Name: ____________________________________ Date of activity: ______________

Sec: _______ Group: _______ Laboratory instructor signature: _______________

Subject Pharm 202 – Pharmaceutical Biochemistry

Title Saponification of Lipids
Activity No No. 5
Introduction Handmade soap is very difficult to commercial mass produced soap, it contains
nourishing oils, natural scents, skin healthy botanicals and much more. Soap making is
an essential traditional skill that allows you to tailor make products for your own
family based around their skincare.

Objective(s) At the end of the activity, the student should be able to:
1. To understand the rationale behind the soap formulation.
2. To understand the acid-base reaction (saponification process) by which soap
is produced.
3. To evaluate the quality of the products those have been produced.

Materials and • 29.5g NaOH

Equipment • 72mL distilled water
• 100ml of palm oil
• Fragrance
• Beakers
• Stirring rod
• Spoon
• Hot plate
• Thermometer
Preparation
Prepare all the equipment needed.

Procedure/ Instruction
1. NaOH pellets were dissolved 72mL of distilled water (250ml of beaker). Put them aside and let
them cool down in between 27 degrees Celsius to 38 degrees Celsius.
2. After the NaOH solution cooled sufficiently, heat the mixture of coconut oil and 72mL water in a
500mL beaker, to 82 degrees Celsius. Let oil globules remain suspended in the water until the
next step.
3. Stop heating, add the lye solution into the mixture of oil and water and gently stir to blend.
4. The beaker was placed back on hot plate and set on to medium heating until the temperature of
the mixture creep back up towards 82 degrees Celsius, continuously stirred but gentle to create
the uniform mixture. Initially the mixture looks like water shimmering with unsaponiafible oil,
but after 10 to 15 minutes it will be gradually become thick and uniform do not allow the
temperature of the soap exceed 82 degrees Celsius or fall below 71 degrees Celsius, the beaker
was removed from the heat occasionally and return to the hot plate as needed.
5. After about 20 minutes, fragrance was added to the hot mixture and stir gently. The mixture of
soap was placed into a mould covered with grease paper and let it cool down.
6. After more than 24 hours or until 2 to 3 weeks, the soap will continue solidify slowly. This
process called ‘curing’.

DATA AND OBSERVATION

 First, we weigh the sodium hydroxide or lye to the weighing scale to get the accurate
measurement which is 29.5 grams. Afterwards, we pour the sodium hydroxide to a beaker
containing 72mL of distilled water. After pouring, we stirred the solution to make sure that the
sodium hydroxide pellets were dissolved and we let it cool down since sodium hydroxide mixed
with water is an exothermic reaction where heat is released.
  After preparing the NaOH solution, we mixed the 72 mL water to a beaker containing 100 mL
palm oil and then we heat the mixture using the hot plate and waited until the temperature
reached 82oC (oil globules remain suspended in the water).

CONCLUSION

Therefore, I can conclude that