Formulation and evaluation of herbal antibacterial cream from pithecellobium jiringa / Nurin Adila Zaky Irfan Zaky

The demand of herbal cream has increased rapidly in the market due to the herbs'
natural content which does not pose any side effects on the human skin.
Pithecellobium jiringa (P. jiringa) also locally known as jering, has been used in
various medicinal applications, either modem or traditional way such as treatment
of hypertension, diabetes and removal of bladder stones. The study on stem bark of
the P. jiringa, revealed that it possesses antioxidant and antimicrobial properties.
Thus, the present study was carried out to extract P. jiringa stem bark by using ethyl
acetate solution and to prepare and evaluate formulation of cream made from ethyl
acetate extract of P. jiringa stem bark. The antioxidant properties of the P. jiringa
extract were discovered and observed in antioxidant assay by using DPPH (2, 2diphenyl-
l-picrylhydrazyl) and was compared to the standard ascorbic acid. The
study on antioxidant activity of P. jiringa extract, revealed that the highest
percentage of DPPH scavenging activity of ethyl acetate extracts was 91.88% and
the IC50 value was 46.25 µg/mL whereas for ascorbic acid the IC50 value was 11.00
µg/mL. After discovering the different types of emulsion, this study was able to
prepare several antibacterial creams (oil in water) that were classified from Fl to
F6, by using different concentrations of stearic acid and acetyl alcohol. The
evaluation of all the formulations was done by analysing on several parameters such
as pH, spread ability and stability. The formulated creams Fl to F6 were then
investigated for their antibacterial activity against several bacteria such as
Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Bacillus
cereus by using agar disc diffusion technique. Among the six formulations F6 has
been found to show good spread ability, homogeneity, appearance and pH. The
formulation did not show any phase separation and easy to be removed. The F6
formulation also showed no irritations on skin such as redness, edema, or erythema
in irritancy studies. In microbiological assay, F6 formulation exhibited the largest
zone inhibition against Staphylococcus aureus which was 11.52 mm at the
concentration of 2.0% w/v. Therefore, the study suggests that the composition of
extract and the base of the cream of F6 are more stable and can be safely used for
the consumers that have skin irritations caused by bacteria.