Vitamin A palimitate-loaded nanoemulsions produced by spontaneous emulsification method: effect of surfactant and oil on droplet size and stability

Spontaneous emulsification is one of the low energy methods in preparation of oil-in-water nanoemulsions. It relies on the formation of very fine oil droplets when an oil/hydrophilic surfactant mixture is added to water and is used as delivery system to encapsulate lipophilic nutricitical components such as fat soluble vitamins in functional food. In this study the influence of various types of surfactants (tween 20, 21, 40, 80, 85 and 1:1 ratio of tween 20:85), carrier oils (coconut, soyabean & corn oil, octyl octanoate, migliol 812) and different concentration of surfactant and oils in the system (SER & SOR) on the droplet size and stability of vitamin A palmitate-loaded nanoemulsions prepared by spontaneous emulsification was investigated. Tween 80 (surfactant) nanoemulsion containing migliol 812 (carrier oil containing 3% vitamin A palmitate) with surfactant-to-emulsion ratio (SER= %15) and surfactant to oil ratio (SOR=150%), was determined as optimum sample with monomodal droplet size of 76 nm which was stable at 25 ˚C for 3 months.