Project 3.2, Soapnuts!

I stumbled upon a blog post from another website which talked about the bloggers discovery of soapnut replacements for laundry detergent. Perfect timing! I have never heard of the soapnut before. I had only ever considered the horse chestnut, which this blog also talks about but that I had learned from Anne and Tim in Environmental Sentinels. What I learned from reading through this blog is that both soapnuts and horse chestnuts share saponins which are chemical compounds that foam when ruffled in water. Further research led me to the saponins wikipedia page that mentioned how saponins are "bitter-tasting". That had revealed to me that they sit on the alkali end of the pH spectrum like other cleaning compounds such as bleach or window cleaner. Unlike bleach or window cleaner, however, the soapnut and horse chestnut are naturally derived.

The blog lays out how to process horse chestnuts but I still wonder about the chemical-level which differentiates the synthetic from the natural.

More to come.

https://wastelandrebel.com/en/make-laundry-detergent-out-of-chestnuts/