AMPALUNGGAY SOAP

ABSTRACT

It has been observed that people nowadays are very much concern with the appearance and color of
their skin, so our group decided to invent a new kind of soap. We can offer it to the people to help make
their skin whiter, softer and fairer at an affordable price.

We used one whole ampalaya, half pound of malunggay leaves, lye, coconut oil and lavender fragrance.
We cut the ampalaya into pieces and mixed with a little amount of water and blended it. Then we
chopped and minced half pound of malunggay leaves. We put the ampalaya and malunggay leaves into
separate bowls. We mixed a little amount of water into the lye and left it to chill. We put the coconut oil
in a pot and heated it and after heating we put it in another container and slowly add the lye with it and
mixed them vigorously for about an hour and a half and put the blended ampalaya and minced
malunggay into the mixture and continuously stirring the mixture until it became more liquid.

After mixing all the ingredients, we add lavender fragrance oil into the mixture then put in into a soap
mold and covered it with cloth to make it hard. After a few days the soap hardened and we took it from
the mold and set it in a dry place to cure for about two months. After two months, the soap is now
ready to be used.

CHAPTER ONE:BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Introduction

Here in the Philippines, the production of beauty soaps has increased as time passed. Cheche V. Moral
of the Philippine Daily Inquirer said that skincare in the Philippines is twenty two billion pesos market
and in 2004, Synovate, a global market research company, conducted a survey wherein Filipino women
has the highest rate of 50% usage of whitening products among Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, and
Taiwan.

Filipinos see fair skin and young skin, as one of the standards of beauty and being attractive has become
a basis of being accepted in the society because most people will judge you by the way you look. It
seems like there is discrimination within our society. Frankie, a blogger from
skinbeautifulblog.wordpress.com, has stated a few considerations of why it is so important to be
beautiful. She said, “attractive people are more likely to have dates and have many friends” and
“attractive people are 2-5 times more likely to be hired for a position” while “unattractive people are
most likely to be assumed or accused of committing a crime.” Advertisements are also one of the factors
that made us think that fair skin is beautiful. Like the Ponds commercial, it promises a more desirable
you if you purchase and use their beauty products. Another factor is the influence of the Spaniards. They
have this colonial mentality that people with fair skin are privileged.

A lot of Filipinos purchase this expensive soap for the benefit of having a beautiful skin although it is a
big addition to an individual's expenses. One bar of papaya whitening soap costs 80-290 pesos and it
only lasts 1-2weeks. One of the most famous whitening soaps is Pervil Soap that costs 100-120 pesos.

Statement Of Objectives

This investigatory project aims to make alternative organic beauty soaps. Nowadays, Philippines are in
the state of being economically challenged because in the first semester of 2012, 27.9% of the
population in the Philippines is below the poverty line. Since Filipinos could not afford expensive beauty
products, this investigatory project aims to help the society meet their wants and their small budgets by
creating a beauty soap using ampalaya and malunggay therefore we also aim to make it cheaper than
other beauty products in the market today.
In order to achieve this, we need to search for the contents of the beauty products and the two
vegetables and then study what that nutrient or ingredient does for our skin. The knowledge of this will
lead us to having our hypothesis of the product. People tend to avoid these herbs because of its unlikely
taste but our experiment will prove that ampalaya and malunggay are still useful to the body without
consuming it and that it can possible and effective as skincare products by conducting an experiment.

Significance of the Study

The importance of this study is to use one of the healthiest and most unnoticeable veggies as skincare
soaps. Skin is one of the body parts that keep us healthy. To take care of our skin, we daily use soaps to
clean off those dirt, odors, and germs. We need to wash away the germs to prevent it from getting
under the surface of our skin. Using the healthiest vegetables to become a daily used soap, maybe the
biggest breakthrough of skin care products.

This study is for everyone in our society but most of it is the ones who want to achieve fair skin and
remove fine-lines. One of ABS-CBNnews.com's articles, "White Skin Comes With A Price"by Leilani
Chavez, says that a 26-year-old female named Jeimie had used almost all the whitening products in the
market. She started trying whitening products since her early 20's even though she was born with a fair-
complexion. She uses whitening products to maintain her skin color. People, who are in 20's, both
female and male, can have the benefit of having their skins whitened by our product. Then at the age of
the 20’s, with all the work and stress, the question “when will my wrinkles show?” will pop-out of your
mind. Women and men in 20’s could really have wrinkles. There are some 20-year-old adults who
already gets surgical procedures to remove or avoid getting wrinkles so as you can see, not only 40’s
adults gets wrinkles according Tanya Sharma from skincare.lovetoknow.com. So with the help of our
beauty soap, they could also remove their fine-lines.

Scope and Delimitation

We have studied a few things to support our idea of making an ampalaya-malunggay soap. Our study
covers the content of ampalaya, malunggay, and beauty products. We studied each ingredient's use to
our skin. This serves as proof that our idea could be possibly made but it does not mean that it is proven
effective. Our study does not cover the external effectiveness of ampalaya and malunggay on our skin.
We also studied the production and usage of whitening products in the Philippines to know how much
help could our product be, in our society because our aim is to use the worth of these vegetables as a
convenient beauty soap. Lastly, we have to examine the ways of making soaps in order to create our
very own recipe of ampalaya-malunggay soap.

