Model lipophilic formulations of retinyl palmitate: influence of conservative agents on light-induced degradation

Vitamin A is widely employed in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. The all-trans (AT) isomer (100% of biological potency) is sensible to different factors, such as light, heat and formulation components, leading to its degradation or isomerization. The main objective of this work was to study, in model cosmetic lipophilic vehicles, the degradation of retinyl palmitate (RetP) to the less active cis-isomers in presence of widely used conservative agents (propyl gallate and Vitamin E). Two lipophilic phases were used (liquid paraffin and almond oil) because liquid paraffin, almost composed of satured hydrocarbons, is not degraded by light exposure, while almond oil, containing several double bonds, could interfere with light-induced degradative process of RetP. In the first phase, the more suitable analytical method was chosen between normal and reverse phase HPLC to follow the degradation of RetP. In the second phase, RetP light-induced degradation was studied to simulate storage condition effect on cosmetic products ageing. The results showed that: (a) the reverse phase HPLC technique, unable to separate the all-trans from the 13-cis and 9-cis isomers, derived by Vitamin A isomerization, leads to an incorrect quantitation of RetP; (b) the lipophilic vehicle influences the isomerization-degradation process; (c) the conservative agents do not protect from degradation.