CONTROL OF OIL-IN-WATER EMULSION CONSISTENCY USING MIXED EMULSIFIERS

Mixtures of emulsifiers of the surfactant‐fatty alcohol type are widely used to stabilize oil‐in‐water emulsions and to alter their consistency from fluid to semi‐solid. A mechanism, involving the formation of a viscoelastic network in the continuous phase, is proposed to explain this self‐bodying action. Evidence has been adduced from published data on a variety of systems. Support for this concept is also provided by the results obtained from a concentric cylinder study of the rheology of liquid paraffin in water emulsions containing a fixed concentration of cetostearyl alcohol and varying amounts of polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate, cetomacrogol 1000, sodium dodecyl sulphate or cetrimide. 1969 Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain