Arasaretnam S* and Venujah K
The molecule of soap consists of two dissimilar ends, a hydrophilic end (polar head) which binds with water and another end which is hydrophobic end (non-polar hydrocarbon tail) that binds with oil. The soap is made by the saponification process, which reacts with the oil that contains triglycerides and lye (NaOH). Oils with different properties make them distinct from each other as the composition of fatty acids is incompatible. In the present study in the process of preparation of soaps, dissimilar oils of 5 types i.e., coconut oil, palm oil, castor oil, olive oil and gee oil were utilized. In order to prepare various soap samples, the oils were blended in different ratios which are then checked to analyze the soap’s quality. In this study amount of volatile matter and moisture content, total fatty mater content, alkali content and pH were determined. The obtained results were compared with some of commercially available soaps such as baby soap (BS-1), elder soap 1 (ES-1), elder soap 2 (ES-2), elder soap 3 (ES-3) and elder soap 4 (ES-4). With the observed studies, the soap made using olive oil was found to have better properties that the others. It has the good alkaline content, TFM value and pH values..
