Synthesis and characterization of antiseptic soap from neem oil and shea butter oil

Abstract

In this work, neem oil and shea butter oil were mixed in various proportions and used in preparing soaps which were subsequently characterized. The combination of Neem oil to Shea butter oil considered were 100:0, 80:20, 60:40, 50:50, 40:60, 20:80 and 0:100 (wt:wt). The physical properties of the prepared soap including hardness, foamability and pH were analyzed. The antibacterial properties of the prepared soaps in terms of sensitivity, minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration (with respect to Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis) indicated that the optimal anti-bacterial property of the developed soap was obtained with the exclusive use of shea butter oil.

Keywords: Neem oil, shea butter, antibacterial property.

African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(29), pp. 4656-4662