The formation of 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) esters in refined palm oil during deodorisation is attributed to the intrinsic composition of crude palm oil. Utilising D-optimal design, the effects of the degumming and bleaching processes on the reduction in 3-MCPD ester formation in refined palm oil from poor-quality crude palm oil were studied relative to the palm oil minor components that are likely to be their precursors. Water degumming remarkably reduced 3-MCPD ester formation by up to 84%, from 9.79 mg/kg to 1.55 mg/kg. Bleaching with synthetic magnesium silicate caused a further 10% reduction, to 0.487 mg/kg. The reduction in 3-MCPD ester formation could be due to the removal of related precursors prior to the deodorisation step. The phosphorus content of bleached palm oil showed a significant correlation with 3-MCPD ester formation.
The reduction of 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) ester formation in refined palm oil was achieved by incorporation of additional processing steps in the physical refining process to remove chloroester precursors prior to the deodorization step. The modified refining process was optimized for the least 3-MCPD ester formation and acceptable refined palm oil quality using response surface methodology (RSM) with five processing parameters: water dosage, phosphoric acid dosage, degumming temperature, activated clay dosage, and deodorization temperature. The removal of chloroester precursors was largely accomplished by increasing the water dosage, while the reduction of 3-MCPD esters was a compromise in oxidative stability and color of the refined palm oil because some factors such as acid dosage, degumming temperature, and deodorization temperature showed contradictory effects. The optimization resulted in 87.2% reduction of 3-MCPD esters from 2.9 mg/kg in the conventional refining process to 0.4 mg/kg, with color and oil stability index values of 2.4 R and 14.3 h, respectively.
The influence of diacylglycerol (DAG) combined with polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) on the stability of water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions containing hydrogenated palm oil (HPO) was studied. Polarized light microscope revealed that DAG promoted HPO to crystallize at the water-oil interface, providing the combination of Pickering and network stabilization effects. It was proposed that the molecular compatibility of fatty acids in DAG with HPO accounted for the promotional effect. The interfacial crystallization of DAG together with the surface activity of PGPR led to the formation of emulsions with uniform small droplets and high freeze-thaw stability. Further exploration of physical properties indicated that the combination of DAG and PGPR dramatically improved the emulsion's viscoelasticity and obtained a larger deformation yield. Water droplets in DAG-based emulsions acted as active fillers to improve the network rigidity. Therefore, DAG is a promising material to be used as emulsifier to enhance the physical stability of W/O emulsions.
In the present study, response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD) was employed to investigate the influence of main emulsion composition variables, namely drug loading, oil content, emulsifier content as well as the effect of the ultrasonic operating parameters such as pre-mixing time, ultrasonic amplitude, and irradiation time on the properties of aspirin-loaded nanoemulsions. The two main emulsion properties studied as response variables were: mean droplet size and polydispersity index. The ultimate goal of the present work was to determine the optimum level of the six independent variables in which an optimal aspirin nanoemulsion with desirable properties could be produced. The response surface analysis results clearly showed that the variability of two responses could be depicted as a linear function of the content of main emulsion compositions and ultrasonic processing variables. In the present investigation, it is evidently shown that ultrasound cavitation is a powerful yet promising approach in the controlled production of aspirin nanoemulsions with smaller average droplet size in a range of 200-300 nm and with a polydispersity index (PDI) of about 0.30. This study proved that the use of low frequency ultrasound is of considerable importance in the controlled production of pharmaceutical nanoemulsions in the drug delivery system.
Response surface methodology (RSM) was utilized to investigate the influence of the main emulsion composition; mixture of palm and medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil (6%-12% w/w), lecithin (1%-3% w/w), and Cremophor EL (0.5%-1.5% w/w) as well as the preparation method; addition rate (2-20 mL/min), on the physicochemical properties of palm-based nanoemulsions. The response variables were the three main emulsion properties; particle size, zeta potential and polydispersity index. Optimization of the four independent variables was carried out to obtain an optimum level palm-based nanoemulsion with desirable characteristics. The response surface analysis showed that the variation in the three responses could be depicted as a quadratic function of the main composition of the emulsion and the preparation method. The experimental data could be fitted sufficiently well into a second-order polynomial model. The optimized formulation was stable for six months at 4 °C.
