Kinds of SoapNuts:

There are two major kinds of Soapnuts which are mostly used in washing, bathing, cleaning and shampoo found in south Asian countries. The big Soapnuts known as sapindus mukorossi and the small one Soapnuts, known as sapindus Trifoliatus. Mostly people called Sapindus Trifoliatus to big one Soapnuts wrongly. A picture is given here where you can see the difference between two kinds of Soapnuts.

The name sapindus speaks for itself and reveal the Soapnuts main characteristic. It contains saponins which have the ability to clean and wash. The fruit of the soapnut tree produces saponins in order to repel varmints, fungus and bacteria. Approximately 15% of the Soapnut's shell consists of highly concentrated saponins (= 10% of the whole soapnut). The seed/stone of the Soapnuts have not any saponins therefore it is best to separate stones/seeds from the shells for best performance of washings and cleanings. As result of experiment saponins have got excellent cleaning capabilities. It removes dirt of all sorts from cloths, glasses, floors, gold, windows and others - not only highly effective but also gentle and Eco-friendly. Because of its mildness, it preserves the colours and structure of valuable cloths longer than normal detergent or soaps of any brand.

Be aware about quality!

There are more than 10 different shell types. You can see hewre in picture above, Extreme left good Mukorossi. Centre, lower quality generally known as South Indian Soapnuts, whilst on the right are smaller darker shells that he believes comes from Burma (Myanmar). Less than 50% are good quality. This is the common practice for certain suppliers to mix them to save on costs! Thats why few suppliers offers low prices and offered sapindus mukorrosi, but they mix other lower quality of shells and cheaper soapnut shells with sapindus mukorossi (Himalayan Soapnuts).

Now this is not only going to cost you money. How are you going to get any consistency when one bag of shells could be much weaker than another? You may use more than necessary or, somewhat tragically, decide that the product, whilst highly interesting, does not guarantee the sort of consistent performance that you rightly expect.

Then You may loose your money and could not get performance as well as was in your mind. Be sure that your purchesed Soapnut shells are 100% pure sapindus mukorossi without mixing.

The difference:

As we discussed already about two kinds of Soapnuts; Himalayan Soapnuts "sapindus mukorossi" are soft, a little bit sticky and wet naturally. While Sapindus Trifoliatus are hard, dried and small in the size. The Himalayan Soapnuts "sapindus mukorossi" normally used for wash and cleaning, because of more quantity of saponin and Sapindus Trifoliatus are used for medicinal and herbal purpose. Also there are two kinds of sapindus mukrossi found in India or south Asian countries: One from them grows trees of Himalayan range and other one grows away from Himalayan range. They are likely same in their physically appearance, colour and size, but with a little differences. Himalayan sapindus mukrossi are more soft, more sticky, more wet than other type of sapindus mukorossi. There are few pictures of experiments of both kind of sapindus mukorossi. We can see clear difference between these two.

The difference between 2 kinds of shells


 


The above using some liquid from "Hard" shells





The above using liquid from Himalayan "Soft" shells !!


Below are pictures of bags of shells AFTER one wash.
Stored in a bottle of water ready for the next use.
The extra amount of released "soap" is plain to see!




Soft shells Hard shells
To learn about uses of Soapnuts please visit us at < > click on link