Soapy Fruit

Have you heard of the term, renewable or sustainable detergents?  Strange term you might think, it refers to cleaning material that is 100% natural and can easily be replenished by mother nature in fact it mostly refers to the use of a fruit as natural detergents.

Yip a fruit, that grows on a tree can be used to wash your dishes, clean your laundry and even use on your body as a soap or shampoo.

Soapnuts!  The fruit of the Soapnut tree (Sapindus Mukorossi -  a small shrub like tree), found mostly in warm temperate to tropical regions like India, Indonesia and Nepal is a great alternative to traditional detergents.

These trees grow wild in their natural habitat, they are free of chemicals, the fruit is harvested in a sustainable manner, then de-seeded, left to dry in the sun, and packaged for use as detergent.  The fruit is about 1 – 2 centimeters in diameter and turn from green to yellow and ripen to blackish.  The name soap nuts might be confusing as this is not a nut at all but a fruit, family of the leachy and perfectly safe to use by people who have a nut allergy.

Why does is work as a detergent?  The soap nut’s hard outer shell contains saponin, a natural surfacent (substance known for its cleaning ability). 

As the fruit is totally natural it is incredibly gentle on your skin and clothes, a great alternative for people with sensitive skin or who suffers from skin ailments such as eczema.  It is even save enough to use on your baby.   Another benefit is that as a fruit it is fully biodegradable and safe for your greywater system.

Soapnuts might be new to us, but it has been used for hundreds of years in their indigenous countries.

How to use soapnuts

Laundry

You place 3 – 6 soap nuts in a muslin bag, stocking or sock, with your load of washing and voila you’ve just replaced traditional laundry detergent.   You will be able to do 4 – 5 loads of laundry with the same set of nuts.
You will know that your nuts are “all-used-up” as they become dark and sickly at this point you can retire them to your compost heap.

Smell? Yip it does have a distinct smell but amasingly your laundry will just smell clean and not like the fruit.

Soapnut liquid

Make your own liquid by boiling 12  soapnuts with 6 cups of water for 30 minutes.  Then let it cool down, remove the nuts, pour it in an airtight glass jar and use as needed.  You can use this liquid for doing dishes, hand soap or shampoo.

A great way to preserve your soapnut liquid is to freeze it in ice cube trays, so every time you do your laundry you just pop two ice cubes in your washing machine.

Dishes

You can either use the soap liquid to wash your dishes or if you use a dishwasher you just throw two nuts in your cutlery holder.  Do not get fooled that soapiness cleans better, these natural little cleaners will not foam but they work really really well.

Also read our blog on more info and applications for soapnuts.

Apart from your local health shop we could find only one online supplier of soapnuts in South Africa, Nature Soap, visit their website for more information and to order.  Their soap nuts are imported from India, shipped not airfreighted as to cut down on their carbon footprint. 

This really is cleaning the way nature intended, what a wonderful way to prevent chemicals from flowing down our drains and polluting our water.   So go green with soapnuts.

Sources:  Nature Soap, Wikipedia, BuySoapNuts

Featured on Dink Groen on RSG with Amore Bekker

Weekly Tip

Other natural cleaning products:

• Lemons and lemon juice cut grease.
• Olive oil and a drop of lemon juice is an excellent furniture polish.