CHAPTER TWO:REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES AND STUDIES

Facts about Ampalaya

Ampalaya is known as bitter melon. Its scientific name is Momordica charanti. Ampalaya has many
names around the world. Here in the Philippines, it is called ampalaya while in other countries like U.S.A,
China, India, and Japan; it is respectively called bitter gourd and balsam pear, fukwa, kerela, and nigai
uri. Ampalayas are considered as a cucurbit because it is a member of the gourd family. The gourd family
is climbing vines, herbs, and rarely, shrubs or trees. Ampalayas are particularly found in Asian countries
because it normally grows in hot humid areas but it is only cropped once, every year. Ampalaya contains
Vitamin A 9%, Thiamine 2%, Riboflavin 2%, Niacin 2%, Vitamin B5 2%, Vitamin B6 2%, Vitamin C 130%,
Folate 17%, Calcium 2%, Iron 2%, Magnesium 4%, Phosphorus 3%, Copper 2%, and Zinc 5%. As you can
see, there are various macronutrients and benefits that can be obtained from ampalaya. That is why W.
G. Goreja can consider ampalaya as one of the best medicines around the globe according to his Bitter
Melon: Nature’s Anti-Diabetic because it is the best alternative herbal medicine that cures diabetes but
according to my other references, it can also treat liver problems and HIV. Here in the Philippines, they
are many dishes that include ampalaya, one of the famous example is Pinakbet from Ilocos Norte.
Facts about Malunggay

Malunggay is known as horseradish tree or drumstick tree but it is called in different names in different
regions here in the Philippines like kalunggay in Bicolano, Kamalongan, Malunggay in Bisaya, Kalamunge
in Pampango, Arunggay in Iluko, and Marunggay in Pangasinense. Its scientific name is Moringa oleifera
Lamk. It is also commonly found in tropical countries like the Philippines. Unlike ampalaya, it grows on
trees and can planted in various soils but thrives best in fertile, well-drained sandy loams. Malunggay is
planted throughout the country especially in the Central and Northern provinces. In our observation,
there are many planted malunggay trees in the backyards of the citizens in Quezon City. Like ampalaya,
malunggay has various uses. Some of our Filipino dishes like Tinola is mixed with malunggay leaves. The
twigs of malunggay are extracted as oil and used to become a cosmetic. Malunggay is also called a
“Miracle Tree” because curing ailments is the most beneficial use of malunggay. Malunggay leaves are
loaded with nutrients because a gram of malunggay leaves also contain two times the protein in milk.
Likewise, it contains three times the potassium in bananas and four times the vitamin A in carrots.
Health nutritionists claim that an ounce of malunggay has the same Vitamin C content as seven oranges.
Asthma, ulcers, and gout are few of many ailments that malunggay cures or treats.

Facts about Soap

In a dictionary, soap is defines as “a substance used for washing and cleansing purposes, usually made
by treating a fat with an alkali, as sodium or potassium hydroxide, and consisting chiefly of the sodium
or potassium salts of the acids contained in the fat.” If we would visualize soaps, it looks like a
rectangular or sometimes, oval bars that we can usually buy in supermarkets around the globe. Soaps
clean the surface of our body to remove dirt and protect us from germs with the presence of water. We
daily use soap to maintain a good hygiene and avoid bad odors. Soaps can also be moisturizers to help
our skin become fair, young, soft, smooth, or healthy. Most people doesn’t know that washing our
hands properly and regularly would prevent diseases like flus to attach them. People should be
reminded that our hands are the most usable part our body. We use it to eat, write, count money,
opening doors, dialing and such and as we touch public objects, germs from diseases are passed onto
our hands and throughout our body. We wouldn’t want to have a sick so it is important to wash our
hands. As the Safeguard soap says, “safeguard, laban sa limang banta (diarrhea, pneumonia, colds,
cough, and skin rashes)”

CHAPTER THREE:RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Materials

Ingredients
· One whole Ampalaya or Bitter Melon
· Malunggay
· About 55grams of Lye
· 200ml of mineral water
· 500 ml of Minola coconut oil
· 20ml of lavender fragrance oil
Materials
· 6 round stainless molds
· Glass stirring rod
· Glass measuring cup
· 2 large pots
Procedure

We decided to make our soap out of a few organic ingredients. We started off by cutting one whole
ampalaya into pieces with a knife and setting it aside. Then we took the malunggay leaves off its stems.
After that, we put them into separate bowls and blended them separately in the blender. We put a little
water with our ampalaya so that it becomes a thick liquid while our malunggay needed extra cutting to
become minced after being blended because we needed it to become dry bits.

After we set those aside, we put our gloves on and dropped about fifty grams of lye into two hundred
milliliters of water. We observed the chemical reaction as we dropped the lye in the water our solution
heats up. We mixed it until the mixture’s cloudy appearance disappears. And while the lye is almost
ready, we then put five hundred milliliters of coconut oil in a pot to heat because the temperature of the
oil needs to be at least five to ten Celsius apart from the temperature of the lye and if not, it can also
react and burn. When the oil was heated, we put it in a separate container and slowly put the lye with it.

