Question

Saponification is carried out by
A) Oxidation
B) Alkaline hydrolysis
C) Polymerisation
D) Free radical formation

Answer 1

Hint: Saponification is a process involved in the production of a soap. In the saponification reaction, the fatty acids undergo reaction with the lye (sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide) to form a soap.

Complete answer:
So here in the question it is asked that the saponification is carried out by which mechanism given in the options.
We know that the saponification step is the process involved in the manufacturing of soaps and detergents.
In the saponification reaction the fatty acids like the fats,oils and lipids are getting converted into soap and alcohol when heated with a lye.
The commonly used lies for the preparation of soaps are sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide.
The bathing soaps are said as the sodium salts of fatty acids and are called as the hard soaps since they can be used in hard por heavy water also i.e water containing the salts of Ca,Mg and Cl and the soft soaps are made using KOH.
So we know that the fatty acids are large molecules and they contain many molecules and as they are acid they possess the carboxylic acid as the function group.
When this acid reacts with the lye the base it forms the salts of fatty acids ie the soap and glycerol is also formed along with the soap.
Fatty acid $+$ NaOH $\to$ Na-salt of fatty acid $+$ glycerol
The saponification process is carried out by the alkaline hydrolysis mechanism.

So the correct answer from the above options are option (B).

Note:
In the saponification reaction,the hydroxide ion of the base cleaves the ester bond and forms the salts of fatty acids. In general we say alkaline hydrolysis is a nucleophile reaction in which the attacking nucleophile is hydroxide ion. Saponification value is the amount of lye that is required for the saponification process of a fat sample.