HERBAL COSMETICS

UNIT 3
Herbal Cosmetics
Herbal Excipients
Herbal Formulation

PREPARED BY : POOJA MISTRY

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 INTRODUCTION:
 Excipients/ Pharmaceutical aids are the substances which are inert and
have little or no therapeutic value, but are essential in the manufacture
of various pharmaceutical dosage forms such as tablets, capsules, syrups,
etc…
 Excipients are mixed with the active ingredients to make up the volume
or improve the stability or mask the bitter taste or improve the
appearance, odour and other characteristics of the dosage forms.
 Binding agents, suspending agents, viscosity builders, disintegrating
agents, etc also constitute pharmaceutical excipients/ aids
Advantages/ significance of herbal excipients
1) Biodegradable: Naturally occurring substances show no adverse effects on the environment
or other living beings and they are easily biodegradable.
2) Biocompatible and nontoxic
 Most of the herbal excipients are carbohydrates in nature.
 They are compatible and non toxic with most of the ingredients.

3) Economic
 Herbal excipients are cheaper and their cost of production is comparatively lesser.
4) Safe and free from side effects
 Naturally occurring excipients are safer and without any side effects.
5) Easily available
 Natural excipients are produced in most of the countries, hence easilyavailable
Disadvantages of herbal excipients
1) Microbial contamination: During production, herbs are exposed to external
environment hence there are Chances of microbial contamination.
2) Biochemical variation: Variation in the quality of product may occur due to
various environmental factors.
3) Uncontrolled rate of hydration: This occurs due to biochemical variation and
difference in the quality of materials from one batch to another.
4) Heavy metal contamination: Herbs are always associated with the rick of heavy metal
contamination
 COLORANTS
 Colorants are the extremely coloured substances which provide the colour to the
pharmaceutical finished products.
 The coloured compounds are known as chromogen and bear chromophore group
and/or auxo chrome capable of absorbing light in the near UV regions and appears
as coloured substance.
 Herbal colorants are used in herbal drug preparations to make it more acceptable.
attractive, appealing, appetizing and informative.
 The aesthetic appearance of dosage forms can be enhanced by using suitable
colorants. The main categories of dosage form that are colored are: tablets (either
the core itself or the coating), hard or soft gelatin capsules (the capsule shell or
coated beads), oral liquids, topical creams, toothpaste, ointments and salves.
 The elegance and eye appeal of a colored product is valuable, especially for
children whom it is often used to treat with syrups, tablets or capsules, to avoid
injections.
1)Henna: It consists of dried leaves of Lawsonia inermis
 Family: Lythraceae.
 Chemical constituents:
 Henna contains lawsone as its chief constituent, Other constituents includephenols,
coumarins, flavonoids and tannins.
 Uses: Colouring agent.

2) Amaranth: It consists of flowers of Amaranthus hypochondriacus and other species of

Amaranthus
 Family: Amaranthaceae
 Chemical constituents:
 It contains polyphenols, vitamins and flavonoids.
 Uses: Dyeing agent
 SWEETENERS
 A sweetener is a substance added to food to give it the basic taste of
sweetness. The term most commonly refers to a sugar substitute.
 Sweetening agents either gives sweet taste or enhances the perception of
sweet taste.
 Sweeteners of plant origin are the non-saccharide herbal sweetening agents
which are low caloric, nontoxic and super sweet i.e. 100 to 10,000 times
sweeter than sugar.
 Herbal sweeteners are useful sugar substitutes for diabetic patients. The
active sweet principles stored in plants can be grouped under terpenoids,
steroidal saponins, dihydroisocoumarins, dihydrochalcones, proteins,
polyols, volatile oils, etc. in nature.
 The sweeteners may be Nutritive sweeteners and Non-nutritive
sweeteners.

 Nutritive sweeteners are caloric sweeteners or sugars: They provide the

body with calories by yielding around 4 kcal/g of energy. They are easily
metabolized. Examples: Fructose, High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS),
Sorbitol, Mannitol.

 Non-nutritive sweeteners are zero- or low-calorie sweeteners: They are

alternatives to nutritive sweeteners. They have very low calories or contain
no calories at all and therefore is the first choice of dieticians and health-
conscious person. Examples: Stevievoside, Glycyrrhizin etc.
Stevia:
 It consists of the plant Stevia rebaudiana
 Family: Compositae.
 Chemical constituents:
 It contains stevioside, rebaudioside, steviol
 Uses:
 Sweetening agent
 BINDING AGENTS(BINDERS)

 Binders are the agents employed to impart cohesiveness to the granules. This
ensures the tablet remains intact after compression.

