Formulation and characterization of antioxidant and antimicrobial moisturizing cream based from shea butter

Shea butter contains vitamin E and high in fatty acids, which help in treating dry skin and eczema due to the presence of natural ingredients from sheanut. The usage of shea butter has been widely used in few countries especially in Africa. The main objective of this work was to prepare and characterize the shea butter cream with different amount of olive and coconut oil. The cream samples were prepared using double-boil method before checking the characteristics of the cream. The basic criteria that had been considered was pH, colour and spreadability. Further analysis on FTIR to determine the peak component of the sample cream while UV-VIS to detect the presence of phenol and saturated fatty acids. Antimicrobial activity of cream on solid media was examined by applying streaking method. All creams prepared were within required pH value 6-8; yellowish colour obtained and easily absorbed by the skin which representing natural condition for human skin. Based on the results obtained, the FTIR peak of each cream samples include the commercialized cream showed the presence stretch of cis =C-H and cis -C=C-stretch that indicate the presence of unsaturated fatty acids at 2000-3000 cm-1 wavelength. Moreover, all petri plates containing E.coli inhibit the growth of E.coli on the nutrient agar. However, there is no different between the control sample and other samples on the petri dish.In conclusion, all physical and rheological studies of the prepared cream were found to be the same as the commercialized cream product.