Soap Nuts Are Not All Alike.

Soap nuts are a fruit that comes from a genus of trees and shrubs known as Sapindus. It is their remarkable ability to produce the all-natural soap (saponin) that makes them so very special – an ideal natural, organic detergent and cleanser. As a typical consumer, you receive them as simply the dried fruits with their seeds removed (usually). They are dried because that extends their shelf life. If they were not dry they would obviously rot as would any fruit or vegetable. Think of them as you would a bag of dried fruit snacks or beef jerky. They most closely remind me of cherries. They have a very large seed and relatively thin pulp and skin. While fresh off the tree, a small slit and little squeeze will pop the seed right out. The pulp and skin are then left to dry in the sun. Upon being made wet again with warm water and agitated the saponin is released and suds will appear.

However, as an apple is not just an apple, and a grape is not just a grape, a soap nut is not just a soap nut. Do you think a vineyard cares about the type and quality of the grapes they grow? You bet – big time. If all is not right, an entire year’s harvest could be worthless. Now, the grape is probably the most extreme example I can think of to make my point. Such is the beauty of extremes – they make points easy to understand. It’s such fundamentals that we are going to apply to soap nuts. The purpose of this article is to provide more basics about soap nuts that should lead to even better experiences, and to assist you in becoming a more informed consumer.

As with grapes the varieties run from A to Z. A vineyard is extremely particular regarding the grapes they grow. Different grapes will produce different wines. With soap nuts, we don’t need to go to THAT extreme for there is no culinary aspect to deal with. The value of a soap nut distills down to one thing – saponin. 100% pure saponin has essentially no variables (other than those caused by the extraction process used). It is what it is, and does what it does. It is the CONCENTRATION of the saponin contained within the soap nut that we must concern ourselves with. From species to species across the globe, soap nuts vary greatly. Without going into all the different species in detail (that’s for another page), the fact is that the Sapindus mukorossi species are relatively large and contain the most consistently high concentration of saponin. Hence, it is the most prized and highest valued. The Mukorossi soap nut tree grows wild throughout an emmence region around the Himalayan Mountains extending from southern China, through Nepal and into northern India. This is also known as the Chinese soapberry. Alternately, Sapindus Marginatus for example (aka the Florida soapberry) is also a soap nut, but it simply doesn’t work as well because its saponin concentration pales by comparison. The same goes for Sapindus trifoliatus, a smaller tree from southern India and Pakistan. They both produce soap nuts, but the quality is simply not as high.

It is important to note that most people have no clue as to what a soap nut even looks like. The name implies that it looks like a nut, and that is most likely how it became known as a soap nut. Even those of us who see and use soap nuts routinely are not always able to immediately determine one species from another. For example a prematurely harvested mukorossi soap nut would be very similar in size to the smaller trifoliatus soap nut. And as with all things in nature variations are common. As a former tree farmer in an earlier life, Mother Nature never ceased to amaze me with the little twists she’d throw at us. The color of soap nuts naturally changes as they age causing for even more confusion.

Again, the primary purpose of this post is simply to provide the basis for understanding that a soap nut is not just a soap nut. Wise consumers must be aware of this. A word of advice: Never assume a seller even knows exactly what they are selling. Do your own homework and ask questions. Many more pages are provided here which offer additional information to assist you in asking all the RIGHT questions.

March 10th, 2009 | Tags: mukorossi soap nuts, natural soap, organic detergent, sapindus, sapindus mukorossi soap nuts, saponin, saponins, soap nut saponin, soap nut variations, soap nuts, soap nuts fruit, soap nuts saponin, soap nuts shelf life, soap nuts varieties, soapberry | Category: natural soap, saponin, soap nuts, soapberry, soapnuts

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