INTRODUCTION

Cleansing agents has get an important role in

our daily life.Soap is one such agent which used for
cleansing purpose.It can be considered as one of the
necessary part of human lives and is impossible to the
use in daily routines.The orgin of personal cleanliness
date back to ancient times.Evidence from the
excavation of ancient Babylon show that saop-making
was known as early as 2800B.C.For a long time ,soap
was made by heating animal fat with wood ashes and
thus the solution .Soap –making was an established
craft in several parts of the world by the 7th century.The
science of modern soap-making was born around 1810
with the discovery by the French chemist Michel
Eugene Chevreul of the chemical nature and relationship
of fats,glycerine and fatty acid .His studies established the
basis for the saop chemistry.
Soap is surfactant or surface active agents
which causes a marked reduction in the interfacial
tension between water and a phase immiscible with
it(which can be either oil,greese,mud etc…)by forming
an oriented interfacial monolayer. Soap is basically
sodium or potassium salt of long chain fatty acids or
carboxylic acid like stearic acids(C17H35COOH) oleic
acid (C17H35COOH) and palmitic acid (C15H31COOH).
It’s structure consists of a hydrophilic portion and a
hydrophobic portion, which is responsible for it’s
cleansing action.

Soap is manufactured through the alkaline

hydrolysis of fst and oils and the process is known as
saponification.The physiochemical properties and
quality of a soap depends upon several parameters
such as total fatty matter (TFM),Total alkali content
,PH etc….Soaps are reaching the market in diverse
ways from the branched companies and small scale
enterprises.The most of the branched soaps available
in the market are remarked the TFM values and
fragrance.But they do not mention the chemical used
in the fragrance, percentage of moisture content and
the PH value of the soap. Some of branded soaps
maintain the higher TFM values and good moisture
content, but they have high pH values up to 10
causer’s irritations to the skin.9-11. These indicate
that high –quality soap for the cleansing purpose is the
one of that strikes a balance in all the mentioned
physiochemical 5 parameteres.However,ordinary
people are not at all thinking about chemicals present
in the ingredients of the soap. They are attracted
towards the advertisement and fragrance of the
products.Here our aim is to study the quality if
different soaps available in the market by measuring
it’s physiochemical properties.

SAPONIFICATION:
Saponification is at the heart of soap making. It is the
chemical reaction in which the building blocks of fats
and oils (triglycerides) react with lye to form soap.
Saponification literally means "turning into soap" from
the root word, sapo, which is Latin for soap. The
products of the saponification reaction are glycerin and
soap. Chemically, soap is a fatty acid salt.

Soap along with glycerol, are obtained by the

alkaline hydrolysis (by boiling with aq.NaOH or KOH)
of fats and oil which are glyceryl triesters of long
straight chain fatty acids; the reaction is known as
saponification.The Nme originates from the latin word
saponis which means ‘soap’.There are two tyoes if
soaps-Hard and soft soaps.Sodium soaps, obtained by
the saponification of fats and oils by caustic soda
(NaOH)solution, are generally known as hard soaps.
Potassium soaps, obtained by the saponification of the
fats and oils by caustic potash (KOH) solution ,are
generally known as soft soaps.The above classification
is not very rigid ,since the characteristics of hard and
soft soap also depend upon the orgin and the quality of
the fat and oil used for saponification.

TOTAL FATTY MATTER (TFM):

Total fatty matter (TFM) is one of the most

important characteristics describing the quality of soap
and it is always specified jn commercial transactions. It
is defined as the total amount of fatty matter, mostly
fatty acids, that can be separated from a sample after
splitting with mineral acid, usually hydrochloric acid.
The fatty acids most commonly present in soap are
oleic, stearic and palmitic acids and pure, dry, sodium
oleate has TFM 92.8%, while top quality soap noodles
now increasingly used for making soap tablets in small
and medium size factories, are typically traded with a
specification TFM 78% min., moisture 14% max. But
besides moisture, finished commercial soap, especially
laundry soap, and also contains fillers used to lower its
cost or confer special properties, plus emollients,
preservatives, etc. and then the TFM can be as low as
50%. Fillers, which are usually dry powders, also make
the soap harder, harsher on the skin and with greater
tendency to become mushy' in water and so low TFM is
usually associated with lower quality and hardness. In
older days in Europe and in some countries now, soap
with TFM 75% minimum was referred to as Grade 1
and 65% minimum as Grade 2 and less 60% as Grade 3.
A TFM should be 70% to 75% is referred as Grade 1
soap.

