Participation of Macrogolstearate 400 lamellar phases in hydrophilic creams and vesicles

In binary Macrogolstearate 400 (MS 400)/water systems, lamellar surfactant arrangements can be detected by polarized light and transmission electron microscopy. As demonstrated by X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry, the alkyl chains of the emulsifier are in the crystalline state. Ternary systems with liquid paraffin represent optically isotropic, homogeneous o/w creams for a wide composition range. Incorporation of up to 50 mol% cholesterol into the MS 400 lamellar structures leads to a gel-liquid crystalline phase separation within the bilayer, thus enabling the formation of spherical nonionic vesicles. The transition enthalpy of the samples decreases linearly with increasing cholesterol concentrations. The Macrogolstearate 400/cholesterol vesicles proved to be stable in hydrophilic cream systems. Cationic vesicles can be prepared using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a charge inducer. Low-CTAB portions are inhomogeneously distributed within the bilayer, as detected by DSC. The results also indicate a perturbation of the alkyl chains packing for the positively charged vesicles.