ASSESSMENT OF THE QUALITY OF SOAPS PRODUCED FROM BLENDS OF Butyrospermum parkii FRUIT OIL (SHEA BUTTER), Sesamum indicum (SESAME) SEED OIL AND TALLOW
CHAPTER ONE
1.0: INTRODUCTION
Soap may be defined as a chemical compound or mixture of chemical compounds resulting from the interaction of fatty acids or fatty glycerides with a metal radical or organic base (Kirk-Othman, 1963). Soaps are mainly used as surfactants for washing, bathing, and cleaning, but they are also used in textile spinning and are important components of lubricants. Soaps for cleansing are obtained by treating vegetable or animal oils and fats with a strongly alkaline solution. Fats and oils are composed of triglycerides; three molecules of fatty acids are attached to a single molecule of glycerol (Cavitch and Miller, 1994).
The alkaline solution, which is often called lye (although the term “lye soap” refers almost exclusively to soaps made with sodium hydroxide), brings about a chemical reaction known as saponification. The metals commonly used in soap making are sodium and potassium, which produce water-soluble soaps that are used for laundry and cleaning purposes (Kuntom et al., 1994). The qualities of soap are usually determined by the amount and composition of the component fatty acids in the starting oil.
Blends of oils can be used in both the hot and cold soap production methods. Vegetable oil blends could be obtained by mixing different vegetable oils such as the mixture of coconut oil, palm kernel oil, groundnut oil and shea butter in different proportions (Kuntom et al., 1996) and soaps of desirable quality can be produced by blending butyrospermum parkii fruit oil, tallow and sesamum indicum seed oil. The quality of soap produced is usually comparable to the quality of commercially available soaps. This research work involves using various blends of Butyrospermum parkii fruit oil, tallow and Sesamum indicum seed oil for the production of various soaps reported.
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ASSESSMENT OF THE QUALITY OF SOAPS PRODUCED FROM BLENDS OF Butyrospermum parkii FRUIT OIL (SHEA BUTTER), Sesamum indicum (SESAME) SEED OIL AND TALLOW
