas contendo óleo de copaíba (Copaifera Officinalis L)

Abstract

Plants began to be used for therapeutic purposes from the beginning of history and it was in the search for food for their survival that many toxic or healing properties of various plants were discovered. Many plants of the Brazilian flora have been used to treat diseases and natural products are becoming increasingly important and becoming an alternative to synthetic remedies. Copaiba oil-resin is a natural antibiotic with great potential for effectiveness against gram-positive bacteria, being widely used as a healing and anti-inflammatory in the treatment of infections. The objective of this work was to formulate cosmetic emulsions based on Tween 20 and copaiba oil and to evaluate the stability of these formulations from physical-chemical analyzes and biological tests. The study was carried out by developing emulsions using copaiba oil resin, Tween 20 and distilled water based on an experimental design called Scheffé Network. From the response surfaces generated by the Statistica 7.0 Software, the formulation with the highest amount of aqueous phase (90% distilled water, 5% copaiba oil and 5% surfactant) was the one with the lowest stability deviations from values of pH, surface tension and kinematic viscosity over time. Two different antioxidants were used in this formulation and the pH remained within the acceptable range for use on the skin (6.2 – 6.06), in addition to not showing visual decomposition over time. Centrifuge and accelerated stability tests showed that the formulations did not present an imbalance in the visual aspect and rheological tests characterized the emulsions as being pseudolastic, an important characteristic for topical application products. In this way, the emulsions showed good stability performance over time for the physicochemical behavior and superior antioxidant activity compared to pure oil, having, therefore, the potential to be transformed into a product.