Effect of African Catfish Mucilage Concentration on Stability of Nanoemulsion Using D-Optimal Mixture Design

Abstract

Nanoemulsions are alternative means of incorporating functional components into systems. This research aims to model the effect of African catfish mucilage (ACM) concentrations on the particle size (PS) of stable oil-in-water (O/W) nanoemulsions formulated by ultrasonication. A D-optimal mixture design was used to study the influence of three mixture components (MCs) ACM, oil, and water on PS. Morphology and PS were determined with Cryo-TEM and Zetasizer. Findings show that the higher the ACM–emulsifier oil ratio, the higher the nanoemulsion stability as depicted by lower PS. ACM concentration was the factor that had the most dominant effect on the dependent variable (DV) PS. Morphology studies revealed that structural stability was a result of ACM which encapsulated the nanoemulsion by mucoadhesion. The model’s lack of fit (F [0.17, 0.11] = 0.3104; p = 1.49) was not significant, and the predicted R-squared value was 0.9977 and adequate precision was 104.158 indicating a model with adequate goodness-of-fit. The model was adequate to determine the effects of the three MCs on the precise stability parameter for the investigated dependent variable particle size. Therefore, ACM could be used as a natural stabilizer in oil-in-water nanoemulsions that are applicable in biomedical and personal care industries.