Lecithin Organogel: A Promising Carrier for the Treatment of Skin Diseases

Skin is the largest organ of the human body, as it protects the body from the external environment. Nowadays, skin diseases and skin problems are more common, and millions of people are affected daily. Skin diseases are due to numerous infectious pathogens or inflammatory conditions. The increasing demand for theoretical research and practical applications has led to the rising prominence of gel as a semisolid material. To this end, organogels has been widely explored due to their unique composition, which includes organic solvents and mineral or vegetable oils, among others. Organogels can be described as semisolid systems wherein an organic liquid phase is confined within a three-dimensional framework consisting of self-assembled, cross-linked, or entangled gelator fibers. These gels have the ability to undergo significant expansion and retain substantial amounts of the liquid phase, reaching up to 99% swelling capacity. Furthermore, they respond to a range of physical and chemical stimuli, including temperature, light, pH, and mechanical deformation. Notably, due to their distinctive properties, they have aroused significant interest in a variety of practical applications. Organogels favor the significant encapsulation and enhanced permeation of hydrophobic molecules when compared with hydrogels. Accordingly, organogels are characterized into lecithin organogels, pluronic lecithin organogels, sorbitan monostearate-based organogels, and eudragit organogels, among others, based on the nature of their network and the solvent system. Lecithin organogels contain lecithin (natural and safe as a living cell component) as an organogelator. It acts as a good penetration enhancer. In this review, first we have summarized the fundamental concepts related to the elemental structure of organogels, including their various forms, distinctive features, methods of manufacture, and diverse applications. Nonetheless, this review also sheds light on the delivery of therapeutic molecules entrapped in the lecithin organogel system into deep tissue for the management of skin diseases and provides a synopsis of their clinical applications.

Study and optimization of oil-in-water emulsions formulated by low- and high-frequency ultrasounds

OBJECTIVE

A combined treatment using both low-frequency (20 kHz) and high-frequency ultrasounds (1.63 MHz) is a promising new process to stabilize emulsions with minimalist formulation. In order to optimize process parameters, a Doehlert experimental design was performed with oil-in-water emulsions, presently used for cosmetic products, composed of water, caprylic/capric triglycerides and oleic acid.

METHODS

Effects of treatment time, oil content and oleic acid content were studied on emulsion properties (droplet size, polydispersity index, ζ-potential and yield of oil incorporation) and on emulsion stability after a 28-day storage (creaming index, Turbiscan stability index (TSI) and oil release).

RESULTS

From experimental data, a model was established that allowed to study effects of each parameter and their interactions on emulsion formation and stability. Oleic acid content had a great impact on emulsion formation: It reduced droplet size, PDI and ζ-potential and increased yield of oil incorporation. However, a critical value could be highlighted, beyond which oleic acid effects reversed. Treatment time had an important beneficial effect on emulsion stability as it decreased creaming index, TSI and oil release after 28 days of storage. Oil content had a negative effect on emulsion formation and on emulsion stability. However, treatment time and oil content often had a beneficial synergistic effect.

CONCLUSION

The optimized conditions for emulsion processing were obtained through a desirability approach. They were experimentally validated.

In situ liquid transmission electron microscopy reveals self-assembly-driven nucleation in radiolytic synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles in organic media

We have investigated the early stages of the formation of iron oxide nanoparticles from iron stearate precursors in the presence of sodium stearate in an organic solvent by in situ liquid phase transmission electron microscopy (IL-TEM). Before nucleation, we have evidenced the spontaneous formation of vesicular assemblies made of iron polycation-based precursors sandwiched between stearate layers. Nucleation of iron oxide nanoparticles occurs within the walls of the vesicles, which subsequently collapse upon the consumption of the iron precursors and the growth of the nanoparticles. We then evidenced that fine control of the electron dose, and therefore of the local concentration of reactive iron species in the vicinity of the nuclei, enables controlling crystal growth and selecting the morphology of the resulting iron oxide nanoparticles. Such a direct observation of the nucleation process templated by vesicular assemblies in a hydrophobic organic solvent sheds new light on the formation process of metal oxide nanoparticles and therefore opens ways for the synthesis of inorganic colloidal systems with tunable shape and size.

Building blocks of β-sitosterol-γ-oryzanol gels revealed by small-angle neutron scattering and real space modelling

Mixtures of β-sitosterol and γ-oryzanol form gels in a range of organic solvents. Despite being widely studied, particularly as potential oleogels for food application, details of the intrinsic gel-forming building blocks remain unclear. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) combined with solvent contrast variation has been used to evaluate potential structural models. While evidence exists that the building blocks are hollow cylinders (tubules), the simultaneous fitting of twelve contrast-varied SANS data sets indicates that the previously proposed model of double walled tubules is incorrect. Predicted scattering based on real space models provides compelling evidence that the origin of the gelling behaviour is the limited assembly of adjacent tubules to form a space-filling network of fibrils.

