Balanites aegyptiaca has multiplicity of uses and almost every part of the plant is useful including its flowers, leaves, bark, root and fruit. In this study, oil from Desert date (Balanites aegyptiaca) kernel seed was extracted, analyzed and used in the formulation of soap and lotion. The physical parameters determined were oil content, specific gravity, refractive index and moisture content. These were found to be 45.32% ± 0.0026%, 0.90 ± 0.03, 1.45% and 0.114% ± 0.04%, respectively. The chemical parameters evaluated include saponification value (200.02 ± 0.12 mg KOH/g), acid value (2.14 ± 0.28 mg KOH/g), iodine value (104.39 ± 0.00 100/g), peroxide value (2.95 ± 0.00 mEq/kg) and free fatty acid (0.82% ± 0.01%). The oil quality assessments test indicates %FFA content of 0.84% and the fatty acids composition of the oil was evaluated using GC-MS as FAME; the oil contains about 47.52% unsaturated fatty acids. The seed kernel of Balanites aegyptiaca is a good source of vegetable oil. Soap formulated from the oil is considered a good soap based on the soap quality parameters determined. Lotion formulated has a good stability when subjected to lotion stability test.

In this study, activated carbon was developed from saw-dust by pyrolysis. The activated carbon was characterized for elemental composition, morphology and surface chemistry. The potential of the prepared activated carbon for the removal of methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution was investigated. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to evaluate the adsorption isotherm, kinetic and thermodynamic of MB onto saw-dust activated carbon. The MB removal efficiency was 99.2% and the Lamgmuir isothermal model having correlation coefficient (R 2) of 0.98 gave the best fit. The kinetics of MB adsorption onto activated carbon was described with the pseudo second order model indicates the dominance of chemisorption mechanism. Thermodynamic parameters showed that the adsorption of MB on saw dust activated carbon adsorbent was endothermic in nature and a non-spontaneous process. The activation energy of 34.7 kJ/mol further reveals that the adsorption process was chemisorption. Generally, the results suggest that the saw-dust activated carbon is a viable adsorbent for effective removal of MB from wastewater effluent contaminated with dye.

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