Preparation of Triglyceride O/W Emulsions by D Phase Emulsification

Abstract

The reasons why emulsification of vegetable oils by physico-chemical technics is difficult were studied using phase diagrams of nonionic surfactant/oil/water systems. The phase diagrams indicated the solubility of oil in a surfactant continuous phase to be higher for a hydrocarbon system than a that of a triglyceride system and solubility of surfactant in the oil phase to be higher for a triglyceride system. All the oil to be emulsified must be dissolved in the surfactant continuous phase to produce fine O/W emulsions in conventional phase inversion emulsification. To stabilize O/W emulsions, no surfactants should be present in the oil phase at a concentration exceeding cmc (critical micellization concentration). Thus, hydrophilic surfactants must be used to stabilize O/W emulsions for emulsion systems of triglyceride. D phase emulsification can produce fine O/W emulsions only by hydrophilic surfactants. This method is thus useful for the emulsification of vegetable oils. Several types of vegetable oils were emulsified in submicron droplets by this method.