Teach Soap

Warning: hardcore chemistry!

I asked the question a while back as to whether FOs have sap values, because of an experiment I did in which some of the KOH appeared to be reacted by the oil.
Now, I think that the answer we get from FO suppliers - that FO "doesn't saponify" and therefore has no sap value, while technically correct, may be misleading. It's not saponifying, to be sure . . . but something IS happening otherwise trace would not accelerate, ricing would never occur, etc.
I think it would be more correct to ask of the supplier "what is the equivalent to a sap value caused by this FO?"
The reason why I am thinking along these lines is that when I used to teach organic chemistry (not at any high level I hasten to add) I learned that aldehydes and ketones were often present in aromatics. Now, as illustrated in the link below,
www.chem.missouri.edu/chem2050/Dibenzylacetone.doc
a mixture of aldehydes and ketones will indeed react with NaOH to form aldols. (molecules composed of alcohols and aldehydes)

Sorry if this really bores you. I'm a bit of a maniac for tracking things down, probably because I am an aspie!
And anyway I might be on the wrong track.

I think that will be a pretty impossible task in the US, as fragrance manufacturers here will not disclose ANY ingredients that are needed to make a fragrance.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Yes the proprietary ingredients are protected. Perhaps if you sent a sample to a lab they could reverse engineer it for you and determine a sap value. The expense would be prohibitive I would think . I do understand attention to detail and how these type of questions can drive one to distraction! Good luck in your search.

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

As soon as I have the time I'll do more experiments of my own with various fragrances to determine how much NaOH each consumes per ml. At the moment I have to make sample batches of creams and carry on with the shampoo development

I must say - you seem to be enjoying this. And by the way bio-chem was a favorite of mine in collage!

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!