Design, Development & Evaluation of Herbal Multipurpose Cream

The concept of beauty and cosmetics is as ancient as mankind and civilization. Indian herbs and its significance are popular worldwide. An herbal cosmetic have growing demand in the world market and is an invaluable gift of nature. Herbal formulations always have attracted considerable attention because of their good activity and comparatively lesser or nil side effects with synthetic drugs. Herbal cosmetics are defined as the beauty products which posses desirable physiological activity such as healing, smoothing appearance, enhancing and conditioning properties because of herbal ingredient. Now-a-days the usefulness of herbs in the cosmeceutical production has been extensively increased in personal care system and there is a great demand for the herbal cosmetics. Cosmetics are the substances intended to be applied to the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, and altering the appearance without affecting the body's structure or functions. But the usage of synthetic products becomes very harmful from long time for the youth as well as our environment. Various synthetic compounds, chemicals, dye and their derivative proved to cause various skin diseases having numerous side effects. Thus we are using herbal cosmetics as much as possible. The basic idea of skin care cosmetic lies deep in the Rigveda, Yajurveda, Ayurveda, Unani and Homeopathic system of medicine. These are the products in which herbs are used in crude or extract form. These herbs should have varieties of properties like antioxidant, anti- inflammatory, antiseptic, emollient, anti- seborrhatic, antikerolytic activity and antibacterial etc. Cosmetics are developed to reduce wrinkles, fight acne and to control oil secretion. For various types of skin ailments formulations like skin protective, sunscreen, antiacne, antiwrinkle and antiaging are designed using varieties of materials, either natural or synthetic. Cream is a polyherbal formulation that consists of extracts of Aloe barbadensis, Ocimum sanctum, Azadirachta indica, Curcuma longa, Ocimum sanctum etc. These herbs have been selected on the basis of a traditional system and scientific justification with modern uses. A herbal cream that can give effective protection to skin and free from any toxicity or toxic residue or any irritation when regularly used and should also be cosmetically acceptable.'

Herbal Cream:

The herbal approach of proper skin care is principally based on three essential steps.

? Cleanse

? Nourish

? Moisture

Whatever may be the type of skin; these three steps are external care of the skin to protect from constant effect of environment, stress and skins natural process of cell degradation decay^2,3.

Therefore, in order to help the skin look young and radiant. Exfoliation to remove dead skin cells.

? Epidermal stimulation for new cell growth.

? Improve capillary blood flow.      

? Penetrating moisture and nutrients to replenish all layers of skin.

? Antioxidant properties for cellular rejuvenation and repair.

A cream is a topical preparation usually for application to the skin. Creams are semi-solid emulsions of oil and water. They are divided into two types: oil-in-water (O/W) creams which are composed of small droplets of oil dispersed in a continuous phase, and water-in-oil (W/O) creams which are composed of small droplets of water dispersed in a continuous oily phase. Oil-in-water creams are more comfortable and cosmetically acceptable as they are less greasy and more easily washed off using water. Water-in-oil creams are more difficult to handle but many drugs which are incorporated into creams are hydrophobic and will be released more readily from a water-in-oil cream than an oil-in-water cream. Water-in-oil creams are also more moisturizing as they provide an oily barrier which reduces water loss from the stratum the outermost layer of the skin^4,5.

Skin:

The skin is the largest organ in the human body. For the average adult human, the skin has a surface area of between 1.5-2.0 square meters⁶. The thickness of the skin varies considerably over all parts of the body, and between men(1.3mm) and women(1.26mm) and the young and the old Skin is composed of three primary layers: the epidermis, the dermis and the hypodermis. pH of skin varies from 4-5 to 6⁷.

Epidermis: Epidermis is the outermost layer of the skin. The epidermis contains no blood vessels and is nourished by diffusion from the dermis. The main type of cell which make up the epidermis are keratinocytes, melanocytes, Langerhans cells and Merkel’s cells. The epidermis helps the skin to regulate body temperature. Epidermis is divided into the following 5 sublayer or strata⁸:

• Stratum corneum
• Stratum lucidum
• Stratum granulosum
• Stratum spinosum
• Stratum germinativum (also called "stratum Basale)

Dermis: The dermis is the layer of skin beneath the epidermis that consist of epithelial tissue and cushions the body from stress and strain9. The dermis is tightly connected to the epidermis by basement membrane. It contain hair follicles, sweat gland, sebaceous gland, apocrine10.

Hypodermis: The hypodermis is not part of the skin, and lies below the dermis. It consists of loose connective tissue, adipose tissue and elastin. The main cell types are fibroblasts, macrophages and adipocytes. Fat serves as padding and insulation for the body11.

Aim And Objectives:

1. To set the formula for herbal cream by using different herbs.
2. To formulate herbal cream by using proper procedure.
3. To evaluate formulated product by using different tests like, pH, Spreadability, extrudability, etc

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

Table 1: Plants used for preparation of herbal cream.