ALKALI CONTENT:

Earlier, the alkalis used in Soap manufacturing

process, were obtained from the ashes of plants, but
now days, they are produced commercially. Today, the
term alkali describes a substance, which IS a base
(chemically) and which reacts with an acid to neutralize
it. The most common alkalis used now days in
soapmaking is sodium hydroxide (NaOH), which is also
known as caustic soda; and potassium hydroxide
(KOH), also known as caustic potash. Potassium based
soaps form a more water-soluble product than a
sodium-based soap, and hence they are known as "soft
soaps." Soft Soaps, alone or in combination with
sodium-based soaps, is generally used to make shaving
creams and other water-soluble products.
When oil is mixed with an alkali. It forms glycerin and a
sodium salt of fatty acid. The fatty acids that are
required to manufacture soaps are supplied by tallow,
grease, fish oils, and vegetable oils. The characteristics
of soap, such as hardness, lathering qualities and
transparency may vary depending On the combinations
of alkalis and fats used as ingredients. Alkaline cleaners
can also be used to remove oil from an oil-based paint,
by drying it and causing it to peel or crack. Alkali
products also have a property to darken
aluminum surfaces
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
The samples of branded soaps are purchased from
local market of palakkad town near the vicinity of our
college. Sample of homemade soap is prepared by
purchasing a soap kit from nearby kudumbasree unit.
Chemicals and glasswares used for the experiment are
taken from our bsc and msc lab. Solution of required
normalities wrwe prepared using standard methods.
Some samples were analysed twice or thrice in order to
get accurate values. The detailed procedure for
measuring the quality parameters of different soaps are
given below:

A)DETERMINATION OF TOTAL FATTY

MATTER(TFM):
Apparatus:
 Beaker
 Conical flasks
 Funnel
 Measuring jar
  Ice tray
Chemicals Required:
 1:1 Hydrochloric Acid
 Ether
 Distilled Water
 Sample Soap
 Anhydrous Sodium Nitrate
Procedure:
Weigh accurately about 5g of soap in an electronic
balance. This soap is dissolved in 50 ml of hot water in
a beaker. Add 1:1 HCl to this solution to decompose the
soap. Now fatty acids float as clear layer at the top.
Complete precipitation is checked by adding a few
drops of HCl through the sides of the beaker. Now cool
the mixture by keeping in an ice tray. The mixture
is then treated with 70 ml ether. Now the fatty acid
portion dissolves in the ether having all inorganic
portions in the solution. Transfer this into a separating
funnel and collect the aqeous part and ether part in
different conical flasks. The aqeous layer is again taken
in the separating funnel and extracted with ether. The
ether extracted was collected and washed thrice with
water to remove mineral acids. Now it is treated with
Anhydrous Sodium Nitrate inorder to remove the
moisture content. Ether layer is separated and collected
into 9 previously weighed conical flask. It is evaporated
to remove the solvents. It was then kept in the oven for
sometime for attaining a constant. The weight of fat
separated from ether along with the weight of conical
flask is measured using an electronic balance. TFM
value is calculated with the help of equation given
below.
Calculations:
Weight of fat separated + conical flask (y) = _________g
Weight of the conical flask (x)=___________g
Weight of the fat separated (w)=(y-x)=___________g
TFM =weight of the fat separated from ether
Weight of the soap sample
= (w/5 )×100
B)DETERMINATION OF TOTAL ALKALI CONTENT:
Apparatus:
 Beaker
 Conical Flask
 Funnel
 Measuring Jar
 Burette

