Microencapsulation of fenugreek seeds oil and curry leaves oil using simple coacervation and its application in shampoo

There is new trend in market for cosmetics prepared from herbal extracts. Natural and ecofriendly products are becoming increasingly popular. Fenugreek seeds and curry leaves are cheap source of herbal extract having very good properties for hair growth, hair strengthening, reducing hair loss and retaining hair conditioning. The essential oils of curry leaves and fenugreek seeds are volatile, it need to be coated with stable coating material for proper stability during storage and processing. In our present work we extracted the essential oil of fenugreek seeds by maceration method and curry leaves by hydrodistillation method and encapsulated the oils using coacervation technique. Gelatin is used as a coating material. The core to the wall ratio (C:W) was varied and parameters were optimized. 1% of microencapsulated oil was added in shampoo and the stability and sensory analysis of the shampoo were determined. The ratio of 1:3 (C:W) is found to be best among all other combination with maximum capsule yield (84.9 percent).The coacervates were stable for 4 months at 450C. Several tests such as colour, odor, visual inspection, pH, wetting time, % of solid contents, foam volume and stability, surface tension were performed to determine the physicochemical properties of prepared shampoo. The formulated shampoo has shown the better foaming productivity and the wetting effect of shampoo was taken 183 sec and all properties are within the standard limit of shampoos, which indicates its proper quality compared to other shampoos in market. Based on all the data, a good quality of shampoo can be formulated and can be introduced in the market.