Assessment of the Physicochemical Properties of Selected Commercial Soaps Manufactured and Sold in Kenya

Abstract

Soap is sodium or potassium salt of fatty acid produced by saponification reaction. Soap is used on a day to day basis by households. The physicochemical properties of soaps determine their quality and hence determine their efficiency and their cleansing properties. It remains obscure the quali- ty of the soaps that are sold in the local markets in Kenya and thus the need to assess them. Eight commercial washing soaps were analyzed for Matter insoluble in alcohol, moisture content, total fat matter, free caustic alkalinity, Percentage chloride, pH and Total alkali according to documented methods of analysis. Values of matter insoluble in alcohol ranged between 6.22% to 61.80%, moisture content ranged between 10.91% to 22.69%, total fat matter ranged between 22.64% to 70.51%, free caustic alkali ranged between 0.00% to 0.06%, percentage chloride ranged between 0.07% to 1.01%, pH ranged between 10.63 to 11.71 and total alkali ranged between 0.00% to 0.99%. This study showed that the free caustic alkalinity of all the analyzed soap samples were below the KEBS set limits hence no adverse effects on the cloth or skin, and the pH values for all analyzed soaps were within KEBS limits. Keywords Soap, Moisture Content, Total Fat Matter, Percentage Chloride, Saponification