Formulation and Antibacterial Activity Test of Emulgel Containing

Citronella Oil (Cymbopogon Nardus L.) with Variaton of Gelling

Agent Carbomer

Dian Ermawati

, Raditya Weka Nugraheni, Nia Zuardina, Meilya Hayyu Saputri

Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Science, University of Muhammadiyah Malang, Indonesia, Jalan

Bendungan Sutami 188A, Malang 65145, East Java, Indonesia.

Keywords: Antibacterial, Carbomer, Citronella Oil, Emulgel

Abstract: Citronella oil is the most volatile oil against Propionibacterium acnes. An emulgel preparation is made on a

carbomer base because it has better release properties of the active substance compared to other bases. The

research purpose was to determine the emulgel variation with carbomer base 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%

containing 2% Citronella Oil (Cymbopogon nardus L.) on the physical, chemical characteristic and the

inhibition of Propionibacterium acnes bacteria growth. Emulgel with carbomer base made 3 formulations,

namely F1 (0.5%), F2 (1%), and F3 (1.5%) with citronella oil content of 2%. The physical characteristics of

the organoleptic, viscosity, homogeneity, dispersal, emulsion type, pH and stability (real time and freeze

thaw) tests were performed. Antibacterial testing using the Agar Well Diffusion method. The organoleptic

tests on FI (0.5%), FII (1%), and FIII (1.5%) were soft, white and has lemongrass odor. The results of one

way Anova statistic showed that there were not significantly different for pH, dispersion, stability (freeze

thaw and real time). The viscosity test was significantly different. The diameter of the inhibition zone of each

formula has a mean of formula 1 was 12.65 mm formula 2 was 11.58 mm, and formula 3 was 10.25 mm. The

conclusion of this experimentally is the effect of variations in emulgel based on 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%

carbomers containing 2% Citronella Oil on the growth of Propionibacterium acnes bacteria has significant

difference which means that increasing carbomer levels it can significantly reduce the zone of antibacterial

inhibition.

1 INTRODUCTION

Acne or acne vulgaris is a dermatological disease that

affects about 80-85% of adolescents globally. Acne is

triggered by some species of skin flora such as

Propionibacterium acnes and Staphylococcus aureus

which are gram-positive bacillus bacteria found in

human skin microbiota (Lynn et al., 2016; Ishimura

et al., 2018). In people who do not get acne levels of

linoleic acid (LA) in sebum and sphingolipid levels in

the stratum corneum is higher than in patients with

acne (Jin and Lee, 2018).

In the treatment of acne until now, still using

antibiotic therapy, which is commonly used is

clindamycin because it is considered very useful for

treating microbial infections even though it only

lasted a few decades. The weakness of this antibiotic

that is antibiotic resistant can be transmitted between

individuals because the bacterium Propioni-

bacterium acnes can be resistant at certain times (Liu

et al., 2014; Walsh, Efthimiou and Dréno, 2016;

Yang et al., 2018). So it is necessary to replace active

ingredients that function as new antibiotics (Faleiro

and Miguel, 2013; Yang et al., 2018).

Lemongrass comes from the Poaceae family,

which has pharmacological potential for medicinal

plants. Studies show that citronella has antiviral,

antibacterial and antifungal activities. The main

chemical elements are Oxygen containing

monoterpenes, citronellal, geraniol, geranial,

citronellol and neral (Lertsatitthanakorn et al., 2010;

Shah et al., 2011; De Toledo et al., 2016).

Cymbopogon nardus oil (Citronella oil) is the

most active oil against Propionibacterium acnes that

has (MIC 0.005-0.3 ߤL / mL) (MBC 0.625 ߤL / mL)

(Sarlina, Razak and Tandah, 2017). The main target

of lemongrass oil is destroying bacterial cell walls

and damaging bacterial intracellular material that can

Ermawati, D., Nugraheni, R., Zuardina, N. and Saputri, M.

Formulation and Antibacterial Activity Test of Emulgel Containing Citronella Oil (Cymbopogon Nardus L.) with Variaton of Gelling Agent Carbomer.

DOI: 10.5220/0009130302230227

In Proceedings of the 2nd Health Science International Conference (HSIC 2019), pages 223-227

ISBN: 978-989-758-462-6

223

cause bacterial death Propionibacterium acnes (Bota,

Martosupono and Rondonuwu, 2015). Gel dosage

forms are better used in the treatment of acne

compared to cream dosage forms because this is a gel

preparation with polar solvents that is easier to clean

from the surface after being used and does not contain

oils that can increase the severity of acne (Anggraini,

Rahmawati and Hafsah, 2013; Garg, Rath and Goyal,

2015).

The purpose of this study was to determine the

variation of emulgel with a carbomer base of 0.5%,

1.0%, and 1.5% containing 2% Citronella Oil to the

growth of Propionibacterium acnes bacteria in vitro.

2 METHODS

Materials

The research materials used are Citronella oil,

Carbomer, Sorbitan Monolaurate, Polysorbate 80,

Propylene glycol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben,

BHT, Aquadest (PT. Bratacho), and Triethanolamine

from (CV. Jayarindo Pratama), Propionibacterium

acnes bacteria and positive control of clindamycin gel

were obtained from the Microbiology Laboratory

Research Center of FKG Airlangga for testing the

activity of emulgel citronella oil.

