AURA and AUHS Plan to ‘Clean Up’ With Soap Project
By David Omut, BSN, MBA, Jonathan Coffman, PhD and John Schloss, {PhD
The ancient Romans made soap for medicinal purposes by saponification of animal fat with wood ashes. Since the Middle Ages this method of making soap has been a part of Western tradition. Fats and oils are principally composed of triglycerides. Wood ash contains carbonate salts of various metals, predominantly potassium carbonate. Heating an aqueous emulsion of triglycerides and potassium carbonate will hasten the hydrolysis of the fat to glycerin and potassium salts of the fatty acids. Saponification is the term used to refer to the conversion of an ester, such as fat or oil, to a water-soluble soap by base hydrolysis.
Soap – spa, beauty procedures and skin care concept
Modern soaps contain a plethora of ingredients that read like they came directly from an industrial-chemical handbook. Even soaps and shampoos that claim to be ‘all natural’ contain many non-natural chemical products derived from the laboratory and not found in nature. An AURA-AUHS project led by David Omut, Jonathan Coffman, and John Schloss will be mentoring Temujin, Alex to his friends, Johnson, one of AURA’s founding students and son of AUHS Founders Pastor Gregory Johnson and Ms. Kim Dang-Johnson, in the chemistry, microbiology, clinical applications, and business of soap making. The products formulated, prepared, distributed, and developed into both non-profit and for-profit businesses by Alex/Temujin and other AURA students will contain only natural ingredients, emollients, chelators, and antibiotics. An early application for AURA’s products will be soaps specifically designed for foot care. They will be formulated to prevent and treat diabetic sores, athlete’s foot (tinea pedis), toenail fungus, and viral infections. These soaps will be provided to the AUHS Foundation’s Lamp Unto My Feet program to clean the feet of underprivileged and homeless individuals served by this and other community outreach programs.
