Hi there! I want to dissolve curcumin in vegetable oil and make an emulsion but I am getting sedimentation at the bottom. How can I get rid of the sedimentation and dissolve curcumin completely? Should I dissolve curcumin in some other solvent and then in oil? I want to make a food grade emulsion.
Try to dissolve Curcumin first in form of very fine particles in water and prepare then with this aqueous yellow solution a water in oil emulsion using emulsifier with small HLB value
High pressure homogenisation to reduce droplet size as much as possible will help to avoid segregation
Curcumin is an oil-soluble pigment, practically insol
uble in water at acidic and neutral pH, and soluble in
alkali. Preparations of water-soluble curcumin by in
corporation into various surfactant micellar systems
(e.g. sodium dodecyl sulfate, cetylpyridinium brom
ide, gelatine, polysaccharides, polyethylenglycol,
cyclodextrins) have been reported (Humphrey, 1980,
Tonnesen, 2002). In solutions the principal colouring
components of curcumin exhibit keto-enol tautomeris
m and, depending on the solvent, up to 95 percent are
in the enol form
Try dissolving 5mg curcumin with 10-20ml edible oils with stirring for 30 min or better if you have a homogenizer; centrifuge moderately (x4000 rpm with large lab centrifuge) to remove non-dissolved material. Determine dissolved curcumin concentration at 425nm. Dilute the stock curcumin as needed with further oil.
I've discovered that curcumin 95%, typically available in supplement capsules and in bulk is a fine powder that is hydrophobic. The powder floats on water and does not wet. It is however wetted by and slightly soluble in vegetable oil. The attached picture shows what happens when you first put a small amount of curcumin powder in a container and gently pour sunflower oil over it. The oil was originally clear as water, and overnight, the slight yellow-orange color above the powder illustrates a slight solubility. I you stir the powder, it will become homogeneously distributed in the oil and remain suspended, perhaps as a colloid. One might see that and erroneously conclude that the curcumin is dissolved in the oil. I've read that curcumin is soluble in ethanol, so perhaps you can try dissolving oil into a curcumin/ethanol mixture.
To solve the problem of curcumin solubility , add minimum quantity of extra pure ethanol till you get clear solution if necessary warm it little below 50 deg.on water bath.Check whether ethanol is allowed.
This question rates a re-visit. You say you want a food grade emulsion, and if you want to consume that emulsion without making it a part of another recipe, I suggest you put curcumin, water, oil and Lecithin (either dry granules or the sticky syrup) into a blender and blend. You will have to experiment with the proportions. I do this myself, but in a concoction designed to accommodate 50 grams curcumin. I drink this over a period of 8 days, thus consuming 8 grams curcumin as a daily dose.
My complete concoction contains roughly the following (in the order at which I put it in the grinder container):
2 Tbsp Lecithin granules
1 Tbsp Lactobacillus casei
2 - 4 Tbsp Cacao powder, or Maca root powder
1 banana
8 rounded Tbsp pure Curcumin powder
1 - 2 Tbsp Turmeric powder
lots of freshly ground black pepper, or pipperine, if you buy it bulk.
1 Tbsp Olive Oil (or other)
1 - 2 Indian brown sugar (Jaegeri), or Honey
Milk to fill container to max
A key thing here is to keep the oil away from the container walls, which requires a lot of blending to get it to mix in.
Blend until it forms an emulsion, pour it into a quart jar, and rinse the container with fresh milk and add any more milk needed for a drinkable consistency. Store it in the fridge.
These are my suggestions and you can modify greatly.
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