Ask a Teacher

Saponification is a process that produces soap usually from fats and lye (strong alkali which is highly soluble in water )to produce caustic  basic  solutions .In technical terms, the alkaline hydrolysis of an ester to form sodium salt of the parent acid and alcohol is called saponification (latin ,sapon=soap ) ,since this type of reaction is used in preparing soaps from fats .Vegetable oils and animal oils are the main materials that are saponified .