Sodium hydroxide (>96%) and potassium hydroxide
(>85%) were purchased from Wako Chemicals and used
after milling, to facilitate the dissolution in alcohol. The
alcohols employed in the reactions (methanol, ethanol,
n-propanol, iso-propanol, n-butanol, iso-butanol, tertiarybutanol), from Wako Chemicals had more than
99.5% purity and were used as received. The vegetable
oil was of commercial edible grade and it had the following
basic properties: