Facile Synthesis of Antimicrobial Aloe Vera for Cosmetic Application

Abstract

People have always been interested in cosmetic products especially when it uses only natural substances that could act as antibacterial resistance such as Aloe Vera (AV) gel that could be easily extracted from aloe vera leaves. Although pure AV gel alone provides many cosmetic applications and benefits including anti-inflammatory effect, the efficiency for antimicrobial purposes of the pure AV gel is less compared to AV gel with an addition of bioactive substances. Normally, the ingredients made for cosmetic applications consist of non-organics or chemicals that could harm the human’s skin barrier. Thus, this study aims to analyse the antimicrobial properties of local AV and to optimize the antimicrobial properties of AV for the production of antimicrobial AV for cosmetic application. The AV leaves was harvested from a residential area in Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Then, the antimicrobial properties of AV were analysed by characterization of AV complex using a Scanning UV-Vis Spectrophotometry followed by the culturing with microbial strains of Staphylococcus Aureus and Escherichia Coli used against AV mixture. AV was mixed with active ingredients such as Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), Iodine (I2) and Sodium Iodide (NaI). The determination of antimicrobial properties was done by using two approaches of disc diffusion and zone inhibition. An image of chromatogram for pure AV, AV-PVP-I2, AV-PVP-NaI and AV-PVP-I2-NaI mixture after characterization and the diameter of zone inhibition were measured. The biggest inhibition zone can be seen for AV-PVP-I2 samples at a concentration of 50 ug/mL that tested against Staphylococcus Aureus gives a diameter of 21 mm. The smallest inhibition zone can be seen for AV-PVP-I2-NaI samples at a concentration of 25 ug/mL that tested against Escherichia Coli gives a diameter of 5.6 mm. The future prospect of antimicrobial AV research will widen the use of AV, improving the extraction method of AV and enhancing environment safety for product applications.