A Study Of Distinctive Characteristics Of Soaps Made Of Saw Dust Ash (Lye ) With Palm And Olive Oils And Their Oil Blends In Benue State Nigeria.

Abstract

In Benue  State  Nigeria  saw dust is dumped in large quantities  as waste while in other parts of the country it is used in producing ceiling boards and plywood . In order to further explore its use, palm oil and olive oil with saw dust ash as the source of alkali (lye) were used in the production of soap and the choice of traditional and modern laboratory methods was adapted. The characteristics of the soap products were determined and the average results  compared.  Blending of these oils with other oils to further study improvements or order wise in the quality of the soaps was also done .  Parameters assessed were Moisture Content, Hardness of Soap , Total Fatty Matter, Total Free Alkali, Lathering Power ,Free Caustic Alkali ,  Carbonate Alkali, pH and Cleansing Power.

Comparative results  show that Total Fatty Matter was 69 and 82% for palm oil  and   olive oil respectively while the Total Free Alkali % , Free Caustic Alkali % and Free Carbonate Alkali % were7.8 and 6.9 , 3.71  and  2.6  ,4.09  and 4.3% respectively . The Lather Volume (ml) was 460 and 630 respectively while the Lathering Power of palm and olive oils  was  8 % and 10% respectively,  Cleansing Power of palm and olive oils was 42.66%  and  55.7 % respectively , pH of olive oil was 8.5 while that of  palm oil was 9.1 . Moisture and Hardness of soap samples from olive and palm oils showed  Moisture Content 3.5 %  for palm and  4.3%  for olive  and the  Hardness  showed palm olive soap soft while that from  palm oil was hard.   Blends  of oils were also used ,  between  olive oil  and castor oil in a ratio 3:1 gave a Lathering Power of  9.7  while the Clean sing Power  was 90.3%  . coconut oil  and olive oil blend  of ratio 2:1 gave the Lathering Power of 10.5 % and its Cleansing Power 88.1%.                                                                                                                                    The production of soap with olive oils and  its blends  stood out better than palm oil which in itself  has become a matter of international interest . Palm tree exploitation began to raise serious environmental issues on  land deforestation for palm tree cultivation  and an international organization known as   Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was created in 2004 following concerns raised by non-governmental organizations about environmental impact issues related to palm tree cultivation for oil production P. Gunasegaran, ( 2011) . This has further de emphasized  palm oil use in soap production and  increased efforts in research in other oils while the saw dust potentials remain untapped in Benue State Nigeria .

KEY WORDS Lye,   Roundtable , molecular, Lathering and deforestation  .