Abstract:
Abstract: Surfactants are surface active agents that
lower the surface tension between two liquids or
phases, and are used as emulsifying agents. Thus, they
have two parts; polar and non-polar sections in the
same molecule. These compounds can either be
naturally occurring or synthetically manufactured. In
Kenya there are plants which produces a lot of fruits,
and juices from these fruits have been used
traditionally as; soaps materials for washing clothes
and other cleaning purposes, and as medicinal
ointments. These fruits, though abundant have
remained unutilized with the advent of modern
washing and cleaning materials. The efficacies,
quantities and qualities of these fruit juices has
remained unknown to date. The general objective of
this study was to extract green surfactants from fruits
of Solanum incanum and Solanum aculeastrum and
explore their properties and applications in the modern
settings. The processing of these bio-surfactants
involved, solvent extraction under controlled
conditions of temperature, time, pH, solvent to feed
ratio and properties of the feed material such as
composition and particle size. Characterization was
done for pH, surface active agents, metal cation and
conductivity of the surfactants using pH meter FTIR,
and conductivity meter respectively. Determination of
the surfactant concentration levels using emulsification
stability method. Agar disk-diffusion method was used
to screen the in vitro antimicrobial activity of the
extracted fruits surfactant. The percentage yield of the
fruits surfactants was>50%, with Solanum incanum
having highest of 65.063%. FTIR analysis showed the
presence of saponin functional groups. UV-Vis analysis
confirmed high concentration of saponins in the fruits
of Solanum aculeastrum than Solanum incanum. The
surfactants produced a stable foam reaching a
maximum percentage height stability of 92.883% for
the ripe fruits of Solanum aculeastrum and the scum
formed was stable even after 3 days. The fruit
surfactants inhibited the growth of both E. coli and
Candida albicans. The results confirmed potentially
high surfactant activity of the fruits extracts, indicating
a promising future commercial applications and
farming of these plants as cash crops.
Keywords; Biosurfactants, Surface active agents,
surfactant activity cash crops, Saponins.