Abstract
A predictive model of a virgin coconut oil (VCO) nanoemulsion system for the topical delivery of copper peptide (an anti-aging compound) was developed using an artificial neural network (ANN) to investigate the factors that influence particle size. Four independent variables including the amount of VCO, Tween 80: Pluronic F68 (T80:PF68), xanthan gum and water were the inputs whereas particle size was taken as the response for the trained network. Genetic algorithms (GA) were used to model the data which were divided into training sets, testing sets and validation sets. The model obtained indicated the high quality performance of the neural network and its capability to identify the critical composition factors for the VCO nanoemulsion. The main factor controlling the particle size was found out to be xanthan gum (28.56%) followed by T80:PF68 (26.9%), VCO (22.8%) and water (21.74%). The formulation containing copper peptide was then successfully prepared using optimum conditions and particle sizes of 120.7 nm were obtained. The final formulation exhibited a zeta potential lower than -25 mV and showed good physical stability towards centrifugation test, freeze-thaw cycle test and storage at temperature 25°C and 45°C.
Highlights
Aging is a process defined as a progressive deterioration of the physiological functions of skin [1]
The results obtained showed that higher particle size was produced at low level of homogenization speed (5 min) due to the insufficient residence time of the surfactant molecules to allow their adsorption onto the entire droplet surface available during the homogenization process
Genetic algorithms (GA)-4-11-1 was selected as the final optimum model for the optimization of virgin coconut oil (VCO) nanoemulsions since it showed minimum root mean squared error (RMSE) and AAD as well as maximum R2 when compared to other topologies
Summary
Aging is a process defined as a progressive deterioration of the physiological functions of skin [1]. Antioxidants are believed to play a role in preventing cells from oxidative stress caused by the overproduction and accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) [3] These compounds neutralize free radicals by pairing with oxygen in the destabilization process [4]. Virgin coconut oil that was used in this study is oil obtained from the fresh and mature kernel of coconuts without undergoing any chemical refining It is a saturated fat consisting mainly of medium chain fatty acids with several functions including medical, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic and in dietary oils [13]. In this work, we report the use of ANN to model the relationship between nanoemulsion composition (oil, emulsifier, xanthan gum and water) and particle size and the successful formulation of a VCO nanoemulsion containing an active (copper peptide) using the optimum conditions as predicted by the model
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