Desenvolvimento e estudo de estabilidade de pomada contendo extrato de própolis vermelha

Abstract

Red propolis is a bee product and its therapeutic potential has aroused increasing interest in the scientific community and the pharmaceutical industry due to its unique chemical composition and bioactives that can be explored as a natural and effective alternative to traditional medicines. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop an ointment with red propolis extract and evaluate the performance of the developed formulation through stability studies (centrifugation, preliminary and accelerated). The cosmetic matrix adopted was the formulation adapted from Barros et al. (2010) and ointments with 3% and 5% of active ingredient were formulated (corresponding to final concentrations of 2.1 mg/mL and 3.5 mg/mL of red propolis). Both ointments remained stable during the centrifugation test. During the preliminary test, there was phase separation in the 5% ointment. Therefore, only the 3% ointment was submitted to the accelerated stability test and obtained positive results regarding maintenance of pH and organoleptic characteristics, without phase separation, and was sent to the accelerated stability test. During the accelerated stability test, most of the 3% ointments maintained their organoleptic and pH characteristics (between 5.5 and 7.5), with the exception of the ointments submitted to light conditions (C1 and A1), which presented pH below 5.5 and changes in appearance and color. It was not possible to evaluate microbiologically due to an error in the experimental procedure and therefore, despite the other positive results, the 3% EPV ointment cannot be considered stable. It was concluded that due to the error in the experimental procedure during the microbiological tests, the ideal would be to redo the accelerated stability test to have more robust results regarding the stability of this extract.