Co-assembly and Structure of Sodium Dodecylsulfate and other n-Alkyl Sulfates in Glycerol: n-Alkyl Sulfate-Glycerol Crystal Phase

HYPOTHESIS

Following the observation of a microfibrillar phase in sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS)-glycerol mixtures, it is hypothesized that this phase is a crystalline structure containing SDS and glycerol, where the interaction between sulfate and glycerol layers mediates the co-assembly, which also could be universal for similar systems formed by n-alkyl sulfate homologues. Experiment. n-alkyl sulfate glycerol solutions were studied using a combination of optical microscopy, small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS/WAXS). Time-resolved SAXS was employed to determine the phase formation in SDS-glycerol-water mixtures.

FINDINGS

The microfibrillar crystalline phase was reproduced in even-chained n-alkyl sulfates with a chain length between 12 and 18 carbon atoms, where the phase lamellar period increased uniformly with the alkyl chain length. Reconstruction of electron density profiles from the diffraction patterns allowed the lamellar structural motif of the phase, the glycerol location and stoichiometry to be determined. When SDS-glycerol-water mixtures with water concentration below 6 wt% are isothermally solidified at 20 °C, SDS-glycerol crystals and/or anhydrous SDS form, where the former is inhibited by the latter at higher water concentrations. The learnings from the SDS-glycerol phase formation allows new gels to be created, utilising the glycerol-sulfate motif generating microfibrils. This expands the knowledge of the applicable formulation space for SDS-water containing mixtures.

Preparation of Protein Oleogels: Effect on Structure and Functionality

Among available structuring agents that have been used to provide solid properties to liquid oils, protein is a more recent candidate. Due to their nutritional value and high consumer acceptance, proteins are of special interest for the preparation of edible oleogels as an alternative for solid fats. Whereas the field of protein oleogelation is still rather new and just starts unfolding, several preparation methods have been demonstrated to be suitable for protein oleogel preparation. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the link between microstructural properties of the gels and macroscopic rheological properties, and the potential of such protein-based oleogels as a fat replacer in food products. In this review, we therefore provide an overview of various protein oleogel preparation methods and the resulting gel microstructures. Based on the different structures, we discuss how the rheological properties can be modified for the different types of protein oleogels. Finally, we consider the suitability of the different preparation methods regarding potential applications on industrial scale, and provide a short summary of the current state of knowledge regarding the behavior of protein oleogels as a fat replacer in food products.

Tuning Aesthetic and Mechanical Properties of Oleogels via Formulation of Enzyme-Enabled Stereoisomeric Molecular Gelators

The mechanistic resemblance of oil-based molecular gels (oleogels) to solid fats (trans and saturated) makes molecular gelation an ideal alternative in developing fat-based food and cosmetic products. The recent upsurge in the preference for oleogels (structured oils) is due to them being healthier than conventional solid fats. The present study reveals a simple means of modulating the mechanical and aesthetic properties of oleogels by physically mixing two isomeric low-molecular-weight gelators, mannitol dioctanoate (M8) and sorbitol dioctanoate (S8), which have contrasting oil-structuring behaviors; while M8 formed oleogels with a higher gel strength, the S8 gels were more aesthetic, translucent, and appealing. The gelators were synthesized by enzyme catalysis (a generally regarded as safe protocol). The M8/S8 gels were systematically and thoroughly characterized using a suite of analytical techniques, including minimum gelation concentration, gel melting point, rheological storage modulus, oil binding capacity, light transmittance, and optical microscopy. The results showed that the percentage of light transmittance, which is associated with aesthetics, increased from about 40 to 95% with an increasing fraction of S8 from 0 to 1. Parameters associated with mechanical strength, such as rheology, were also quite responsive to varying proportions of the gelators. The storage modulus (G', a rheological property) increased from about 3300 to about 12 500 Pa with an increasing fraction of M8. As the fraction of M8 increased, the solid fat content (SFC) changed from about 3.51 to 2.08%, while the oil binding capacity changed from about 70.2 to 100.0. This work enables the modulation of the aesthetic and organoleptic properties of a gel via a simple formulation of stereoisomeric molecular gelators.

