Palm oil-based microemulsion stabilised by non-ionic surfactants

Abstract

There are growing interests in microemulsions system where the hydrocarbon oils (or mineral oils) have been replaced by the oils derived from natural resources, such as fatty acid esters (FAE), medium chain triglycerides (MCT)and long chain triglycerides (LCT) due to their renewable, biodegradable, nonflammable, harmless to the environment and less or non-toxic to end users. However, palm oil and its derivatives have not yet been used for preparing microemulsions for practical applications. Thus, this study aims at delineating the range of conditions under which the palm oil and its derivatives such as palm fatty acid methyl esters or palm oil methyl esters (PFAME or POME), palm kernel-medium chain triglycerides (PK-MCT) and palm olein (P.OIein) form microemulsions with non-ionic surfactants system.