What is Water-Soluble CBD? Water-Soluble formulations

water-soluble

You have probably heard it said of a couple “these two are like oil and water”. This description of two people’s incompatibility derives from the observation that oil and water indeed do not mix well together. But like we can fix relationships with some effort, so we can make oil and water mix very well by using emulsifiers. 

Emulsifiers are substances that form an emulsion, which is a mixture of oil and water. Most common emulsions represent a solution where small droplets of oil are dispersed in a water phase. The oil droplets are so small that they are not visible to the naked eye.

 

Emulsifiers sound very “artificial”, but they are actually very common in nature. For example, when you make pancakes you easily mix water with oil, correct? It is the lecithin, an emulsifier in egg yolk, that keeps these incompatible ingredients mixed together. 

So, we can mix oil with water by using emulsifiers. But what is this good for, besides pancakes?

Today, emulsions are used in a variety of industries, such as pharmaceuticals, agriculture, paints, cosmetics, and foodstuffs. These emulsions are used for different purposes, but they share similar aims – they are easier to use and/or they are more effective than using oils only. Let’s have a closer look at why emulsions/water-soluble formulations are useful for foodstuffs and cosmetics. 

Water-soluble formulations in the foodstuff industry

Apart from making pancakes, mayonnaise and dressings for salads, emulsion formulations also became popular for food supplements, especially those which contain oil-soluble substances such as vitamins A, D, E and K. These oily vitamins are much more effective if we use them in a formulation that is water-soluble. In other words, if you drink a water-soluble formulation of an oily substance in a glass of water, it will be better absorbed from your gastrointestinal tract. This means the effect of the same dose increases when the oil is transformed into a water-soluble formulation. Or as scientists like to say, the improved solubility in water increases the bioavailability of an oil substance. Sounds like a benefit, right?

 

Cosmetic products are emulsion systems

The majority of cosmetic and personal care products involve various types of emulsion systems – products such as creams, lotions, serums, shampoos, hair balms, toothpaste, and others that contain some oil and water. Typically, cosmetic products contain a number of water and oil-soluble components, such as:

  • water-soluble vitamins B and C,
  • nutritious oils like almond, grapeseed, olive, and argan oil,
  • oil-soluble extracts like hemp extract with CBD and other cannabinoids. 

To successfully mix these ingredients together and produce a stable formulation, emulsifiers are needed. In the cosmetics industry, emulsifiers are sometimes also referred to as surfactants, which is a broader term for emulsifiers and detergents. In addition to a stable formulation, emulsion formulations also improve the efficacy of active components since they can penetrate into the deeper layers of the epidermis when, for example, used topically.  

Pharmahemp offers highly effective water-soluble products 

Water-soluble drops are concentrated emulsions of oil and water. You can easily dilute the desired amount of a product in a glass of water. These stable formulations were developed in order to enhance the effects and bioavailability of all the active ingredients. The carefully selected ingredients such as herbal extracts, vitamins, minerals, and other actives are well mixed together with natural emulsifiers in four new, water-soluble formulations that are available  to you now: 

For more information about Pharmahemp products visit our store/webpage or contact us at [email protected].

 

 

Literature:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3399483/ 

https://www.umass.edu/cbd/emulsion-based-delivery-systems-oil-soluble-vitamins 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/food-science/food-emulsion