Formulation Of A Herbal Gel Containing Melaleuca Alternifolia And Piper Betle L. Essentail Oil And Evaluation Of Its Antioxidant And Antibacterial

Abstract

In this study, tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia), betel (Piper betle L.) were used as plant materials to create gel formulations with different concentrations to evaluate the antibacterial and antioxidant activity. Moreover, aloe vera was contributed to enhancing moisture and healing properties. Extraction factors such as temperature, period, solvents, etc., affected the extraction yield of sample. The extraction yield of tea tree is 1.47 ± 0.15% and betel is 0.17 ± 0.03%. The GC-MS results indicated that chemical composition of each plant was affected by different locations, environmental factors, conditions of extraction. In tea tree essential oil, 1,8-cineol and terpinen-4-ol are the highest contents (50.29% and 20.97% respectively), while in betel, eugenol, 4-allyl-1,2-diacetoxybenzene, and acetyl eugenol have the highest contents (38.28%, 19.44%, and 16.67% respectively). Antioxidant and antibacterial activity of betel is stronger than tea tree. All parameters of gel formulations such as physical appearance, pH or viscosity are good and tantamount to commercial gels, especially gel formulation F2 (1:2 ratio of tea tree and betel) was shown the greatest effect in both antioxidant (IC50 at 118.70 ± 0.25μg/ml) and antibacterial activity (9.70 ± 0.30 mm against S. aureus and 7.60 ± 0.17 mm against E. coli). The results collected from this study were indicated that herbs and medicinal plants are potential sources of antibacterial and antioxidant capacity and they can be popularly applied in the cosmetic field.