 Natural binders are the herbal materials like natural polymers which are added to
tablet formulation to impart plasticity and thus strength within the tablet
increase the inter-particulate bonding strength within the tablet.
Properties:
 Binders have a high compressive strength but low tensile strength.
 Binders are hydrophilic and most times soluble in water.
 They are needed to be covered with fibrous material if tension and shear forces
will be applied.
Advantages:
 Natural binders are less toxic, biodegradable, easily available and economic
 They also modify the release of drug and thus influences the absorption and
subsequent bioavailability of the incorporated drug.
 Increases stability, precision and accuracy of the dosage form
 They also improve the organoleptic properties of the drugs wherever necessary to
enhance patient adherence.
Disadvantages:
 Natural binders occasionally leads to tablet hardening and a decrease in dissolution
performance.
 When polymer binders are chosen, the addition of strong disintegrants is typically
required but these are considerably expensive and have a negative effect on product
stability as well as film coating appearance of the finished products.
1) Acacia: It is the dried gummy exudation obtained from the stems and branches of AcaciaArabica
 Family: Leguminosae.
 Chemical constituents:
 It contains sugars like arabinose, galactose, rhamnose and glyceronic acid.
 Uses: Acacia is used as binding agent, suspending agent, emulsifying agent andViscosity
builder
2) Gelatin: It is a protein obtained by partial hydrolysis of animal connective tissue like boneskin,
tendons and ligaments.
 Chemical constituents:
 Gelatin chemically contains amino acids like glycine, alanine, glutamic acid,
proline, argginine, aspartic acid, leucine, isoleucine.
 Uses: Binding agent, thickening agent, emulsifying agent, in the manufacture ofcapsules.
 DILUENTS
 Diluents, also called as fillers, are the heterogeneous group of substances, designed to
make up the required bulk of the tablet or capsules when the drug dosage itself is
inadequate to produce the bulk.
 Diluents are often added to tablet formulations for secondary reasons like to provide
better tablet properties such as to provide improved cohesion, allow direct
compression manufacturing, enhances flow property and adjust the weight of
tablet as per the capacity.
Properties:
 Diluents must be inert, stable, should not affect the bioavailability of API, non-toxic,
non-hygroscopic, economical, compactible, preferably tasteless and odorless or
with a pleasant taste and acceptable odor.
Advantages:
 They should neither support microbiological growth in the dosage form nor contribute to
any microbiological load.
 They should neither adversely affect the dissolution of the product nor interfere with the
bioavailability of active pharmaceutical ingredient.
 Preferably the diluents should be colorless or almost so.
Disadvantages:
 Diluents should not react with the drug substance and moreover it should not have any
effect on the functions of other excipients.
 The diluents should not have any physiological or pharma-cological activity of its own.
The consistent physical and chemical characteristics of the diluents are required.
 They should neither promote nor contribute to segregation of the granulation or powder
blend to which they are added.
 They should able to be milled (size reduced) if necessary to match the particle size
distribution of the active pharmaceutical ingredient.
 Examples: Water-soluble diluents-Lactose, sucrose, mannitol, sorbitol etc.
1) Lactose: It is a natural disaccharide obtained from milk.
 Chemical constituents: It contains sugars galactose and glucose.

 Uses: Diluent in tablets and capsules.

2) Mannitol: It is a saccharine exudation from the stems of Fraxinus ornus,

 Family: Oleaceae.

 Chemical constituents:

 It is a white, crystalline, odorless, non hygroscopic sweet powder.

 It is freely soluble in water and insoluble in alcohol

 Used: Sweetening anger and diluents.

3) Starch: It consists of polysaccharide granules obtained from the grains of maize, rice,
wheat potatoes.
 Chemical constituents:

 It contains water soluble amylase and water Insoluble amylopectin, which

swells and is responsible for gelatinizing properly of starch.

 Uses: It is used as binding agent, disintegrating agent and diluent
 VISCOSITY BUILDERS

 These are substances which are added to the mixture to increase the viscosity of
dosage form to provide or to improve palatability or pour ability without
substantially modifying its other properties, such as taste.

