Most of the cleaning products that available in the market today are made from potentially toxic chemicals that could harm us, our family and the environment. After washes there are unseen residues of these chemicals are left on our clothes. These residues possibly absorbed by our skin and evaporated into the air where they could be breathed in.

In this article we are going to introduce one alternative cleaning detergent which is safer and good for our ecology. Soap nuts or soap berries are the fruit of a tree that is cultivated in northern India at the foot of the Himalayas for commercial use. Soap berries have been used for thousands of years to clean fabrics in Asia such as in Japan, China and India.

The outer shell of the soap berry contains saponin, a natural substance known for its ability to cleanse and wash. The botanical name for soap nut is sapindus mukorossi. According to few researches soap berry is also exhibit anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties.

Cleaning Products from Soap Berries

There are three types of cleaning products that available made from soap berries or soap nuts; laundry detergents, bath soap and household cleaning.

For laundry detergents we can use either liquid detergent or the soap nut itself. 4 to 5 pieces of soap berry is used per wash and can be re-used at least 10 times. Those berries are place into a cotton bag before being use in your washer. The reason why the soap nut could be reuse for so many times are because while washing more shells is break releasing more saponin. Trial size pack price is US$ 4 per pack and can be used for 10 washes. On the otherhand, liquid detergent made from soap nuts is almost similar to regular liquid detergent. The price for smallest pack for 24 to 48 loads is US$ 9.49.

For household cleaning products there are more options. All of them are green and safe for our ecology.

• Natural glass cleaner (spray and refill).
• Natural multi surface cleaner (spray and refill)
• Natural clean scoring powder

Benefits of the Soap Berries’ Products

There are so many benefits of using these environmentally friendly soap or detergent compared to regular detergent. The unprocessed berry for laundry usage is for instance is 100% natural because it’s a just dried fruit. It’s totally biodegradable and will not harm our ecology or environment. It is also safe for septic and grey water systems. Soap berry is also low suds detergent, the detergent that we need to us in high efficiency with less water usage washing machines.

Cloth diapers and baby clothing for instance need special attentions in cleaning because of sensitivity of baby’s skin. Readers could visit Eco Nuts to know more about their eco-friendly products. Thanks for reading.