Assessment of Physicochemical Properties of Liquid Soaps in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background and Objective:The purposes of soap use may be lost when it induces irritations, allergies and adverse effects on the skin. The quality of soaps can be assessed based on their physicochemical properties. This study assessed some physicochemical properties of four variances of liquid soaps in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: Morning fresh liquid soap and sunlight liquid soap served as the branded liquid soaps and pink liquid soap and lemon liquid soap served as the unbranded liquid soaps. Standard analytical procedures in line with AOCS and ISO were employed in determining the pH, matter insoluble in water, density, moisture and volatile content and inorganic salts of the liquid soaps.Results were analyzed statistically using SPSS 25. Results: The pink liquid soap had the highest pH (12.26±0.38) while morning fresh liquid soap had the lowest pH. Lemon liquid soap had the highest density while the pink liquid soap had the lowest density. Morning fresh liquid soap had the highest moisture and volatile content while lemon liquid soap had the least. Morning fresh had the highest matter insoluble content, the pink liquid had the least. Morning fresh and sunlight soaps had inorganic salt values of 170.78±0.90 and 93.00±1.00, pink and lemon soaps had 95.33±1.17 and 93.33±0.76. Conclusion:It is therefore suggested that the scaling, irritations and other adverse effects on the skin from the use of some liquid soaps can be associated with the pH and Inorganic salt content, thus a check on the pH of liquid soaps during production is expedient.