We mixed it very vigorously for about one and a half hour. As we mixed it, the mixture becomes dark.
Then we put the blended ampalaya and minced malunggay into the mixture. After that, we stirred it
again with a spoon just until it became one whole green liquid base. It had an unpleasing smell to it so
we also added about ¾ of a twenty milliliters of lavender scented fragrance oil to the mixture.

Then we finally poured it into the molders and set it aside with a cloth on top of the molds so that it
absorb the substances that it will release and help the increase the speed of hardening the soap. After a
few days, the soap hardened enough for us to be able to take them out of their molds so we took them
out of their molds then set it in a dry place to let the soap cure for about two months so it can finally be
used.

CHAPTER FOUR:PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

Analysis

Our study is about creating a soap product with the combination of ampalaya or bitter melon and
malunggay. A French researcher said that organic products have high nutritional quality and safety and
so there have been a lot of studies regarding the use and benefits of organic products such as soaps.
Research has shown the significant improvements in health care industries that involve the aid of
organic products. According to Cancer Prevention Coalition, most of the products in the cosmetics
market are one the causes of cancer. Because it contains ingredients such as mercury, which is a very
dangerous element, and because many people are concerned about this, healthcare industries are
trying to create organic products for their consumers’ safety. As I have mentioned earlier, the ampalaya-
malunggay soap positions itself as an anti-aging and whitening soap. One of its benefits is the
suppleness of the skin after the soap is used or applied. It felt smooth on the skin and it didn’t show
allergic reactions after being used it and after the following days. The ingredients that we used are all-
organic and individually has a benefit to skin. The scented smell of our product comes from the lavender
extract oil, which is also organic.

The soap that we formulated was successful because it solidified and it somewhat turned into a soap.
But in a way it was not successful because the lye was burned by the over-heated coconut oil. We need
both lye and coconut oil to have the same temperature. But since the lye was burned, it took us quite
time to mix the ingredients. After mixing all the ingredients we saw that bubbles were starting to build
up while we were transferring them on the container.

When we used the product, it wasn’t so hard because the time wasn’t sufficient to harden the soap but
when we used it was gentle to the skin and does not cause any allergic reaction.

Summary

In summary, the experiment still turned out to be pretty successful. For our first time making soap, the
results were very good. The outcome was not perfect for a few reasons like the solution seemed burnt,
the mixture didn’t reach trace with our efforts of mixing and the soap itself looked a little bit too oily
which could have caused it to not solidify properly but it’s actually fine. Our oil turned out to be too hot
compared to the lye solution so the lye reacted to the oil and burned. Then after that we think that we
did not stir the mixture properly enough to the stage that it would be able to be molded into soap or is
called by soap makers as “trace”.

Soap making is not an easy task to do specially because you are dealing with lye or sodium hydroxide
that is a very reactive chemical. Our goal was to make cheap and organic skin care soap. But the truth is
that there is really no such thing as a one hundred percent “organic soap” because the main ingredient
needed for it is lye, which is a chemical itself.

We conclude that making soap is fun and can be easy but requires much research before even daring to
deal with it. Our group definitely did not lack in research but we were short on some materials. We did
not have a thermometer at that instance which is important for people who aren’t experienced in
making soap and measuring the temperature of the lye and oil so the mixture burnt a little bit and that
is why we think that our soap solution did not reach saponification properly. We also did not have an
electric mixer that is required when making soap so that the solution thickens up easily and that is the
reason we assume why the solution just did not thicken at all. We learnt through the experiment that
exact measurements were really needed so that the mixture saponificates.

Recommendations

We suggest that to anyone who is thinking of making soap for themselves for and reason should do
some proper research before deciding to do it. In some instances, buying soap could be more preferable
or ideal than taking a risk and making your own because not everyone is successful on their first or even
second try. But if you really want to make your own soap, do not just research, try to ask someone who
has already made soap or is making it for a living for advice. And finally, if you are set on making soap,
be sure to have the proper and complete materials you need; like a thermometer and electric mixer
specially when it is your first time making soap.

If you try or attempt making soap for the time, we would strongly suggest for you to use a large pot
when mixing the oil(s) with the lye solution because if you make a mistake like us on getting the right
temperature, the mixture will react and will bubble a lot and if you’re not doing it in a large pot, it
overflows and it will certainly get very messy; you would not want that to happen. Also be sure to have
proper measuring materials that will withstand lye and high temperatures. And if you’re going to use a
spoon or any other mixing apparatus besides an electric mixer, make sure it is made of a material that
wouldn’t possibly melt in lye. And of course, safety is important so wear gloves, goggles and a mask
when you are doing the procedure and always have vinegar near you so in case you get lye on your
hands or any other part of your body, you can easily wash it off with vinegar as water wouldn’t work.

Reference:

http://ampalunggaysoap.blogspot.com/2013/10/presenting-ampalunggay-soap.html