Production of Lip Balm from Natural Dyes

Irmawati Akma Abdul Hapiz

, Jemima Japakumar

, Jivinthiran Jayagobi

, Mohamad Azfar

Jamaluddin

and Sharmila Arumugam

Department of Agrotechnology and Bio-Industry, Nilai Polytechnic, Malaysia

Keywords: Cosmetics,

natural dyes, organics, lip balm, extraction, solvent

Abstract: Recently, demands for natural products increases especially in the cosmetics industries. Lip balm is one of

the widely used cosmetic products whose purpose is to give a colour to the lip as well as prevent lip dryness

and acts as lip treatment. The purpose of this study is to extract natural dyes from five selected plant sources

which are roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa), dragon fruit (Hylocereus costaricensis), beetroot (Beta vulgaris),

betel leaf (Piper betle) and red cabbage (Brassica oleracea) and also to produce a good quality, good colour

consistency and effective dyes in the production of natural lip balm. There are several methods used to extract

the dyes from selected plant which involved different kind of solvent. Results from this study shows that the

best solvent used for all the extraction processes is ethanol compared to methanol and distilled water. It is

proved by the higher yield of extracted dyes that comes from extraction using ethanol as a solvent. The plant

roselle produces 117.6 ml of dyes, soaked dragon fruit produces 300 ml of dyes, for other sources which are

beetroot, red cabbage and betel leaf produces 300 ml, 250 ml and 100 ml respectively. Roselle produce dark

red dyes as appears on lip balm, dragon fruit produces dark purple dyes and turn to pink when mixed with

natural ingredient in lip balm. Whereas, dragon fruit peel produces light pink dyes and appears yellowish on

lip balm. Beetroot produces dark purle dyes, followed by red cabbage produces light purple dyes while in lip

balm it appears purple and betel leaf produces dark green dyes while appears green in lip balm. In addition,

the colour obtained from betel leaf on lip balm is darker compared to dyes produced by roselle, dragon fruits,

beetroot and red cabbage. The lip balm was applied on a piece of paper to check the colour visibility as well

as the consistency of colour which applied on human skin for 10 minutes to check the itchiness or any changes

on the skin. In summary, natural dyes from different plant sources were successfully extracted to produce

high quality of dyes on cosmetic product. This product has higher marketing potential where the production

cost is cheaper and it is considered as organics product.

1 INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, people increasing interest in natural

products, as the public becomes aware of ecological

and environmental effects related to the use of

abundant chemicals in the daily products. Cosmetics

made from natural sources as raw material considered

as organic cosmetics which are believed as safe and

sometimes may act as health cure. Furthermore, no or

mild chemical reactions are involved in the

preparation of the product and it claims as

harmonized with nature. Organic cosmetics refer to

the cosmetics that made by 95% of the raw materials

comes from natural sources, while natural products

contain at least 5% organics raw materials as an

ingredient (Fernandes et al., 2013). One of the main

source of raw materials in cosmetic is dye or

colourant. Natural dyes refer to the colorants

produced from the natural sources such as plant,

animal, insect or minerals. The dyes also can be used

widely in the colouration of textiles, foods, medicine

and craft products as well as in cosmetics. Although,

some processing was required in the process to obtain

the dyes but essentially the dye itself was obtained

from natural sources. The greatest sources of dyes

were been the Kingdom Plantae, notably fruits and

leaves.

Lip balm refers to the formulations that can be

applied onto the lips to prevent drying and protects

lips against adverse environmental factors (Kadu et

al., 2014). There are many established companies

produce lip balm in the market such as The Body

Shop, Nivea, Mentholatum etc which may contains

chemical origin. However, it is necessary to balance

the concentration of the main ingredients to formulate

202

Abdul Hapiz, I., Japakumar, J., Jayagobi, J., Jamaluddin, M. and Arumugam, S.

Production of Lip Balm from Natural Dyes.

DOI: 10.5220/0010040502020206

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of Computer, Environment, Agriculture, Social Science, Health Science, Engineering and Technology (ICEST 2018), pages 202-206

