Green saponification process: liquid soap from waste cooking oil and pandan leaves

Global waste is expected to grow significantly by 2050. One of the contributors comes from improper treatment of waste cooking oil (WCO) which eventually causes environmental pollution. Therefore, effective waste management strategies are essential to reduce this impact. This research finds an eco-friendly solution to overcome this issue through a green saponification process using waste-cooking oils (WCO) incorporated with pandan leaves for liquid soap production. The objective of our study is to produce liquid soaps from waste cooking oil incorporated with different masses of powdered pandan leaves (1.02 g, 2.55 g, 3.06 g, 5.10 g) and determine its physicochemical properties. Seven tests were conducted, namely pH, total alkali content, foam test and stability, moisture content and solubility to determine the ideal liquid soap formulation. This product provides innovative approaches where it converts cooking oil and plant (pandan leaves) into a valuable and marketable product, contributing to circular economy principles and the soap formulation itself uses minimal chemicals ingredients making it more skin-friendly to the consumers