# Cleaner Processes for Making Laundry Soap from Vegetable Oils and an Essential Oil
## 3 Results and Discussion  
### Characterization of Oils Used in Soap Formulation  
The quality of the oils used in the production of soaps is given by the SAP, IN and INS values, influencing the quality of the soap. Thus, a high SAP value indicates that the oil is of good quality and contains a high proportion of fatty acids that are easily saponified because they have a shorter average chain length, and the triglycerides of which they are a part are characterized by lower average molecular weight values. The IN values give anticipatory indications on the final properties of the soap, such as cleansing capacity, texture, hardness, stability and durability. The INS is actually a way to quickly identify mixtures of triglycerides that saponify easily and give a hard soap. For the formulation of natural laundry soaps, two vegetable oils are chosen for the following reasons: olive oil gives the soaps the best conditioning properties, and coconut oil generates the best cleaning properties. Olive oil positively influences the soap's hardness bar, and contributes to the acquisition of a low foaming but gentle cleaning capacity. In addition, it provides a good conditioning and softening effect on human skin or laundry due to its high oleic acid content. Coconut oil leads to a hard soap with a very high foaming capacity that determines excellent cleaning properties. The addition of essential oil to the recipe can give the soap (depending on the type used) antimicrobial, antiseptic, disinfect, antifungal effects and will also impart these effects to the textiles washed with these soaps. For this reason, these newly formulatedsoaps can be used both at home and in the medical field for washing, disinfecting work equipment, blankets, towels, pajamas, and bed linen used in the hospital environment. The SAP, IN and INS values are determined according to the methods described in the Section 2 and are shown in Table 2.  
The quality of the oils implicitly influences the quality of the laundry soap:  
* Coconut oil: It is a mixture of saturated (89%) and unsaturated (11%) fatty acids, of which lauric acid, myristic acid and palmitic acid predominate. The lack of double bonds in the chemical structures of some of the constituent fatty acids gives coconut oil a solid, white consistency [72]. In addition to fatty acids, coconut oil also contains other organic substances, such as phytosterols, vitamins (E and K) and antioxidants. The exact composition of coconut oil may vary depending on its origin and processing. * Olive oil: Unlike coconut oil, unsaturated fatty acids predominate in olive oil (83%), the rest being saturated (17%). Olive oil is a greenish yellow liquid rich in oleic acid, which has 18 carbon atoms in the molecule and one unsaturation. The components of the polyphenol type, Tocopherolols and Tocotrienols (Vitamin E), give olive oil important antioxidant capacities [73; 74]. The quality of the oils used in the production of soaps is given by the SAP, IN and INS values (Table 2). For comparison, Table 2 also includes the SAP and IN values for standard oils, according to _Codex Alimentarius_. It is observed that these oils are used in this work to formulate organic soaps that have SAP and IN values close to those of standard oils, which indicates that their composition in saturated and unsaturated fatty acids is normal, i.e., close to the standards. In addition, the data in the table indicate high values for SAP corresponding to the mixture of the two vegetable oils (205.83 mg KOH/g oils), which means that the saponification capacities of the fatty acids in these oils are good. A mixture of oils in which unsaturated fatty acids predominate is used, leading to an IN value of 62.61 g iodine/100 g mixture of oils. This falls within the range corresponding to obtaining a good soap in terms of hardness, cleaning capacity and stability (41-70 g iodine/100 g mixture of oils). Since the INS value obtained is 143.22, it is found that the formulated soaps are obtained from oils that saponify easily, leading to hard soaps.