Increasing the stability of incense gum extract (Styrax benzoin) with a mixture of surfactants.

Abstract

Styrax benzoin is a type of incense produced in North Tapanuli, Indonesia. The content of metabolite compounds provides wide use in pharmaceuticals. The occurrence of deposits in the extract makes this preparation unstable; this instability creates problems, especially in the concentration of the extract and is impractical so it needs to be redissolved. The method of using surfactants can be used as a suspending agent, a mixture of two types of surfactants gives variations in hydrophilic and lipophilic balance (HLB), by finding the optimum HLB value to create optimum solution stability and organoleptic, various mixture ratios were carried out with test parameters such as organoleptic, pH, viscosity, particle size, and components of chemical compounds. The results show that the optimum HLB of S. benzoin is 12.7 in surfactants Tween 80 and Span 80.