Synthesis of Antiseptic Soap from Blends of Wood Tar and Some Selected Vegetable Oils

Abstract

Antiseptic soap is a cleansing product to which active ingredient have been added to kill bacteria or germs. Usually, the price associated with conventional antiseptic soap is prohibitive, thus the need for cheap alternative sources of antiseptic soap could not be overemphasized. Traditionally, wood tar inherits antiseptic properties from the parent tree, it therefore provides an easily accessible and affordable recipe for antiseptic soap manufacture. In this paper, we elucidate the use of wood tar extracted from selected local trees (cassia, eucalyptus, and neem) as feedstock to synthesize antibacterial soap, by blending separately with vegetable oil. Two common vegetable oils (castor and peanut oils) were used in this work. The wood tar extracted by destructive distillation of the wood was characterized using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques. The analysis indicates that wood tar from the selected trees contain antiseptic components like creosol. The optimum blend ratios of wood tar to vegetable oil suitable for saponification in terms of soap yield was also investigated. Similarly, the soap formulation from optimum blend of wood tar and vegetable oil was characterized to determine pH, foam ability, cleansing power and the microbial activity of the soap. The antimicrobial sensitivity results indicate that the soap has significant inhibitory property on E. coli bacteria. More also, for the selected vegetable oils considered, peanut oil blend was found to give higher yield of soap compared to castor oil blend.