Acetaminophen Extraction Study using Vegetable Oil-Based Emulsion Liquid Membrane: the juxtaposition of carrier and internal phase

Extraction of Acetaminophen (ACTP) using vegetable oils-based emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) was investigated. ELM consists of membrane and internal phases that form the primary water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion by using an ultrasonic probe while the external phase consists of an ACTP aqueous solution. In promoting a greener development, vegetable oil was incorporated in the formulation of ELM, replacing the hazardous conventional petroleum derivatives diluent. The potential of vegetable oil-based solvent was confirmed via a compatibility study with the carrier and surfactant whereby sunflower oil showed an auspicious potential to be employed as a diluent in ELM formulation. The effect of emulsion formulation parameters of the vegetable oil-based ELM was investigated to obtain its best formulation, by taking into consideration the ACTP extraction efficiency. The extraction study carried out using Trioctylamine (TOA) & Aliquat 336 as carrier and ammonia & sodium chloride (NaCl) as internals phase were compared. The parameters involved are emulsification time, extraction time, and the stirring speed was investigated. These works demonstrated that the ELM system was competent to successfully expel 97.73% of ACTP from aqueous solutions under optimum conditions.