Methods

The process of making an antibacterial type emulgel

(m / a) begins by developing a carbomer added with

heated aqua dest ad at a temperature of 700C in the

wait and waiting for the ad to expand and adding

Triethanolamine as an Alkalizing Agent ad reaching

a pH of 7, then carried out by mixing the entire oil

phase, namely: Propylparaben, Toluene Hydroxy

Butyl, Sorbitan Monolaurate, done in a glass beaker

(1) then mixed with the water phase, namely:

Methylparaben, Polysorbate 80, Propilengikol, and

water. The materials were melted using water bath

into one phase at 70C. After that, an emulsion was

made by mixing the oil phase into the water phase and

stirred homogeneously. Nearly at the end of the

emulsification process, the lemongrass oil added and

stirred homogeneously. The emulsion mixture has

formed mixed into a gelling agent (carbomer). After

the emulgel is formed, it is placed in a container that

has been prepared and ready for testing (Razak et al.,

2017).

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Organoleptic test results showed the characteristics of

white preparations, soft texture, and the distinctive

aroma of citronella oil. Physically, the emulgel

preparations appear homogeneous and free from

lumps of insoluble particles.

Table 1: Formulation of Citronella oil emulgel

Materials Function

Kontrol -

(%)

Citronella Oil Active Ingredients - 2,0 2,0 2,0

Carbomer Gelling agent 0,5 0,5 1,0 1,5

Triethanolamine (TEA) Alkalizing Agent q.s q.s q.s q.s

Sorbitan Monolaurate (Span 20) Surfactants 2,34 2,34 2,34 2,34

Polysorbate 80 (Tween 80) Surfactants 2,66 2,66 2,66 2,66

Propylenglycol Humectant 5 5 5 5

Methyl paraben (Nipagin) Preservatives 0,1 0,1 0,1 0,1

Propyl Paraben (Nipasol) Preservatives 0,1 0,1 0,1 0,1

Butyl Hidroxy-toluene (BHT) Antioxidants 0,03 0,03 0,03 0,03

Purified Water Solvent Ad 100 Ad 100 Ad 100 Ad 100

Figure 1: The appearance of the emulgel preparation

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Citronella oil gives good results in the antibacterial

activity test of Propionibacterium acnes (Figure 2). It

can be seen from the figures that show that an increase

in the volume of citronella oil causes an increase in

the inhibition zone. Based on the results of the

antibacterial test of Citronella oil, the diameter at K +

is 19.00, 1 µl 7.00 5 µl 9.00 10 µl 11.00, this proves

that Citronella oil has antibacterial activity.

The results of measuring the diameter of the

emulgel inhibition zone carried out three times of

replication. The representative of the outcome, as

shown in figure 3 Based on the results of the

Citronella oil emulgel test, it was found that the

diameter of the positive control inhibition zone was

15.75 mm, formula 1 was 12.80 mm, formula 2 was

11.80 and formula 3 which is 10.40. The second

replication results showed that there is a positive

control of 15.80 mm, formula 1 is 12.55 mm, formula

2 is 11.40 mm, and formula 3 is 10.20 mm, the third

replication results are positive control namely 11.60

mm, formula 1 is 11.60 mm, formula 2 is 12.60 mm

and formula 3 is 10.15 mm.

Figure 2: The results of the antibacterial activity test for Citronella oil raw material. K+ was Erythromycin as positive control;

K- without Ctronella oil; I, II, and III contained 1μL, 5μL, 10μL Citronella oil, respectively.

Figure 3: The Results of antibacterial activity amulgel Citronella oil. K+ was clindamycin as positive control; K- without

Citronella oil; F1, F2, and F3 were formulation 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

Formulation and Antibacterial Activity Test of Emulgel Containing Citronella Oil (Cymbopogon Nardus L.) with Variaton of Gelling Agent

Carbomer

225

Table 2: Measurement results of inhibition zone diameter from Citronella oil emulgel

Replication

Inhibition zone diameter (mm)

Kontrol + Formula 1 Formula 2 Formula 3

1 15.75 12.80 11.80 10.40

2 15.80 12.55 11.40 10.20

3 15.60 12.60 11.55 10.15

Average± SD 15.72± 0.10 12.65± 0.13 11.58± 0,20 10.25± 0,13

Figure 4: Histogram of inhibition zone diameter from Citronella oil emulgel

Anova One-Way Test Results, showed a significance

value of 0,000 which means less than 0.05 (p <0.05)

so it can be said that there are significant differences

between variations in carbomer levels of 0.5%, 1.0%,

1.5 % containing Citronella Oil 2% on the growth of

Propionibacterium acnes bacteria in vitro, so it was

continued with the Honestly Significant Difference

(HSD) test to find out which data were different.

Honestly Significant Difference Test (HSD)

(Tukey HSD) shows a significance value of 0,000

which means less than 0.05 (p <0.05 and the results

obtained between formula 1 and formula 2 there is a

significant difference (p = 0,000) between formula 1

and formula 3 there is a significant difference (p =

0,000) between formula 2 and formula 3 there is a

significant difference (p = 0,000) so it can be

concluded that there is a significant difference

between variations in carbomer levels of 0.5%, 1.0%,

1.5% containing Citronella Oil (Cymbopogon nardus

L.) 2% on Propionibacterium acnes bacterial growth

in vitro due to the increase in carbomer levels

resulting in a decrease in inhibition zone diameter.

4 CONCLUSION

Based on the results of this study it can be concluded

that the effect of variations of emulgel with a

carbomer base of 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5% containing

Citronella Oil 2% on the inhibition of

Propionibacterium acnes bacteria there is a

significant difference which means the higher levels

of carbomer can significantly reduce the diameter of

the inhibition zone

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Carbomer

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