Physicochemical characterization and evaluation of a microemulsion system for antimicrobial activity of glycerol monolaurate

The purpose of this study was to improve the depression, enhance the bioavailability, hence strengthen the antimicrobial ability of poorly water-soluble glycerol monolaurate (GML) by loading it in microemulsion system. Microemulsions were prepared with GML as oil, tweens as surfactant, and medium-and-short chain alcohols at different ratio as cosurfactants. The effect of the ratio of surfactant to cosurfactant on the stability of microemulsion was tested. And the effect of the composition and ratio of cosurfactant and the effect of potassium sorbate dissolved in water at different concentration on the area of O/W microemulsion region in pseudo-ternary phase diagrams were also investigated. The results showed that the microemulsion is most stable when the ratio of surfactant to cosurfactant was 3:2, the suitable cosurfactant is pentanol to dodecane at 2:1, the area of O/W microemulsion region in pseudo-ternary phase diagram increased with increasing content of potassium sorbate. The conclusion of this study was that GML loaded in microemulsion had much higher anti-microbial activity than GML alone.