The Composition Modeling and Quality Assessment of Oleogel With Thyme Essential Oil

Foot fungus (lat. Tinea pedis) is a skin disease caused by dermatophytes Trichophyton rubrum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Epidermophyton floccosum. The symptoms are cracks, itch, dandruff and unpleasant odor of the feet skin. Thyme (lat. Thymus vulgaris L.) essential oil containing of 36 – 55 percent of thymol can protect feet from fungus. Thyme essential oil is convenient to introduce in oil medium, but oil solutions are uncomfortable to use. Therefore, the aim of this work is to produce a lipophilic gel for prevention of foot fungus. This study includes the following: 1) determining the amount of thymol in the thyme essential oil; 2) determination of the optimal ratio of oil and gelling agent material; 3) pH value and appearance evaluation of the produced lipophilic gel with thyme essential oil viscosity; 4) the effectiveness of the lipophilic gel in microbiological research. The results: using HPLC method it has been found out that thyme essential oil contains 41.06±0.03 percent thymol. It was decided to use olive oil on oleogel basis because liquid paraffin and olive oil mixture didn’t make stable gel structure. Produced oleogels kept the same appearance features for all observation time (6 months) such as homogenous structure, clearness, light yellow color, the smell of thyme and semi – solid consistency. During the measurement of pH values of oleogels, it has been found out that pH values matched human physiological pH value. During the measurement of viscosity of oleogels, it became obvious that the viscosity is directly proportional to the concentration of aerosil and vice verse to the temperature. During 6 months observation it has also been found out that the percentage value of viscosity was the most stable when gelling agent was at 8,5 percentage. After this observation was calculated that value difference of viscosity wasn’t statistically significant (p>0,05). Microbiological studies have shown that oleogel with thyme essential oil effect Candida albicans microorganism when thyme essential oil concentration is 0,05 percentage in oleogel mixture. After finishing all measuring such as evaluation of thymol amount in thyme essential oil, oleogel appearance, pH values and viscosity of oleogel also microbiological research results determined that the best mixture of the oleogel is 0,1 percent thyme essential oil, 8,5 percent anhydrous colloidal silicon dioxide and 91,4 percent olive oil