This study was conducted to investigate on the effect of different sampling regions of palm-refined oils and fats on the 2- and 3-monochloropropanediol fatty acid esters (MCPDE) and glycidol fatty acid esters (GE) levels. The American Oil Chemists' Society (AOCS) Official Method Cd 29a-13 on the determination of MCPDE and GE in edible oils and fats by acid transesterification was successfully verified and optimised, with slight modification using 7890A Agilent GC system equipped with 5975C quadrupole detector. The determined limits of detection (LOD) for MCPDE were 0.02 mg kg-1 and 0.05 mg kg-1 for GE. The method performance has showed good recovery between 80% and 120% for all pertinent compounds with seven replicates assayed in three separate days. Round robin test with two European laboratories, i.e. Eurofins and SGS, has shown compliance results with those of the present study. Among the sampling regions, only one refinery located in the central region of Malaysia showed a significant increment of the MCPDE and GE levels after refining process. The GE level averaging at 2.5 mg kg-1 was slightly higher than that of 3-MCPDE averaging at 1.3 mg kg-1. Both esters were preferentially partitioned into the liquid phase rather than the solid phase after fractionation. However, the overall results exhibited no direct correlation between the esters content and the different sampling locations of the palm oil products in Malaysia. Analysis of total chlorine content also displayed significant variations between sampling locations which clearly show its effect on the chlorine content in the CPO samples.
The study aimed to establish the detection method for bound 3-, 2-MCPD, and glycidol using accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The ASE was modified for reduced solvent volume and process time to extract lipid from the chocolate spread, infant formula, potato chips, and sweetened creamer. The solvent selected for ASE was a mixture of iso-hexane and acetone at 100°C with the lipid and analyte recovery ranging from 96.9% to 98.6% and 84.1% to 107.5%, respectively. The derivatisation of analytes was adopted from the AOCS method Cd29a-13 for GC-MS analysis. The results showed that the coefficient of determination (R2) of all analytes was >0.99. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.1 mg kg-1 expressed in lipid basis for both bound 3- and 2-MCPD and 0.2 mg kg-1 expressed in lipid basis for bound glycidol. The limit of quantitation (LOQ) was 0.3 mg kg-1 expressed in lipid basis for both bound 3- and 2-MCPD and 0.6 mg kg-1 expressed in lipid basis for bound glycidol. A blank spiked with 3-monochloropropanediols fatty acid esters (MCPDE) and 2-MCPDE (0.3, 2.1, and 7.2 mg kg-1) and glycidol esters (0.6, 4.7, and 16.6 mg kg-1) were chosen for accuracy and precision tests. The recoveries were 91.7% to 105.9%. Both repeatability and within-laboratory reproducibility of the analysis were within the acceptable level of precision ranging from 1.7% to 16%. This is the first time that a full validation procedure extending to both accuracy and precision tests has been carried out for sweetened creamer and chocolate spread. Overall, the combined protocol of ASE and AOCS Cd29a-13 was successfully validated for both solid and liquid food samples with lipid content from 10% to 30%.
