Soap Nuts
20 Oct
If you are anything like alot of people, you have probably never heard of soap nuts. I know I hadn’t, until this article I read the other day. Soap nuts, also called soapberries, washing nuts, or Ritha/Reetha (in Hindi), contain “saponins”, which have the ability to clean and wash. When in contact with water, it creates a mild suds, which is similar to soap. The article went on to explain that for hundreds of years, people in India and Nepal have been doing their laundry and cleaning with Soapnuts.
Soap Nuts In a Laundry Sack
The nut is the dried fruit of the Ritha tree and the saponin released is a 100% substitute to normal detergents. Soap nuts can be used for cleaning basically anything, from washing clothes, as a liquid soap, cleaning and shining ornaments, household cleaner etc.
Soapnuts are highly-effective and gentle at the same time. They will leave your laundry fresh and clean and compared to other detergents, the mildness will keep colours bright, maintaining fabric structure of your clothes for longer periods.
Soap Nuts Added to a Laundry Load
They are described as being safe to use on all fabrics and at all temperatures. Soap nuts are allergy-free and hence are good for your skin especially good for babies, eczema and sensitive skin. This chemical free product is excellent for washing children’s clothing, cloth diapers are suppose to come out smelling fresh and clean with just one wash with soap nuts! Soap nuts are 100% biodegradable. Simply add the used soapnuts directly to your compost heap.
To wash your laundry:
Step 1
Place 4 or 5 Soap Nut shells in a mini muslin bag or old sock. Tie the bag or sock closed and throw it into the drum of your machine. The saponin (natural soap) in the shells is released when it contacts water.
Step 2
Use this batch of soap nuts for 4 or 5 loads of laundry or until the soap nuts are mushy and greyish. If possible, let soap nuts dry in between loads.
Step 3
To make liquid, you need 12 cups of water for every 100g of soap nuts. Let them boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the soap nuts and store the liquid in an airtight container.
Step 4
Instead of using soapnuts whole in your laundry, you can use 3Tbsp per large load. Now you don’t have to remember to find that little baggy in amongst those wet clothes!
Have you ever used soap nuts? Let me know what you think.
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Good job raising awareness of soap nuts. They are all we use for our laundry now, and we tell everybody about them.
hello,
I m glad to hear that a lot of people are soapnut fans. I am a retail and well as wholesale supplier of soapnuts. If you are interesting in geting soapnuts, kindly emial me at;
samruddhi.parmar@gmail.com
or call me at +919764907663 IST (GMT+5.30)
Regards,
Samruddhi Parmar
Good Morning!
There is a liquid laundry detergent made from soap nuts! Such a nice product and pretty bottle….It has lasted twice as long as my old natural laundry detergent and I can't find another one that doesn't use synthetic preservatives (chemical stuff). It has citric acid and essential oils instead of the harmful preservatives. It is made by this company: http://www.maggiespureland.com/index.html
Happy Healthy Washing everyone!