Structural rheology of a model ointment.

A model ointment consisting of white petrolatum, mineral oil and microcrystalline wax was studied using rheology, microscopy and thermal techniques. Rheograms studied over a temperature range of 25-40 degrees C indicated that the overall rheogram shape changed little as the temperature increased. However, two inflections gradually disappeared as the temperature increased. Thermal optical analysis showed that the temperature range over which these inflection disappeared correlated with the melting transition of the components forming the secondary structure. Another series of rheograms obtained from ointments with different combinations of the raw materials showed the rheology of the ointment is primarily controlled by the white petrolatum and mineral oil and that the microcrystalline wax acts to build-up the structure by incorporating itself into the existing white petrolatum structure. Thermal optical analysis of comelts of the raw materials proved that the ointment network structure is essentially a recombination of the naturally occurring components in differing ratios. The knowledge obtained from these studies is applied to a discussion of the thermal and mechanical stresses encountered in the filling operation.