Physical characterization and antimicrobial evaluation of glycerol monolaurate organogels

Abstract

Abstract Organogels have been prepared with corn oil as organic solvent and glycerol monolaurate (GML) as organogelator for antimicrobial purpose. The critical gelation concentration (CGC) was found to be 3% (w/w) by the inverted tube method. The physical properties of the organogels containing 3%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% GML were studied by light microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and rheological analysis. The results showed that with the increasing organogelator concentration, the gels had a more compact three-dimensional network as the GML molecules crystallized and grew into a stronger backbone network as the gel skeleton, leading to higher thermal stability, higher resistance to deformations and lower spreadability. The antimicrobial assay using zone of inhibition indicated that the prepared organogels possessed strong antimicrobial activities against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The successful development of GML-based organogels suggests the potential application as new gelled capsules or spreadable products for controlled drug delivery.