Microemulsions containing lecithin and bile salts: Evaluation of the role of bile salts as co-surfactants by partial least squares regression analysis

Microemulsions containing lecithin as surfactant were prepared with a series of naturally-occurring bile salts. The required minimum amount of each bile salt leading to microemulsions when added to fixed amounts of the other components was determined. Only bile salts with all α-oriented hydroxyls were able to give microemulsions. The required millimoles of bile salts were related to some physicochemical parameters by the partial least squares regression method.