Monoolein based liquid crystals to form long-term stable emulsions

In recent investigations of multicomponent systems it has been observed that, as almost a general rule, very stable emulsions can be obtained whenever a hydrophobic or a hydrophilic ‘solute’ is dispersed in a liquid crystalline matrix. Some examples are presented. Long-term stable w/o emulsions were prepared by dispersing water in the lamellar and reverse hexagonal phases formed by monoolein-based systems. All these three-phase emulsions (water, reverse hexagonal and lamellar liquid crystals) resulted kinetically stable, provided that the water solute was added gradually to a previously formed liquid crystalline phase.