Potential application of a multifunctional biosurfactant extract obtained from corn as stabilizing agent of vitamin C in cosmetic formulations

Abstract

Vitamin C is an essential nutrient for human health, which can be found in the epidermis, playing an important role in the collagen production and protection of the skin. However, humans cannot produce this vitamin, being necessary to include it in health care products. Moreover, vitamin C is easily degradable making quite difficult to keep it as L-ascorbic acid form during long time. Thus, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries include dehydrated vitamin C in its formulations to prevent its degradation. Therefore, it must be rehydrated before use, leading to a tedious process.

The aim of this work was to study the addition of a multifunctional biosurfactant extract (BS), obtained from corn wet-milling industry, to an aqueous solution of L-ascorbic acid (AA) in order to improve the stability of this vitamin.

A Box-Behnken factorial design was established in order to predict the degradation of vitamin C, using as independent variables: the concentration of vitamin C, the concentration of BS and the storage time. This study allowed to obtain a theoretical equation that predicts the degradation of vitamin C in presence and absence of BS, which was quantified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

The experimental results showed that the presence of BS can inhibit the degradation of vitamin C in water up to 58% after 14 days in comparison with the same assays in absence of biosurfactant. This work opens the door to the use of this BS as stabilizing agent of formulations containing unstable active principles like vitamin C.