Short Communication Volume 4 Issue 5 - December 2017 DOI: 10.19080/OMCIJ.2017.04.555646 Organic & Medicinal Chem IJ Copyright © All rights are reserved by Anju R Gupta Aerosol-Ot Stabilized Micro and Nano-Scale Emulsions for Pharmaceutical Formulations Poornima Kalyanram 1 , Patricia Valenzuela 2 and Anju R Gupta 3 1 Soft Nanomaterials Lab, Kate Gleason College of Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA 2 Design Drafting - Gas Engineering, Southern California Gas Company, the Gas Company Tower, USA 3 Soft Nanomaterials Lab, Department of Chemical Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA Submission: December 15, 2017; Published: December 18, 2017 * Corresponding author: Anju R Gupta, Department of Chemical Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology, 160 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, New York, 14623, USA, Tel: ; Email: Introduction Emulsions of micro and nano sizes are used in topical applications for their increased bioavailability [1,2]. The smaller size of the droplets provides more surface area resulting in greater absorption of the pharmaceutical on the epidermal layer [3,4]. Aerosol-OT (AOT) is an anionic surfactant and is widely used as a stabilizer to form oil and water emulsions [5,6]. Due to its biocompatibility, AOT is also used in drug delivery and oral formulations and for the treatment of chronic constipation [7-12]. The objective of this work is to form stable micro and nano-scale emulsions which can potentially be used for drug delivery and pharmaceutical applications. We used octane (C8) and hexadecane (C16) as model organic phases to a) mimic the mineral oil which is also used as a laxative lubricant and b) demonstrate the ability of AOT to emulsify organics of different molecular weights [13]. Many emulsions based studies reported in the literature have used ethanol to stimulate the formation of the emulsion droplets by reducing the surface tension of water. Here, we report the formation of stable emulsions in the absence of ethanol, which is highly desirable in drug delivery and pharmaceutical applications. The resultant emulsions were prepared with equal ratios (by weight) of oil to deionized water. AOT constituted 60% by weight of the dispersant and was added to octane and hexadecane in the presence and absence of ethanol. Two different oil to water ratios-1:10 and 1:1 were tested. The formation of emulsions droplets, their size and stability were recorded by viewing them under an optical microscope for three weeks. The presence of emulsified phase in the vials were also visually inspected and reported through photographs in Figures 1 & 2. Table 1 summarizes the experimental test parameters such as oil/water ratio, type of oil (organic phase) used, and the resultant droplet size on Day 1 and Day 21 of the study. Table 1: Experimental Matrix, Formulation Name and Size. Oil Used Ratio of Oil to Water Presence of Ethanol Droplet Size (Day 1) Droplet Size (Day 21) Octane 1:1 Yes 48 nm 46 nm 1:1 No 158 nm 90nm Hexadecane 1:1 Yes 6.95µm 7µm 1:1 No 7.5µm 8.8µm Organic & Medicinal Chem IJ 4(5): OMCIJ.MS.ID.555646 (2017) 001 Organic and Medicinal Chemistry International Journal ISSN 2474-7610 Abstract In this work we present the formation of micro- and nano-scale oil and water emulsion droplets stabilized by an anionic surfactant, Aerosol-OT. The stabilizing effects of AOT were tested with high and low molecular organic phase (oil), and in the presence and absence of ethanol acting as a co-solvent and emulsion enhancer. The key findings of this work are formation of - a) Nano emulsions with lower molecular weight alkanes as the organic phase, b) Micro emulsions in with higher molecular weight organic phase, c) Stable emulsions over a period of 3 weeks in the absence of alcohol. Keywords : Emulsions; Pharmaceuticals; Aerosol-OT; Octane; Hexadecane