Chemicals Required:
 0.5 N Sodium Hydroxide
 0.5N Nitric Acid
 Chloroform
  Distilled Water
 Methyl Orange Indicator
 Sample Soap
Procedure:
Weigh accurately about 5g of soap sample in an
electronic balance. Dissolve it in 100ml of hot water.
Add about 40 ml of 0.5 N HNO3 to make the solution
acidic. Heating is continued until the fatty acids float as
a clear layer above the solution. The fatty acids were
separated and the aqeous solution is treated with
about 50 ml chloroform to remove the remaining fatty
acids. The remaining aqeous solution is measured and
about 10 ml of it is taken in 9 conical flask and is
titrated against 0.5 NaOH taken in a burette using
Methyl Orange as indicator. The end point is
determined by the change of colour from rose red to
yellow. From the titre value obtained total alkali
content is calculated using the following equations.
Calculations
Total volume of the aqeous solution = v=______ml
10ml of aqeous solution required t ml of NaOH
V ml of aqeous solution requires =(v×t)/10 = A ml
Amount of NaOH required by acid in aqeous
solution =A ml
Volume of HNO3 required B ml
= A × Normality of NaOH

Normality of HNO3
Volume of HNO3 required for neutralizing NaOH
= c= 40-B

Amount of NaOH in 1000cc of soap solution

(E)=(C×40×Normality of HNO3 )
1000
250 cc of soap solution conatains (F) = E×250
1000g
2NaOH ⟶Na2 O +H2O
80 g of NaOH 62 g of Na2O
F g of NaOH requires (Y) = (62×F)/80 g of Na2O
Weight of soap taken = 5g
% of alkality = Y×100 =
w
C) DETERMINATION OF pH VALUE
Apparatus:
 Beaker
 pH METER
Chemicals Required:
 Sample Soap
 Distilled Water

Procedure :
About 1 g of the soap is weighed and is dissolved in
10 ml of water taken in a beaker. Now this solution is
taken to a properly caliberated pH meter. Place the
electrode system in the solution and note the PH of the
solution on the monitor of the digital pH meter attached.
 RESULT AND DISCUSSION
TOTAL FATTY MATTER (TFM):
The soaps with higher TFM contain more fat
content and is good for the skin.

TOTAL FATTY MATTER

SAMPLE Value in the Experimentally
Soap packet found

Sample 1 73 74.9
Sample 2 80 79.14
Sample 3 79 80.042
Sample 4 60 57.088
Sample 5 60 61.41
Sample 6 68 67.314

Sample 7 70 70.12
Sample 8 78 77.54
Homemade 81.33
pH:
TOTAL ALKALI CONTENT:
SAMPLE pH

SAMPLE TOTAL ALKALI

CONTENT
sample 1 10
Sample 1 2.56
Sample 2 2
sample 2.42
8.97
Sample 3 2.76
sample 3 9.6
Sample 4 2.48
Sample 5 4
sample 1.91
9.56
Sample 6 2.30
sample 5 9.06
Sample 7 2.44
sample
Sample 8 6 9.87
2.68
Homemade 2.82
sample 7 9.23
The
sample 8 9.55 TFM
for
Homemade 9.72 the

samples were found to be between 57.088

 and 81.33 .Most of the Soaps had a Tfm over
the range of 70 to 80
 The total alkali content was observed to be
between 1.91 and 2.82.
 The pH was found to be in between 8.97 and 10.
 We found the TFM value is higher for the
homemade soap than the market soaps
 We found that there is no significant diference
between pH and the total alkali content of market
and homemade soap.
 We also found that the Sample 2 and 3 which has
the high TFM( next to the homemade soap) should
significance difference in their pH 8.97and 9.6
respectively and total alkali content 2.42 and 2.76
respectively showing that there is no 1relation
between the TFM with pH and tottal alkali
content.Similar pattern was observed for low TFM
samples,5 ,6.
 No relation was observed between the TFM and
pH. However an almost linearity was observed in
between the TFM and the total alkali content in
the graph