Palm olein solid soap as a matrix for organophosphate decontamination agents

Abstract

Penetration of organophosphates through skin is one of the major routes for organophosphate poisonings which are associated with acute injuries and deaths. Thus, immediate and effective decontamination of these chemicals from the exposed skin is essential to prevent them from entering the body. Soap solutions which have a capacity to remove effectively the organophosphates from the skin, can be modified by adding suitable additives, to make them capable to convert the poisons into harmful chemicals to the environment. Although soaps are commercially abundant, their exact formulations are unknown. In order to understand soap interactions with their additives, the knowledge of the soap compositions is needed. In this paper, we describe the results of our attempts to synthesise soaps from palm olein and coconut oil by saponification process using sodium hydroxide. Our study showed that, the soap synthetized from palm olein and sodium hydroxide solution has similar physicochemical properties with those of the selected commercial soap. This soap will be modified and further characterised for removal of organophosphates from contaminated skins. This paper report results of our preliminary study on the soap characterization prior to formulation of the soap with active ingredient as organophosphate decontamination agent.