Phyto-nanoemulsion Containing Tea Leaves Extract Incorporated into A Hydrogel-based Peel-off Mask Formulation: Development, Antioxidant Assay, and Ex-vivo Transport Study

 Tea leaves contain remarkable antioxidant compounds suitable for cosmetics formulation development targeting anti-aging purposes. However, due to its hydrophilicity, it faced the main hurdle, namely the permeation of the potential antioxidant compounds. Nanoemulsion formulation offers the permeation improvement of water-soluble compounds Therefore, this work purposed to formulate and develop the nanoemulsion formulation containing tea leaf extract incorporated into a peel-off mask formulation and an ex-vivo transport study.

 The nanoemulsion formulation was developed according to self-nano emulsification. The optimization process was performed using a design of experiment to define optimized formulation based on quality target product profiles. Dried green tea leaf extract (DGTE) was obtained by lyophilizing the boiled water-based extract. Antioxidant and phenolic content assays were also evaluated. The optimized formulation was incorporated into a hydrogel-based peel-off mask formulation. Permeated polyphenol through a rat skin membrane was carried out along with deposited polyphenols in the skin membrane.

 The results indicated that DGTE had powerful antioxidants with IC50 less than 15 mg/mL. The optimized nanoemulsion comprised 21.62% virgin coconut oil, 48.38% Tween 80, and 30% PEG 400, producing a droplet size of less than 50 nm. The peel-off formulation was successfully formulated along with PVA 10-11% and HPMC 0.25-1% with a drying time of around 30 min. The nanoemulgel peel-off mask formulation played significant roles in enhancing the permeation and deposition in the percutaneous transport using rat skin membrane for roughly 200% and 50%, respectively.

 The nanoemulsion incorporated into a hydrogel-based peel-off mask enhanced the permeation of DGTE polyphenol compounds.