Properties:

 Viscosity builders should produce a structured vehicle.

 They should have high viscosity at negligible shear during storage and low viscosity
at high shearing rates during pouring.

 They should be nontoxic and compatible with other excipients.

 Viscosity should not be altered by temperature or on ageing.

Advantages:

 High viscosity inhibits the crystal growth, enhances physical stability.

 High viscosity prevents the transformation of metastable crystal to stable

crystal.

Disadvantages:

 High viscosity retards the absorption of the drug.

 High viscosity creates problems in the handling of the material during

manufacturing.

Ex: Acacia, Tragacanth, Guar gum etc

1) Tragacanth: It is the dried exudation obtained from the stem and branches of Astragalus
gummifer
 Family: Leguminosae.
 Chemical constituents:
 It contains gums, tragacanthin and bassorin.
 Uses: Binding agent and Viscosity builder

2) Guar gum: It is the ground endosperm of seeds of Cyamopsis tetragonlobus,

 Family: Leguminosae
 Chemical constituents:
 It contains 85% guran, galactose, mannose .
 Uses: Binding agent, disintegrating agent, suspending agent and emulsifying agent
 DISINTEGRANTS
They are agents added to tablet and some encapsulated formulations to promote
the break up of tablet and capsule slugs into smaller fragments in an aqueous
environment thereby increasing the available surface area and promoting a more
rapid release of the drug substance.
Properties: An ideal disintegrant should have poor solubility and poor gel-
forming ability.
They must be easily hydrated, non-toxic, easily available at low cost, used in low
concentration and are naturally extracted.
Advantages: Natural disintegrants are that they are effective in lower
concentrations and have less effect on compressibility and flowability.
Disadvantages: Few properties of disintegrants make their use restricted. As they
are more hygroscopic they may create a problem with moisture-sensitive drugs.
Ex: Starch, Gums, Mucilages ,Aloe vera, Fenugreek seed mucilage, Alginate, etc.
Starch
 It consists of polysaccharide granules obtained from the grains of maize, rice,
wheat potatoes.
 Chemical constituents:
 It contains water soluble amylase and water Insoluble amylopectin, which
swells and is responsible for gelatinizing properly of starch.
 Uses:
 It is used as binding agent, disintegrating agent and diluent
 FLAVORS
The term "flavor" refers to the combination of taste, aroma, mouth feel and
texture.
Flavors or flavours are the sensory impression of food or other substances and is
determined primarily by the chemical senses of taste and smell.
A flavorant/flavouring agent is defined as a substance that gives flavor to another
substance by altering the characteristics of the solute, causing it to become
sweet, sour, tangy, etc.
Types of flavorants:
1) Natural flavorants: Obtained from plant or animal raw materials by physical,
microbiological processes.
2) Nature-identical flavorants: Obtained by synthesis or isolated through chemical
processes.
3) Artificial flavorants: These are not identify in natural product intended for human
consumption, whether or not product is processed.
1) Cardamom oil: It is a volatile oil distilled from the seeds of Elettaria cardamomum,
 Family: Zingiberaceae.
 Chemical constituents:
 It contains cineol, alpha terpinyl acetate, terpeneol, borneol and sabinene.
 Uses: Used as a flavoring agent.

2) Orange oil: It is a volatile oil obtained by expression from fresh peels of the ripe
fruits of Citrus limonis,
 Family: Rutaceae.
 Chemical constituents:
 Orange oil contains limonene, citral, citronellal.
 Uses: Used as a flavouring agent
 PERFUMES

Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds,

fixatives and solvents, used to give aroma to the perfume compositions.

These compositions usually include an active ingredient or enhancer and one or

more adjuvants such as extenders, fixatives, antioxidants, etc.

Ex: Rose, Jasmine, Cinnamon, citrus fruits, cherries, Lavender leaf etc
1) Sandalwood oil: It is the volatile oil obtained by steam distillation of heart Wood of
Santalum album,
 Family: Santalaceae.
 Chemical constituents:
 It contains sesquiterpene alcohol namely alpha and beta-santalol.
 Uses: Used in perfumery industry.
2) Rose oil: It is a volatile oil distilled from fresh flowers of Rosa gallica and other rose
species
 Family: Rosaceae.
 Chemical constituents:
 Rose oil contains linalool, nerol, citronellal and geraniol
 Uses: Used in perfumes and flavouring agent.