Abstract
Physicochemical properties of β-glycyrrhizin (β-G, a triterpenoid saponin) and α-glycyrrhizin (α-G, a stereoisomer of β-G, newly developed in this study) were examined in connection with cosmetics.
Both α- and β-G's exhibited similarly considerable interfacial activity. However, the aqueous solution of β-G formed extremely rigid gel in acidic media, whereas α-G showed no sign of gelation.
β-G can emulsify various oily materials lying in a wide range of required HLB value, while α-G has the solubilizing ability for several perfume materials.
A series of experiments were carried out to obtain some informations on the solubilizing, emulsifying, and gelling mechanisms of G's by using 13C-NMR, scanning electron microscope and various derivatives of G's.
The results suggested that β-G molecule which was found to be cyclically constructed constitutes the micells which in turn orient anisotropically to form the rigid gel and stabilize the emulsion.
