A New Emulsifying Agent: Cucumis sativus Linnaeus Mucilage

Aim: This study aims at investigating the emulsifying properties of Cucumis sativus mucilage, compare with gelatin and tragacanth with further assessment of their combined effects on the emulsion properties.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria and Department of Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy, University of Ibadan, Nigeria between September 2014 and July 2015.

Methodology: Cod liver oil and liquid paraffin emulsions were prepared by the wet gum method with the different emulsifying agents. Primary emulsions of cod liver oil were prepared using a ratio of 4:2:1 for oil, water and gum while 3:2:1 was used for liquid paraffin. Cucumis was also combined with gelatin and tragacanth respectively at different ratios (1:1, 1:2 and 1:3). The emulsions were assessed for emulsion type, creaming, viscosity, globule sizes and size distribution.

Results: The emulsions formulated were creamy and dilution tests showed that they were oil-in-water in nature. The ranking of the creaming for cod liver oil and liquid paraffin emulsions was tragacanth>Cucumis>gelatin and gelatin>Cucumis>tragacanth respectively. There were significant differences (p<0.001) in the viscosities of the emulsions with tragacanth having the highest values. The average globule sizes ranged between 2.5-97.5 µm. The effect of storage on the viscosity showed that viscosity of emulsions decreased with time.

Conclusion: The results of this study indicates Cucumis sativus mucilage could be useful as a primary emulsifying agent in oil-in-water emulsions.