Formulation Component: -

Table 2: Formulation table of Herbal Multipurpose Cream.

Formulation Of Herbal Multipurpose Cream: Preparation of Extract:

All the Herbals were weighed accurately & aqueous extraction had been done (10 times of the weight of the drug i.e. 5g in 50ml of water-on-water bath at 80-100°C). As the solution concentrated up to 20 ml, filtration was done. Residue had been taken & volume was making up to 40 ml, again boiled. After remaining 20 ml was filtered and collected in the form of powder and the same procedure was followed again¹¹.

Table 3: Preparation Of Extracts

Preparation Of Cream Base:

Procedure:

All ingredients were weighed accurately. Bees wax was melted into a porcelain dish and then liquid paraffin was added. After homogenization, olive oil was added into above melted base. Borax was dissolved into sufficient quantity of water and it was warmed. The water was added drop by drop with vigorous stirring into the oily portion. Then melted mass was allowed to cool to get desired consistency¹⁵.

Preparation Of Multipurpose Herbal Cream:

• Procedure:

Aloe, Papaya, Amla, Neem, Tulsi and Turmeric were weighed accurately and homogenize it separately. Pulp of Papaya was smashed and was mixed with aloe and amla powder. Extract of neem and Tulsi was added into above mixture. The resulted mass was added into the base with constant stirring. Then turmeric powder was added in it and perfume was added¹⁶.

Evaluation Of Cream:

1. Organoleptic evaluation¹⁷:

The cream thus obtained was evaluated for its organoleptic properties like color, odour, and state. The appearance of the cream was judged by its colour and roughness and graded. Results are listed in Table No 4.

2. pH of the Cream¹⁸:

The pH meter was calibrated using standard buffer solution. About 0.5 g of the cream was weighed and dissolved in 50.0 ml of distilled water and its pH was measured.

3. Dye test¹⁹:

The scarlet red dye is mixed with the cream. Place a drop of the cream on a microscopic slide covers it with a cover slip, and examines it under a microscope. If the disperse globules appear red the ground colourless. The cream is o/w type. The reverse condition occurs in wo type cream i.e. the disperse globules appear colourless in the red ground.

5. Spreadability²¹:

It is determined by glass slide and wooden block apparatus. Weight about 20gm was added to the pan and the time was noted for upper slide to move to separate completely from the fixed slide. An excess amount of gel 2gm was placed on this ground slide, then sandwiched the gel between this slide and a further glass slide having the fixed ground slide (there is provided with the hook). A 1kg weighted was located on the top of the slides for 5 minutes to give a homogeneous film of the gel and air between the slides was removed. Remove off the excess of the gel, The top plate was pull with the help of spring attached to the hook, the time required by the top slide to cover a distance of 7.5cm was be noted. A short or less interval shows better Spreadability. (Pawar DP, 2013) The Spreadability of gel was determine by using the above formula and was reported in table no7 .

S = M × L / T

Where, S - Spreadability.

M -Weight in the pan which is tied to the upper slide.

L- Length moved by the glass slide.

T- Time taken to separate the slide completely each other. (Seconds)

6. Antimicrobial test:^12,13,14

Protocol: The Nutrient agar media was used. Staphylococcus aureus microorganism culture was used. Incubation time was setup for 24hrs.

Method: Agar bore well diffusion method.

Procedure: Staphylococcus aureus (Gram +ve bacteria) suspension was introduced in each plates & 40ml of sterile nutrient agar media was poured into each sterilized plates. The plates were agitated carefully to allow a homogenous mixing of the agar with the test organism. The plates were left on the flat solid surface & allow to harden. In each plate 1cup, 10mm in diameter was bored in the medium with cork borer. The disks of agar were removed by sterilized dissecting needle while being careful not to damage the cups. In each plate equal amount of cream formulation having same strength was placed in the cup & the plates were incubated at37°C 2°C for 24hrs.in incubator. The entire operation was carried out under aseptic condition & zone of inhibition was calculated. The zone of inhibition obtained for prepared formulation was showed in figure.

RESULT AND DISSCUSION:

1. 1. Organoleptic evaluation²⁰: Organoleptic evaluation revealed that all formulations of herbal multipurpose cream have semisolid in nature, dark-brown and smooth in appearance and texture.

Table 4: Organoleptic Properties

1. pH, extrudability and Spreadability:

Evaluation related to pH, extrudability and Spreadability are summarized in Table 5 and

6. All the exhibit values in acceptable criteria.

Table 5: Evaluation Parameters of all formulation

Table 6: Spread-Ability

1. Antimicrobial test:^12;13;14

The antimicrobial study of formulation revealed that of herbal multipurpose cream possess good zone of inhibition. It had high value of zone of inhibition. (1.3cm)

Zone of inhibition of Multipurpose Herbal Cream

Sample: Formulation

Quantity of Sample: 0.25 gm

Zone of Inhibition Diameter (cm): 1.3cm