Incorporation lemon myrtle essential oil with olive oil-based cream

The objectives of the studies is to formulate an optimum lemon myrtle essential oil creams. Lemon myrtle is rarely formulated as cream even though it is found to have antimicrobial properties. It is used as an ingredient of perfumery and foods products. The rheological studies used to check the viscosity and the elasticity of the formulation. The dispersion stability analysis done to check the stability of the cream after a period of time. The particle size of the formulated cream should not be too large as it might cause reduce in effectiveness of the cream as it will not be fully absorbed into the skin. pH of the skin is 5.5. Therefore, the pH of the cream formulation needs to be within 5 to 6. To formulate a cream, oil phase and aqueous phase materials need to mix well. Cetyl alcohol is added to as an emulsifier to form a homogenous mixture at which the oil and water will remain together. As cream is the formulation that is high in viscosity, the stearic acid is used as a thickening agent and cetrimide as an antiseptic. For this formulation, sodium hydroxide solution with pH 10 is used instead of water in order to get a cream with pH range 5.0 to 6.0. pH of the cream is an element that is very important as it cause be harmful to the user if it is too acidic to too basic. This will cause irritation and corrosion of the skin. Six preparation is prepared in order to get an optimum formulation. An optimum formulation should have lowest particle size, not too viscous and stable for 1 year. The pH should be within the range.