As a former reporter, editor, salesperson, marketing company owner, advertising consultant, and ultimately a formulator of natural products for skin care and home cleaning products, I feel uniquely qualified to write this article. I have had it with shallow, irresponsible and shabby journalism. Something of benefit to our lives, our health and our planet was recently made more confusing and convoluted than ever for consumers by an author that is presumably an expert on laundry.
Any moderately skilled professional could have written the article I recently read with fifteen minutes of shallow research and five minutes of writing. The entire article contained only 241 words! It contains a few correct facts and some opinion. Some of it read like it was simply taken from blogs. It represented the antithesis of quality research and journalism. I am outraged that a professional would produce such a sloppy piece of work.
WATER SOFTENER COMPARISON
The article was published on a popular site that I have always thought to be a source for quality, objective, well-studied information. The article is about soapnuts as a detergent alternative. I do not want to mention the respectable web site's name. Quite possibly the article somehow just slipped through a crack and was published. I highly doubt the site's editorial management would have published it given the errors I am going to point out.
The very first sentence is incorrect, and the author makes contradictory statements two paragraphs later. The author states, "Soapnuts have been used in undeveloped countries for many years as a way to clean clothes." The fact: Soap nuts are used for a plethora of cleaning purposes. They create a "soaping effect" and are used as much for personal cleansing as they are for laundry. (btw: I really don not like the use of "undeveloped" when referring to countries such as India, Nepal, China, and even Japan that are specifically named in the second paragraph.) It is not "many" years - try thousands of years. Soap nuts can be traced back to ancient Hindu Ayurvedic treatments and remedies.
Secondly, the author states, "The fruit pulp is used locally in northern India and China to control head lice, as fish poison and as insecticide." That's it? What about the other hundred or so uses? Yes, saponin naturally has antimicrobial and antibacterial properties and is excellent for deterring insects. As a former tree farmer too, I'd like to point out that we typically used a cheap soapy water solution (not soap nuts - this was long before we ever heard of soap nuts) to defend our trees from the typical pests such as aphids. (btw: Aphids are also known as plant lice. They are similar little buggers.) Bugs don't like soapy stuff.
Thirdly, "fish poison"??? (I have to wonder if this author was in a negative mood the day it was written, or that someone has a lot of stock in P&G.) "Fish poison" sounds terrible and scary - and is very misleading. The fact: Soap nuts (surely for the same reasons as given above for pest control, plus its ability to change the pH level of the water) can be used in high concentration to stun or kill fish - that are for human consumption! They can be of aid to local fishermen in harvesting fish for food. Again "fish POISON". Who has owned an aquarium in the audience? Does it take much of a change in the water to kill fish? A quick temperature change alone will often kill fish. As a fisherman, that is why fish are constantly in search of the thermocline in a lake or large body of water where the water temperature is more stable and to their liking. I also live on a lake. My community has experienced Golden Algae blooms that resulted in large fish kills. Is the algae a poison? Absolutely not. It causes fish to suffocate by lowering oxygen levels and clogging their gills. Use of this term and phrase in the context of this article - by a professional - is totally thoughtless and irresponsible.
Interesting notes:
1) Golden Algae is not fully understood and is plaguing many lakes in the US. Studies have linked it in part to elevated phosphates in the water supplies. Yes, phosphates - those same phosphates found in detergents for all these years. Yes - those same phosphates that we have only recently become aware of as being potential health hazards. Interestingly, soap nuts and saponin are totally PHOSPHATE FREE!
2) Fish overpopulation can pose environmental problems in many areas of the world. Game and Fish Departments across the US have used many methods to deal with it. Use of saponin has the potential to be an extremely safe and benign method to resolve the problem when needed.
Fourthly, the author states, "The pulp contains saponins which are extracted by boiling the powdered fruits." That is one way out of many ways. I extract pure saponin and that is not how I do it. What was really significant about this point for the consumer? There are excellent in-depth articles about soap nut liquids and the extraction processes. There are some VERY important and serious health related issues surrounding the various means used for saponin extraction and producing liquids. Such articles provide you quality information that will actually be helpful and beneficial for consumers to understand.
Fifthly, the author states, "Soapnuts are used as commercial detergent for polishing jewelry, as a textile additive and as an emulsifier in insecticides." Geesh... This article actually seems to be written to intentionally confuse consumers! It is certainly not a "commercial detergent" by any stretch. Albeit I do have commercial and industrial level customers, and some use it on a large scale, but the vast majority of soap nut usage is purely consumer, retail and at home use. Yes, saponin has been used as a superb jewelry cleaner for centuries. (My own jeweler even uses it exclusively now. He states that it is far superior and much safer than what he used previously.) As for "textile additive" and "emulsifier in insecticides", quite frankly this sounds like the author is making an ATTEMPT to sound like an authority figure. I'm going to just leave my comments there, or I may end up sounding unprofessional myself.
