RESEARCH ARTICLE

Journal of Oil Palm Research Vol. 33 (4) December 2021, p. 724-731

STABILITY AND PERFORMANCE OF PALMBASED TRANSPARENT SOAP WITH OIL PALM LEAVES EXTRACT

NORASHIKIN AHMAD*; ZAFARIZAL ALDRIN AZIZUL HASAN* and SITI HAJAR BILAL*

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr.2021.0024
Received: 17 November 2020   Accepted: 1 March 2021   Published Online: 19 May 2021
ABSTRACT

Oil palm leaves (OPAL) is one of the oil palm waste components that can be extracted for natural phenolics. The OPAL extracts have been successfully extracted via four different extraction procedures; extraction with ethanol (OPAL M1), deoiled and followed by extraction with ethanol (OPAL M2), deoiled and extraction with ethanolic hydrochloric acid (OPAL M3) and aqueous extraction (OPAL M4). In this study, pH, moisture content, hardness, foaming power and stability, antioxidant activity and colour stability of transparent soaps with OPAL extracts were carried out. The results indicated that all transparent soaps with OPAL extracts had similar pH in the range of 9.88 to 9.98. However, there was a significant reduction of moisture content (14.6%-16.7%) compared to transparent soap control (18.3%) due to the evaporation of water during the melting and mixing. The hardness of transparent soaps with OPAL M3 and OPAL M4 was found to be softer than transparent soaps with OPAL M1 and OPAL M2. By adding OPAL extracts, the foaming ability and stability were not affected. Transparent soap formulated with OPAL M1 extract exhibited the highest percentage of antioxidant activity (3.7%). The use of OPAL extracts is recommended in transparent soap as it provides natural colourant.

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* Malaysian Palm Oil Board,
6 Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi,
43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.
E-mail: shikin@mpob.gov.my