Demonstrating Aqueous-Phase Low-Molecular-Weight-Gel Wicking of Oil for the Remediation of Oil Spilled into Surface Water

Oils spilled into surface water require effective and timely treatment. In this paper, we report on a low-molecular-weight gelator that can form gels in organic and aqueous phases. The aqueous gel was observed to absorb oils, which is proposed as a new class of materials for remediating oil spilled into surface water. The gels and the low-molecular-weight gelator have both fundamental and applied significance. Fundamentally, identifying the mechanisms that govern the formation of these gels and their resultant mechanical properties is of interest. Subsequently, these fundamental insights aid in the optimization of these gels for addressing spilled oil. First, we briefly compare the organic and aqueous gels qualitatively before focusing on the aqueous gel. Second, we demonstrate the ability of the aqueous gel to wick oils through experiments in a Hele-Shaw cell and compare our results to the Washburn equation for porous media. The Washburn equation is not entirely adequate in describing our results due to the change in volume of the porous media during the wicking process. Finally, we investigate mechanisms proposed to govern the formation of low-molecular-weight gels in the literature through rheological shear measurements during gel formation. Our experiments suggest that the proposed mechanisms are applicable to our aqueous gels, growing as anisotropic crystal networks with fractal dimensions between one and two dimensions from temporally sporadic nucleation sites.

Supramolecular Organogelation Directed by Weak Noncovalent Interactions in Palmitoylated 1,5-Anhydro-d-Glucitol Derivatives

We synthesized a series of novel alicyclic compounds by modifying 1,5-anhydro-d-glucitol with two to four palmitoyl chains, and we explored their self-assembly and gelation behaviors in paraffin. The obtained organogels were studied by field emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, variable-temperature Fourier transform IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, polarized optical microscopy, and transmission spectroscopy. While all the palmitoylated derivatives spontaneously formed fibrous networks and gelated the paraffin, an acetylated derivative of 1,5-anhydro-d-glucitol did not gelatinize the solvent, thus indicating the importance of aliphatic chains for gelation. Interestingly, α- and β- d-glucopyranose with five palmitoyl chains neither gelatinized the solvent nor formed fibrous networks, thus suggesting that the absence of C-1 substitution in 1,5-anhydro-d-glucitol is important for gelation. Fourier transform IR spectroscopy suggested that the formation of weak hydrogen bonds between the carbonyl groups and the C-H groups was the driving force for formation of the supramolecular fibers and for gelation of the solvent.

Thermal Stability Evaluation of Polystyrene-Mg/Zn/Al LDH Nanocomposites

A series of samples of Mg/Zn/Al LDHs (layered double hydroxides) materials was prepared by the co-precipitation and urea hydrolysis methods. They were modified with organic surfactants (acrylate and oleate anions) and characterized by X-ray diffraction, which corroborated the intercalation of anionic species into the interlayer space. The hydrophobized materials were incorporated at low contents (10 and 15 wt.%) to polystyrene, which was synthesized by emulsion polymerization techniques. The polymeric composites were analyzed by thermogravimetry to determine the decomposition temperature. The results demonstrated that the materials with Zn presented the greatest increment in the degradation temperature (7 °C < T < 54 °C). Moreover, the Friedman, Flynn–Wall–Ozawa, and Coats–Redfern models were compared to obtain the kinetic parameters of degradation process. The obtained order of decomposition of the Coats–Redfern model showed that the decomposition process occurs in at least two stages. Finally, the addition of environmentally friendly modified Layered Double Hydroxides (LDH) nanomaterials to the polystyrene (PS) matrix allowed for obtaining polymeric composites with higher thermal stability, retarding the decomposition process of PS.

Structural and rheological changes of lamellar liquid crystals as a result of compositional changes and added silica nanoparticles

Lamellar liquid crystals comprising oil, water and surfactant(s) were formulated and analysed in order to examine how these materials responded to the inclusion of inorganic nanoparticles, in terms of their structural and rheological characteristics. Lamellar phases were formed from mixtures of water, para-xylene and Triton X-100, and analysis was performed via small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), polarising light microscopy (PLM), and amplitude and viscosity sweeps. The partial replacement of Triton X-100 with oleic acid appeared to cause an increase in bilayer thickness, attributed to less efficient packing of the different molecules. Addition of oleic acid also appeared to cause both a loss in lamellar repeat ordering, attributed to heterogeneity of the bilayers, and a rise in long range order, potentially caused by the stiffer bilayers. Adding silica nanoparticles of different size and surface chemistry caused a stiffening of the samples at the expense of a longer-range lamellar repeat order. This strengthening is attributed to aggregation at the domain boundaries, and it was found that hydrophobic particles tended to form stronger aggregates while for larger particles (20 nm as opposed to 10 nm) aggregation was apparently reversible. These results give a more comprehensive understanding of how to reliably control the structural and rheological properties of lamellar liquid crystals, and emphasise the importance of the size and surface chemistry of any inclusions, for applications in cosmetics, drug delivery, and microfluidics.

