Ester long-chain, basic hydrolysis

Ester hydrolysis in base is called saponification, which means soap making Over 2000 years ago the Phoenicians made soap by heating animal fat with wood ashes Animal fat is rich m glycerol triesters and wood ashes are a source of potassium car bonate Basic hydrolysis of the fats produced a mixture of long chain carboxylic acids as their potassium salts... 

The anions of CDs may also function as simple basic catalysts towards acidic substrates included in their cavities. Such was observed by Daffe and Fastrez (1983) who studied the deprotonation and hydrolysis of oxazolones in basic media containing CDs. Also, in a paper dealing mainly with catalysis by amylose, it was noted that CDs catalyse the deprotonation of long chain /3-keto esters in basic aqueous DMSO (Cheng et al., 1985) no saturation kinetics were found for CDs, indicating weak substrate binding under the conditions used. 

The term saponification (Latin, saponis, soap ) literally means the making of soap. Soap is made by the basic hydrolysis of fats, which are esters of long-chain carboxylic acids (fatty acids) with the triol glycerol. When sodium hydroxide hydrolyzes a fat, the resulting long-chain sodium carboxylate salts are what we know as soap. Soaps and detergents are discussed in more detail in Chapter 25. 

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