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 component was determined. Only bile salts with all alpha-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