Lecithin and phytosterols-based mixtures as hybrid structuring agents in different organic phases

In this study the effect of lecithin (L) addition and solvent quality in a well-established oleogel system formed by β-sitosterol and γ-oryzanol (BG) was investigated. Medium chain triglycerides (MCT) and sunflower oil (SFO) were used as triglycerides and hexadecane (HEX) as a model of linear hydrocarbon. Lecithin was proposed due to its natural and versatile properties, showing different functionalities such as emulsifier and co-oleogelator. A study based on hierarchical organization of structured oil was performed applying techniques for bulk, meso and nanoscale. Self-sustained structures could no longer be observed after 40 wt% of BG replacement by lecithin. Small-angle X-ray scattering showed that the formed nanostructures (building blocks) were dependent on type of solvent and BG:L ratio in the mixture of oleogelators. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that stability against temperature was improved decreasing the polarity of the oil, and a time-dependent self-assembly of hybrid systems was observed from thermal and rheological measurements. Microscopy images exhibited changes on typical fibril aggregation of BG as lecithin was added, which promoted to a certain extent the suppression of ribbons. Oscillatory shear and uniaxial compression measurements were influenced by BG:L ratio and solvent mainly at higher lecithin amount. The combination of BG and MCT appeared to be the most affected by lecithin incorporation whereas SFO rendered harder oleogels. These results could contribute to understand the role of both lecithin and solvent type influencing the host oleogelator structure. It was hypothesized that intermolecular BG complex formation is hindered by lecithin, besides this phospholipid also might coexist as a different phase, causing structural changes in the gel network. Addressing the role of co-oleogelator it can provide the opportunity to tune soft materials with adjusted properties.

Mixed surfactant systems of sucrose esters and lecithin as a synergistic approach for oil structuring

In order to modify the self-assembly of sucrose esters (SEs) in sunflower oil, we added sunflower lecithin (SFL) as co-surfactant. It is hypothesized that SFL modifies the self-assembly of SEs by interrupting the extensive hydrogen bonding between SEs monomers. The addition of SFL into SEs induced gelation of the mixed surfactant system oleogels at all studied ratios. The 7:3 SEs:SFL combination showed enhanced rheological properties compared to the other studied ratios, which suggests better molecular ordering induced by SFL. The modifications might have been caused by interference in the hydrogen bonding, connecting the polar heads of SEs molecules in the presence of SFL. This effect was confirmed by thermal behavior and small angle X-ray diffraction (SAXD) analysis. From the crystallization and melting analyses, it was shown that the peak temperature, shape and enthalpy decreased as the SFL ratio increases. Meanwhile, the bi-component oleogels exhibited new peaks in the SAXD profile, which imply a self-assembly modification. The microscopic study through polarized and electrons revealed a change in the structure. Therefore, it can be concluded that a synergistic effect between SEs and SFL, more particularly at 7:3 ratio, towards sunflower oil structuring could be obtained. These findings shed light for greater applications of SEs as structuring and carrier agent in foods and pharmaceutical.

Trends in small angle neutron scattering of actinide–trialkyl phosphate complexes: a molecular insight into third phase formation

SANS as a molecular probe was used to investigate and quantify the aggregation tendency of metal complexes, facilitating the prediction of third phase formation.

Molecular and microstructural characterization of lecithin-based oleogels made with vegetable oil

Lecithin-based oleogels consist of a worm-like entangled fibrous 3D network. Small angle X-ray diffraction suggests that these microfibres are formed by the packing of reverse hexagonal (H_II) tubules parallel to the axis of fibres.

Smart Nonaqueous Foams from Lipid-Based Oleogel

Oil foams are composed of gas bubbles dispersed in an oil phase. These systems are scarcely studied despite their great potential in diverse fields such as the food and cosmetic industries. Contrary to aqueous foams, the production of oil foams is difficult to achieve due to the inefficiency of surfactant adsorption at oil-air interfaces. Herein, we report a simple way to produce oil foams from oleogels, whose liquid phase is a mixture of sunflower oil and fatty alcohols. The temperature at which the oleogel formed was found to depend on both fatty alcohol chain length and concentration. The air bubbles in the oleogel foam were stabilized by fatty alcohol crystals. Below the melting temperature of the crystals, oleogel foams were stable for months. Upon heating, these ultrastable foams collapsed within a few minutes due to the melting of the crystal particles. The transition between crystal formation and melting was reversible, leading to thermoresponsive nonaqueous foams. The reversible switching between ultrastable and unstable foam depended solely on the temperature of the system. We demonstrate that these oleogel foams can be made to be photoresponsive by using internal heat sources such as carbon black particles, which can absorb UV light and dissipate the absorbed energy as heat. This simple approach for the formulation of responsive oil foams could be easily extended to other oleogel systems and could find a broad range of applications due to the availability of the components in large quantities and at low cost.