Abstract
There are many brands of shampoos in Tripoli markets-Libya, available from different sources, locally and imported from other different countries. The aim of this work was to investigate whether such brands comply with the Libyan standard specifications number 280 for shampoos issued by the national center for specifications and standards and to what extent these specifications are applied and restricted with. 14 shampoo brands were randomly collected from Tripoli markets and evaluated for their physicochemical properties including organoleptic characterization, pH measurement, determination of the percent of anionic and nonionic surfactant and the percent of preservative added, also the absence of any alkyl-arryl-sulfonate and the label information were checked. As a result of this work it was found that all investigated shampoo samples had a thick consistency with different colors and odors. Regarding the pH measurement, two shampoo samples were out of the specified range. Five shampoo samples had a total percent of the ionic and nonionic surfactants out of the specified limit. The percent of the preservative for all shampoo samples was within the specified limit. All shampoo samples were free from any alkyl-arryl-sulfonate. Only two shampoo samples were completely comply with the specifications regarding the label information.From such results it is clear that not all shampoo brands available in Tripoli markets comply with the Libyan standard specifications. Therefore the goods should prove their compliance with such standards before releasing them to the market.