Diseño de un proceso industrial para la elaboración de detergentes a partir de la saponina obtenida del fruto de choloque (sapindus saponaria l.)

Abstract

The research objective was to design an industrial process for the production of detergents from the saponin obtained from the choloque fruit (Sapindus Saponaria L.), a raw material unknown to the public and used in ancient times as a conventional soap of natural origin. For the production of liquid detergent, two methodologies were used to obtain saponin as the main component of the biodegradable detergent, where the method using 70% ethyl alcohol as solvent was chosen for the extraction of saponin and the production process of the liquid detergent. The process began with the reception and physical-chemical characterization of the raw material, drying at 75 °C for 24 hours, grinding of the dried choloque fruits to reduce their size, maceration of the fruits using ethyl alcohol at 70% purity as organic solvent for the concentration of the extract for 72 hours, once the extract was obtained, it was filtered under vacuum, then it was distilled and concentrated to dryness in a rotary evaporator at 45 °C until concentrated saponin was obtained. Finally, the saponin was homogenized with the other components to obtain the liquid detergent. For the industrial production process, the following unitary operations were established: shelling, drying, maceration, filtration, distillation and homogenization. Finally, to determine that the processed product is suitable to sanitize and be marketed, physicochemical analyses were performed based on INEN Standard 847:2015. Surfactants that determined that the liquid detergent meets the quality parameters, resulting in a 95% biodegradable product that is environmentally friendly. In addition, a selling price per unit of US$4.76 was established for accessibility to the general public. It is recommended that the choloque fruits be cleaned thoroughly, since adhering mud particles influence the concentration of the saponin extract.