General Description
Synonyms: Brazil wax; caranda wax; cera carnauba; E903.
Description: Carnauba wax occurs as a light brown- to pale yellow-colored powder, flakes, or irregular lumps of a hard, brittle wax. It has a characteristic bland odor and practically no taste. It is free from rancidity. Various types and grades are available commercially.
Chemical Name: Carnauba wax
Functions
Solvent
Uses
Carnauba wax is widely used in cosmetics, certain foods, and pharmaceutical formulations.
Cosmetically, carnauba wax is commonly used in lip balms.
Carnauba wax is the hardest and highest-melting of the waxes commonly used in pharmaceutical formulations and is used primarily as a 10% w/v aqueous emulsion to polish sugar-coated tablets.
Aqueous emulsions may be prepared by mixing carnauba wax with an ethanolamine compound and oleic acid.
The carnauba wax coating produces tablets of good luster without rubbing.
Carnauba wax may also be used in powder form to polish sugarcoated tablets.
Carnauba wax (10–50% w/w) is also used alone or with other excipients such as hypromellose, hydroxypropyl cellulose, alginate/ pectin-gelatin, Eudragit, and stearyl alcohol to produce sustainedrelease solid-dosage formulations.
Carnauba wax has been experimentally investigated for use in producing microparticles in a novel hot air coating (HAC) process developed as an alternative to conventional spray-congealing techniques.
In addition, carnauba wax has been used to produce gel beads for intragastric floating drug delivery and has been investigated for use in nanoparticulate sunscreen formulations.
Safety
Carnauba wax is widely used in oral pharmaceutical formulations, cosmetics, and certain food products. It is generally regarded as an essentially nontoxic and nonirritant material. However, there have been reports of allergic contact dermatitis from carnauba wax in mascara
Handling Precautions
Observe normal precautions appropriate to the circumstances and quantity of material handled.