Formulation and evaluation of cream from stem barks of Pithecellobium Jiringa / Zurhana Mat Hussin and Nurin Adila Zakry Irfan Zakry

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. In the present study, we
investigated the ethyl acetate extract of Pithecellobium jiringa (P. jiringa) stem barks as
antibacterial cream. The antioxidant potential of the P. jiringa extract was evaluated by using
2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay. Six formulations of
antibacterial creams (oil in water) were prepared and labelled as F1 to F6. All formulations
were characterized by different parameters such as pH, spread ability and stability. These
formulations were then investigated for their antibacterial activity against several bacteria such
as Escherichia coli (E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Klebsiella pneumonia (K.
pneumonia) and Bacillus cereus (B. cereus) by using agar disc diffusion technique. The DPPH
scavenging activity showed moderate radical scavenging activity with IC50 value was 46.25
µg/mL. Among the six formulations, F6 showed the good spread ability, homogeneity,
appearance and pH. The formulation did not show any phase separation and was easy to
remove. 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 F6 can be safely used for the consumers that
have skin irritations caused by bacteria.