Claims:1. A method for estimating a butylated antioxidant in soap samples, the method comprising:
dispersing said soap samples in a solvent to form a first dispersion, wherein the solvent is selected from the group consisting of non-polar and polar aprotic solvents;
separating a supernatant and a residue from the first dispersion;
subjecting the supernatant to a gas chromatograph to separate the butylated antioxidant; and
quantitatively estimating the butylated antioxidant in the supernatant based on an analysis with the gas chromatograph.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the butylated antioxidant is selected from the group consisting of butyl hydroxytoluene (BHT), butylated hydroxyl anisole (BHA), and tert-butylated hydroxyquinone (TBHQ).

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein weight by volume ratio of the soap samples to the solvent is in a range of 50mg/ 10mL to 100mg/ 10mL.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein ratio of the soap samples to the solvent is sufficient to make up to 2000 ppm of BHT in the supernatant.

5. The method as claimed in any of claims 1-4, wherein the solvent is selected from the group consisting of hexane and acetone.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method comprises allowing the first dispersion to rest for 2-10 minutes prior to separating the supernatant and the residue.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the separating of the supernatant and the residue is by filtration.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein filtration is through a syringe filter.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantitative estimation of butylated antioxidants is based on an area under a peak corresponding to butylated antioxidants of sample in a gas chromatogram obtained by the analysis with the gas chromatograph.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein the quantitative estimation of butylated antioxidants comprises interpolating the area under the peak of the gas chromatogram corresponding to BHT of sample with a calibration curve.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the quantitative estimation comprises generating the calibration curve by:
dissolving a pre-determined quantity of the butylated antioxidant in the solvent to obtain a stock solution;
diluting the stock solution to obtain a plurality of diluted solutions of varying concentrations;
subjecting each of the plurality of diluted solutions to the gas chromatograph to obtain a respective gas chromatogram;
determining an area under a peak of the respective gas chromatogram; and
correlating the area to concentration of each of the plurality of diluted solutions to generate the calibration curve.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein concentration of the stock solution is in the range of 500 to 1000 ppm.

13. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gas chromatograph comprises one of a polar gas chromatographic column and a non-polar gas chromatographic column.
, Description: As Attached