ISBN: 978-989-758-496-1

lip balms including the base, oils, colouring agents

and flavouring agents. Natural lip balms offer a

natural way to maintain and promote healthy lips

(Fernandes et al., 2013). Lip balms are also often

eaten away by the user and it is imperative that the

ingredients are not dangerous to humans on

consumption. There are four main components as key

formulations ingredients for natural lip balm (Kadu et

al., 2014). Basically, waxes are used as base to give

the more stable structure and make it easier to form

desirable shape of lip balm. Oils are required to blend

properly to the waxes, so that provide a suitable film

on the applied lip skin to protect and moisturizes the

lip. Colouring agents or dyes is mainly used to impart

a distinctive appearance to the products. Dye is an

important ingredient of cosmetic formulations as user

desire controlled by three senses namely sight, touch

and smell (Kadu et al., 2014). Dyes used is cosmetic

should not affected by oxidizing or reducing agents

as well as pH changes and it also should not interferes

with the tests and assays. The usage of synthetic dyes

was done commercially for attractive colours but it is

hazardous to skin and environment (Devi et al.,

2013). The natural dyes have not commercially

succeeded as synthetic dyes due to lack of the

botanical knowledge and precise technical

knowledge on the extraction methods and dyeing

procedure (Devi et al., 2013). Flavouring agents is

required to mask the four basic taste sensations

namely salt, bitter, sweet and acid from the other

ingredients. This is optional to give a value added in

the products. In this research, natural dyes from the

plant roselle, dragon fruit, betel leaf, beetroot and red

cabbage was extracted to produce a high quality of

desirable natural dyes mainly because of the quality

of colour that can be created with them.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1 Collection of Plant Materials

Traditionally, the sources used from 5 varieties of dye

yielding plants were collected from different farms in

Malaysia. Firstly, the plant roselle was collected from

two different farms which are located at sek 36 Shah

Alam and the other one is from Tropical Fruit Farm

located at Jalan Teluk Bahang, Penang. Next, dragon

fruit were collected from Multi Rich Pitaya farm

which is located at Sepang. In addition, red cabbage

and beetroot were collected from same place which is

from Titi Eco Farm Sdn. Bhd, Kuala Klawang, Negeri

Sembilan. Finally, the betel leaf was collected from a

small farm in Kampung LBJ, Jalan Labu. The local

and scientific names of dye yielding plants used in

this study are given in Table 1.

Distilled water, laboratory grade ethanol and

methanol are used as solvent in the extraction

methods. Petroleum gel and virgin coconut oil has

been used to solidify the product and added as the

treatment for lip.

Table 1: Local and scientific names of dye plant sources.

Local name Scientific name Plant parts

used

Roselle Hibiscus sabdariffa Calyces

Dragon fruit Hylocereus costaricensis Fruits (peel

and flesh)

Beetroot Beta vulgaris Tuber

Red cabbage Brassica oleracea Leaf

Betel leaf Piper betle Leaf

2.2 Selection and Preparation of Raw

Material

The process to obtain a dye was basically done in four

stages which are extraction of dyes from five different

plant sources, formulation of product, effectiveness

of dyes & skin irritation test. Matured plants used

which are harvested in a healthy condition. The plant

sources were collected and wash thoroughly with

running water and then with deionized water to

remove the impurities. After drying at room

temperature, the samples were ground into powder

form with grinder.

2.3 Dye Extraction

In an attempt to prepare dye solution from the plant

sources, the solvent extraction method was used. It is

a process where natural colours were extracted using

organic solvents such as acetone, ethanol and

methanol (Mirjalili and Karimi, 2013). The cleaned

samples were crushed, dissolved in deionized water

and was boiled for 2 hours in a hot water bath for

quick extraction. After 2 hours, the total color was

extracted. The solution was then double filtered and

used for further analysis. The solvent extraction

method was chosen because it able to extract both

water-soluble and water-insoluble substances from

the plant sources. The extraction yield is thus higher

as compared to the aqueous method as a larger

number of chemicals and coloring materials were

extracted (Mitra and Das, 2015). Purification of

Production of Lip Balm from Natural Dyes

203

extracted dyes were easy as the solvents can be easily

removed by using rotary evaporator (Saxena and

Raja, 2014).

Next aqueous extraction were also used to extract

dyes from plant source. In this aqueous extraction, the

dye containing material were broken into powdered

and sieved in order to improve extraction efficiency

(Uddin, 2015). It is then soaked with distilled water

for a long time usually overnight to loosen the cell

structure and then boiled to get the dye solutions

which were filtered to remove non dye plant

remnants. The process of boiling and filtering is

repeated to remove as much dye as possible

(Wanyama et al., 2014).

Table 2: Solvent used for solvent extraction methods.

Plant sources as

raw materials

Solvents used Solvent’s

volume

(ml)

Roselle Ethanol 132.4

Distilled wate

132.4

Dragon

fruit

Dried &

grinded

Ethanol 490

Distilled wate

490

Soaked

dragon

fruit

Ethanol 490

Beetroot Ethanol 490

Distilled wate

490

Red cabba

e Ethanol 375

Betel

leaf

Dried &

blended

leaf

Ethanol 143.35

Methanol 143.35

Distilled wate

143.35

2.4 Formulation of Lip Balm

The prepared dye solution from different plant

sources was then added to petroleum gel and virgin

coconut oil. The mixture then double boiled to melt

all the ingredients until mixed thoroughly. Petroleum

gel, virgin coconut oil and extracted dyes (solution)

were prepared with the ratio 1:1:1. The materials were

weighted using analytical balance. Each ingredient

was weighted equally.