Lastly, as far as the last few sentences, a couple things were correct, but the rest is again misleading or downright wrong. It looks like a copy and paste job on the natural surfactant part. Maybe that's why it is accurate. The writer of the source material actually knew something about how detergents work. Of the thousands of users of soap nuts, I will lay odds that they will state that soap nuts are far, far better than "adequate". Interestingly, not a word is written about soap nuts eliminating the need for fabric softeners or dryer sheets. I feel that is something of value that people would have appreciated knowing.
Soap nuts are entirely foreign to most consumers. They do need to be used properly for best results. Fact again: They work exceptionally well on most degrees of laundry dirtiness. They are not to be claimed as a tough stain remover, albeit I've had amazing results with most typical stains - and I have done more actual controlled physical testing than I want to think about. Here is just an interesting nugget to chew on: Given that it is an exceptional jewelry cleaner, wouldn't it be logical to assume it would perform well on many stains, too? Just think about that for a minute. Hmmm...
I am certainly understanding of the pressures on writers to produce material. I understand quotas and deadlines, but none are excuses for downright awful articles. Given so few words, how much content, substance and depth can an article have? I have written longer blog posts on specific soap nut usage issues with more substance. I've written many published articles, mostly on different particular ASPECTS regarding soap nuts. I could not possibly write a meaningful full review about soap nuts and saponin in 241 words!
Why am I writing this article? Purely for damage control. We already have a confused consumer, and the article in question increased that level of confusion. I am compelled to set the record straight.
In leading to a summation and close, I will present some Q and A's that should be considered significant and relevant to the BIG picture:
Q. What most commonly determines the specific brands consumers use to do their laundry and clean their homes?
A. Their mother.
Q. Other than our mothers, what determines the general type of cleaning products most consumers use?
A. Marketing and advertising.
Q. Who has been doing most of this marketing and advertising for the last 170 years?
A. Procter and Gamble.
Q. What does Procter and Gamble produce (that is relevant to this article)?
A. Chemical-based detergents, cleaners and soaps.
Q. How many people have ever heard of soap nuts and/or saponin?
A. One in a thousand - maybe. (That's just a wild guess.)
Q. How many people really understand what soap nuts are, and how to use them properly?
A. One in ten thousand - again maybe.
Q. How much marketing and advertising money is being spent promoting soap nuts?
A. Very little - a drop in a bucket relative to other detergent products and soaps.
Q. To get good results from soap nuts what is required?
A. Knowledge.
The notion of using soap nuts (a dried raw fruit) for laundry and cleaning is so foreign to most consumers that the CONCEPT is difficult to grasp. However, a panel of "green" experts (university professors, authors, scientists, etc.) from the "Green Dot Awards - Celebrating Excellence in Green Products and Services" studied soap nuts and the awards jury made the following statement: "...green detergents and cleansers. Use of saponin, which is derived naturally from soap nuts, is possibly the most significant green innovation in history for everyday household cleaning needs."
I highly doubt that this panel of professionals only spent minutes in evaluating soap nuts to make such a POWERFUL statement.
To the writer of the worst article I have ever read regarding soap nuts, if they didn't please you, sorry. Did you thoroughly read the directions for use? Did you conduct some side-by-side comparisons with other natural detergents? Most importantly be sure that you are using them properly. If not, of course results will be less than satisfactory. I do not want to make this assumption, but it is noteworthy to mention the following: Every single person that I asked to read the article responded similarly. And that response was, "It seems like the writer has never even used them."
When used properly, the results are astounding. I offer my knowledge and assistance to anyone. I only seek the truth and will only share the truths to the best of my ability.
If anyone out there is writing about soap nuts, please feel free to contact me. I would be honored and more than willing to assist you in your studies. You have my word that I will be completely objective. You will receive only facts and results from credible research and studies. I also have available many case studies that have been provided by soap nut users. Much of this could be of high value and difficult to find otherwise.
Soap nuts are already at a huge disadvantage in a highly competitive market space due to consumer perceptions that have been being bought and paid for generations by some of the largest conglomerates in the world. Anything having even a mere POSSIBILITY of dramatically changing ours and our children's lives and world for the better, deserves deeper study and better quality reporting.
Thank you for your time - if you made it this far. This is a long article (around 2,000 words) and I have barely scratched the surface of all that could be discussed about soap nuts and saponin. Guess that speaks volumes about why I wrote it.
Soap Nuts As a Laundry Detergent - Getting the Facts Straight WATER SOFTENER COMPARISON
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