Skincare industries are growing rapidly around the globe but most products are formulated using synthetic chemicals and organic solvent extracted plant extracts, thus may be hazardous to the users and incur higher cost for purification that eventually leads to phytonutrient degradation. Therefore, this study aimed to formulate a stable natural formulation with antioxidant and antimicrobial activities by using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO 2 ) extracted palm-pressed fiber oil (PPFO) as an active ingredient with virgin coconut oil (VCO) as a formulation base. PPFO was extracted from fresh palm-pressed fiber (PPF) while VCO was from dried grated coconut copra using SC-CO 2 before being subjected to the analyses of physicochemical properties, phytonutrient content and biological activities including antioxidant and antimicrobial. The nanoemulgel formulations were then developed and examined for their stability through accelerated stability study for 3 months by measuring their pH, particle size, polydispersity index and zeta potential. The results showed that PPFO contained a high amount of phytonutrients, especially total carotenoid (1497 ppm) and total tocopherol and tocotrienol (2269 ppm) contents. The newly developed nanoemulgels maintained their particles in nano size and showed good stability with high negative zeta potentials. Sample nanoemulgel formulated with 3% PPFO diluted in VCO as effective concentration showed significantly stronger antioxidant activity than the control which was formulated from 3% tocopheryl acetate diluted in mineral oil, towards DPPH and ABTS radicals, with IC 50 values of 67.41 and 44.28 µL/mL, respectively. For the antibacterial activities, the sample nanoemulgel was found to inhibit Gram positive bacteria S. aureus and S. epidermidis growth but not the Gram negative strain E. coli. Overall, this study revealed the potential of SF-extracted PPFO as an active ingredient in the antioxidant topical formulations thus future study on in vitro skin cell models is highly recommended for validation.
Keywords: Cocos nucifera; Elaeis guineensis; carotenoid; nanoemulsion; radical scavenging activities; tocotrienols.