The mixture then was put in the water bath until

all materials in the mixture were melt and transform

to liquid form. After melting completely, a mixture

was poured into the container and it was let to be air

dried at room temperature. Next, it was put into the

refrigerator for about 48 hours so that it will solidify.

(a) prepared dye on the beaker (b) petroleum gel was added

(e) poured into suitable container (f) the mixture was allowed

to solidified

Figure 1: Preparation steps for lip balm formulation as

follows: (a) prepared dye on the beaker (b) petroleum gel

was added (c) virgin coconut oil was added (d) double

boiled the mixture (e) poured into suitable container (f) the

mixture was allowed to solidified at room temperature

before kept on chiller for 48 hours.

2.5 Evaluation of Lip Balm

2.5.1 Effectiveness Test on Papers

Finally, after taking out the lip balm from chiller, it

was tested by applying the lip balm on a piece of

paper. This process is important to determine colour

obtained from different sources. It also can determine

the effectiveness of the colour produced.

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Technology

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2.5.2 Skin Irritation Test

It is carried out by applying lip balm on the skin for

10 minutes.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Three different solvents used for the extraction

processes. The best solvent is ethanol compared to

methanol and distilled water. It is proved by the

higher yield of extracted dyes solution that comes

from extraction using ethanol as a solvent. This result

is very useful since ethanol is non toxic compared to

methanol and it can be used safely in cosmetics. The

plant roselle produces 117.6 ml of dyes, soaked

dragon fruit produces 300 ml of dyes, for other

sources which are beetroot, red cabbage and betel leaf

produces 300 ml, 250 ml and 100 ml respectively.

The extracted dye solution can be left for evaporation

so that the dyes will become more thicker in colour.

Table 3: Dye solution obtained from solvent extraction

methods.

Plant sources Solvents Sample

weight

(g)

Solvent

volume

(ml)

Dyes

obtain

ed (ml)

Roselle Ethanol 26.48 132.4 117.6

Distilled

wate

26.48 132.4 114.6

Dragon

fruit

Dried

grinded

Ethanol 327 490 215

Distilled

wate

327 490 290

Soaked

dragon

fruit

Ethanol 327 490 300

Beetroot Ethanol 327 490 300

Distilled

wate

327 490 240

Red cabba

e Ethanol 250 375 250

Betel

leaf

Dried &

blended

leaf

Ethanol 28.67 143.35 100

Methanol 28.67 143.35 90

Distilled

wate

28.67 143.35 80

The colour value of dyes was analyzed visually

and compared with different plant sources. Change in

colour characteristics in terms of hue and lightness

was observed. Based on the Figure 2, the colour of

betel leaf on lip balm is darker compared to the others

and the colour of dragon fruit on lip balm is lesser,

followed by the colour of red cabbage, roselle and

beetroot. Even though, the 5 types of extracted dyes

shows different properties in term of colour

consistency ,yet all the 5 extracted dyes have shown

the colour on the lip balm. This shows that the

application of extracted dyes on lip balm is successful.

Figure 2: Different plant sources produces different colour.

From left: red cabbage, roselle, dragon fruit, beetroot and

betel leaf.

For the colour assessment, the visual aspect was

considered as good. No colour changes was

observed on the lip balm from the evaluation day

onwards.

Table 4: Analysis of colour and rating of the dye from

different sources.

Plant sources Colour Rating

Red cabbage Light purple Good

Roselle Dark red Good

Dragon fruit Light red Good

Beet root Dark purple Good

Betel leaf Dark green Good

Other than that, the lip balm was applied on a

piece of paper to check the visibility of natural dye as

well as the consistency of colour. The developed

formulation of natural lip balm exhibited an

appropriate appearance after several months,

regardless of storage conditions. It shows that the

composition and ration of ingredients were adequate.

Figure 3: Lip balm applied on a piece of paper. From left:

beetroot, roselle, red cabbage, dragon fruit and betel leaf.

Finally, all five different lip balms show no skin

itchiness and irritation when applied onto the skin for

more than 10 minutes.

Production of Lip Balm from Natural Dyes

205

4 CONCLUSION

The dye yield resulted from the solvent extraction

method and the colour strength produced after

formulation of lip balm indicated that dye plants

under this study have considerable potential for

application as a source of natural dye for cosmetic

purpose. Ethanol showed the best solvent in this

extraction method. This research results also showed

that all the lip balm made from natural dyes were

stable and had a good force of application. In

addition, after 1 year storage in the room temperature,

the condition of the product was still good. Finally yet

importantly, this product did not cause irritation to

lip. Meanwhile, they were safe to apply as organic

cosmetics. In order to produce the high quality of

extracted dye for the purposes in the cosmetic;

integrated knowledge of the extraction procedures

and the treatments of the plant parts that want to apply

as a dye are needed. There are broad of procedures

that will make the production of dyes are present in

many conditions. For instant, the selection of solvents

and the adjustment concentration of solvents used

will make the yield of dye extracted in a variety of

colours are need to be focused.

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APPENDIX

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