Irradiated lanoline as a prospective substance for biomedical applications: A spectroscopic and thermal study

Refined wool wax products, such as lanoline and lanoline derivatives are key ingredients in some of the ointments, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, waterproof coatings and other products. Beneficial medicinal effects along with melting point near normal human body temperature designated lanoline to be used in pharmacotherapy and medical treatments. Since the general requirements for sterility of medicinal substances are very strict, especially in cases of skin contact, radiation technologies represent a valuable tool to sterilize the materials for medicinal purposes. In this work, lanoline was irradiated with accelerated electron beam in air within 0-400 kG dose to simulate sterilization for medical purposes. The irradiated lanoline showed considerable fluctuation of chemical structure. The most significant fluctuation was observed for etheric species, followed by ethylene sequences with n<4. While primary and secondary alcohols, as well as epoxides species, decreased below the initial concentration within whole range of the doses, aliphatic esters and ethylene sequences (CH2)n with n≥4 indicated the most stable species. A trace amount of organic-in origin radicals was observed and that increased slightly with dose. Depending on dose, the melting temperature varied from 39.7 to 45.7 °C and the highest values were reached for 25 kGy and 156 kGy. For these same doses the highest thermal stability was also observed and, simultaneously the thermal stability was related inversely to the destruction rate. We propose, that the chemical transformation of lanoline within 0-25 kGy dose should be tested for prospective medical purposes as well as for the need to eliminate remaining outlasting organic-in-origin radicals which were detected in the lanoline even one year after the irradiation.