The detection of 3- and 2-MCPD ester and glycidyl ester was transformed from selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode to multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode by gas chromatography triple quadrupole spectrometry. The derivatization process was adapted from AOCS method Cd 29a-13. The results showed that the coefficient of determination (R2) of all detected compounds obtained from both detection mode was comparable, which falls between 0.997 and 0.999. The limit of detection and quantification (LOD and LOQ) were improved in MRM mode as compared to SIM mode. In MRM mode, the LOD of 3- and 2-MCPD ester was achieved 0.01 mg/kg while the LOQ was 0.05 mg/kg. Besides, LOD and LOQ of glycidyl ester were 0.024 and 0.06 mg/kg respectively. A blank spiked with MCPD esters (0.03, 0.10 and 0.50 mg/kg) and GE (0.06, 0.24 and 1.20 mg/kg) were chosen for repeatability and recovery tests. MRM mode showed better repeatability in area ratio and recovery with relative standard deviation (RSD %)
Palm-pressed mesocarp oil has been found to contain plenty of naturally occurring valuable phytonutrients. The application and study of the oil are limited, therefore, quality assessment of refined red palm-pressed mesocarp olein (PPMO) is deemed necessary to provide data in widening the applications as a niche products or raw material for the nutraceutical industry. Results showed that refined PPMO has comparable physicochemical properties and oxidative stability with commercial cooking oil, palm olein (PO). The food safety parameters and contaminants (PAH, 3-MCPD ester, 2-MCPD ester, glycidyl ester and trace metals) analyses proven that refined PPMO is safe to be consumed. Besides, refined PPMO contains remarkably greater concentrations of phytonutrients including carotenoids, phytosterols, squalene and vitamin E than PO, postulating its protective health benefits. The overall quality assessment of refined PPMO showed that it is suitable for human consumption and it is a good source for food applications and dietary nutritional supplements.
Paclitaxel (PTX) injection (i.e., Taxol) has been used as an effective chemotherapeutic treatment for various cancers. However, the current Taxol formulation contains Cremophor EL, which causes hypersensitivity reactions during intravenous administration and precipitation by aqueous dilution. This communication reports the preliminary results on the ionic liquid (IL)-based PTX formulations developed to address the aforementioned issues. The formulations were composed of PTX/cholinium amino acid ILs/ethanol/Tween-80/water. A significant enhancement in the solubility of PTX was observed with considerable correlation with the density and viscosity of the ILs, and with the side chain of the amino acids used as anions in the ILs. Moreover, the formulations were stable for up to 3 months. The driving force for the stability of the formulation was hypothesized to be the involvement of different types of interactions between the IL and PTX. In vitro cytotoxicity and antitumor activity of the IL-based formulations were evaluated on HeLa cells. The IL vehicles without PTX were found to be less cytotoxic than Taxol, while both the IL-based PTX formulation and Taxol exhibited similar antitumor activity. Finally, in vitro hypersensitivity reactions were evaluated on THP-1 cells and found to be significantly lower with the IL-based formulation than Taxol. This study demonstrated that specially designed ILs could provide a potentially safer alternative to Cremophor EL as an effective PTX formulation for cancer treatment giving fewer hypersensitivity reactions.
In order to prevent common hypersensitivity reactions to paclitaxel injections (Taxol), we previously reported an ionic liquid-mediated paclitaxel (IL-PTX) formulation with small particle size and narrow size distribution. The preliminary work showed high PTX solubility in the IL, and the formulation demonstrated similar antitumor activity to Taxol, while inducing a smaller hypersensitivity effect in in vitro cell experiments. In this study, the stability of the IL-PTX formulation was monitored by quantitative HPLC analysis, which showed that IL-PTX was more stable at 4 °C than at room temperature. The in vivo study showed that the IL-PTX formulation could be used in a therapeutic application as a biocompatible component of a drug delivery system. To assess the in-vivo biocompatibility, IL or IL-mediated formulations were administered intravenously by maintaining physiological buffered conditions (neutral pH and isotonic salt concentration). From in vivo pharmacokinetics data, the IL-PTX formulation was found to have a similar systemic circulation time and slower elimination rate compared to cremophor EL mediated paclitaxel (CrEL-PTX). Furthermore, in vivo antitumor and hypersensitivity experiments in C57BL/6 mice revealed that IL-PTX had similar antitumor activity to CrEL-PTX, but a significantly smaller hypersensitivity effect compared with CrEL-PTX. Therefore, the IL-mediated formulation has potential to be an effective and safe drug delivery system for PTX.