Oil-in-water (O/W) emulsionable concentrate of ishpink (Ocotea quixos) with thermodynamic stability

Abstract

Ecuador has a vast number of native species with fungicidal, herbicidal, and insecticidal properties, of which several have been studied; however, few plant species have been applied for the development of commercial products. Ocotea quixos is an indigenous plant of the Ecuadorian Amazon that has fungicidal properties. In this work, we focus on developing an emulsifiable concentrate that is physically stable for use in the agricultural industry. The study aimed to determine the appropriate formulation to prepare an emulsifiable concentrate with thermodynamic stability. For the formulation, we used Ocotea quixos essential oil with cinnamaldehyde as an active ingredient, with solvesso 100 as the solvent, two non-ionic emulsifiers (Span-20 and Tween-20), and calcium phenyl sulfonate as an anionic emulsifier to obtain a stable product. The results showed that the OC5C emulsifiable concentrate has the best stability characteristics with the hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) within the range of 14 to 16 at room temperature as well as at high and low temperature with a drop size between 3 and 4 μm.