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 quality 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.

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In developing countries, household energy use is highly variable and complex, yet emissions arising from fuel combustion indoors are typically poorly quantified. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are emitted during the combustion of organic fuels such as charcoal and biomass. In the present study, multichannel polydimethylsiloxane rubber traps were used for gas‐phase PAH sampling and extracted using a low–solvent volume plunger‐assisted solvent extraction method. Sixteen US Environmental Protection Agency priority PAHs, primarily in the gas phase, were investigated in indoor air of rural and urban residential homes in coastal Kenya (Mombasa and Taita Taveta Counties) using typical combustion devices of each area. Average gaseous PAH concentrations per household were higher in rural (ranging 0.81–6.09 µg m–3) compared to urban (ranging 0–2.59 µg m–3) homes, although ambient PAH concentrations were higher in urban environments, likely attributable to traffic contributions. The impact of fuel choice and thereby combustion device on PAH emissions was very clear, with the highest concentrations of PAHs quantified from wood‐burning emissions from 3‐stone stoves (total PAH averages 46.23 ± 3.24 µg m–3 [n = 6]). Average benzo[a]pyrene equivalent total concentrations were evaluated for the priority PAHs and ranged from not detected to 43.31, 88.38, 309.61, and 453.88 ng m–3 for gas, kerosene, jiko, 3‐stone, and improved 3‐stone stoves, respectively. Environ Toxicol Chem 2020;39:538–547. © 2019 SETAC

The plant extracts of T. brownii and Acanthaceae spp. have been used as biocatalysts by several communities in Kenya to hasten anaerobic digestion. This study aimed at assessing the viability of these two extracts in hastening the availability of plant nutrients from bioslurry at ambient conditions. A controlled research design was followed using uncooked kitchen waste as the substrate for 28 retention days. Changes in bioslurry physicochemical properties and available plant nutrients were monitored every 7 days using wet chemistry and spectroscopic methods. The findings indicated that the two extracts significantly impacted the levels of available plant nutrients in the bioslurry compared to the control samples. T. brownii additives significantly increased the levels of lime content, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, total phosphorus, phosphoric acid, sulfur, and soluble silicic acid. On the contrary, Acanthaceae spp. additives significantly increased the levels of calcium, potassium, nitrates, total ammoniacal nitrogen, sulfates, and phosphates in the bioslurry samples. The use of these plant extracts thus reduces the time taken while increasing the concentration of available plant nutrients from bioslurry.