Lime Peel Can be Made into Environmentally Friendly Dishwashing Soap

Introduction

Dish soap is a household product commonly used to clean kitchen utensils.  However, many commercial dish soaps contain chemicals that can have a negative impact on the environment.  Therefore, using lime peel as a natural ingredient in making environmentally friendly dishwashing soap.  Lime peel is rich in bioactive compounds such as flavonoids, polyphenols and essential oils.  This content has antibacterial and antifungal properties which can be effective in cleaning and removing grease on kitchen utensils.  Using lime peel can also help reduce organic waste, in line with environmental conservation efforts.

Methods

The main raw materials used are lime peel and Barco brand coconut oil.  The supporting materials include 30% KOH solution, glycerin, propylene glycol, distilled water, lemon fragrance oil, mica special green soap dye, mask and latex gloves.  The tools used in this activity are knives, grinders, stirrers, sieves, scales, slow cookers, measuring cups, mercury thermometers.

The process of making dishwashing soap begins with preparations for making lime infused oil by mixing 8 parts coconut oil with 1 part lime peel simplicia which has been dried first in a drying oven at 50 C for 12 hours. The mixture is heated in a slow cooker on low setting ( 55 C) for 24 hours. Next, filtering is carried out and the lime peel infused oil is ready to be used to make dishwashing soap.

making handmade soap using coconut oil as the raw material for natural dishwashing soap, including

- coconut oil as a source of fatty acids for saponification reactions,

 - KOH as an alkaline compound,

 - Glycerin and propylene glycol as additional foam stabilizers and humectants

 - Aquades as a solvent

 - Mica colorant is a special dye for soap, this dye is added to make the product more attractive. Adding additives to the soap is stirred until evenly distributed and the soap making is complete)

 - Lemon oil as additional fragrFrance

First, weigh all the ingredients needed according to the basic formulation of 500 g of soap.  150 grams of lime peel infused oil is heated in a slow cooker at 75 C. The function of this infused oil is as a surfactant and emulsifier.  Next, add 103.5 g of 30% KOH solution little by little and stir until it forms a soap paste.  The function of the 30% KOH solution is as an alkali in the saponification process.  This soap paste cooking stage is carried out for 2 hours.  Color changes and clarity tests from the soap paste results were also observed.  Then the dilution process (dilution of the soap paste) was carried out by adding 279.5 g of distilled water, 20.5 g of glycerin and 45 g of propylene glycol and heating at 750C for 3 hours.  The function of distilled water is as a solvent, while glycerin and propyl glycol both function as moisturizers (humectants).  Next, cool down and reduce the temperature to 400C and finally 0.2 grams of lemon oil and mica coloring each are mixed into the soap mixture and stirred for 30 minutes.  The resulting liquid soap can be packaged directly into bottles and ready to use.

Conclusion

Lime peel-based dishwashing soap showed satisfactory results in tests for cleaning grease and bacteria.  The implication is that using this soap can support sustainable practices in daily life, while keeping the kitchen clean.  Utilizing lime peels in making dishwashing soap is an innovative solution that can reduce the negative impact of conventional products on the environment,