Hi - I have recently started using soap nuts . This isnt hard for me because i live in India and I got a back from a visit to a nearbye organic farm... I boiled them up in water (using solar oven) and have been using the resulting liquid with a couple of drops of essential oil added for dishwashing liquid, some handwashing and clothes washing. My observation is that it is really fine for dishwashing - even oily things.As close to 100% ecofriendly as you can get. and also for clothes washing it seems fine for normal dirt - maybe not for super dirty / smelly things. I wash in cold water in a bucket though so in the hot water washing machine it might be even better. I also made a spray out of the liquid for aphids with a few drops of neem oil. It seems to be working at least to some degree.... I dont know if these trees grow or are allowed in Australia? It seems like a really good addition to a permaculture plot if space permits...since they grow from the HImalaya to South India they seem like pretty adapted to a lot of climates..(south indian kind is smaller)
Yes sounds good what are they? Fernando https://www.soapinanutshell.com.au/main/page_stockists_and_other_links.html just found some this looks good!!! Thanks Sind
Sapindus mukorossi ...that is the one I know - there may be other variations. If you are buying the nuts to grow rather than for washing use you have to check if they are selling the whole nuts or just the shells - some companies I know sell them already shelled.
Some info on growing and using https://www.soapnuts.co.nz/Plant-a-...Grow-a-Soapberry-Tree-SAPINDUS-saponaria.html https://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Sapindus marginatus https://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Sapindus drummondii https://www.organicnz.org/organic-nz-magazine/soap-nut/ The trees can grow big (up to 15m), and that last link says it can take ten years before they produce nuts. However the first link says 3 years and 9m. Maybe it depends on the species.
I will try and find out from an organic farmer more about how long it takes for a tree to produce soap nuts.
Multifacetious Uses of Soapnut Tree – A Mini Review https://www.rjpbcs.com/pdf/2012_3(1)/53.pdf Sapindustrifoliatus is one of the oldest cultivated medicinal plants in the world. Infact Botanist traced it to the period of the Vedas about 5000 years ago.It is a small tree flourish well in the loamy soils of tropical and subtropical regions. It has a number of health benefits besides the famous benefit of keeping the hair long and healthy and also useful in the treatment of lice’s and dandruff. It is an excellent herb for skin problems like eczema and psoriasis. Soapnut powder is a very good antibacterial and antifungal agent. It is mostly used in the cosmetic and contraceptive creams. It is also used as detergent, bio-surfactant and remedial for organic soil pollution in the modern science. The multifacetioususes of this plant are discussed in this paper. SapindustrifoliatusLinn., a small deciduous tree belongs to the family Sapindaceae which is known assoapnut in English,Ritha in Bengali and Ponnangottai in Tamil[1].It is a native species grown in Indo-Gangetic plains, Shivaliks and Sub-Himalayan tracts in Indiaat an altitudes rangesfrom 200m to 1500m [2]. It is one of the most important trees of tropical and subtropical regions of Asia. It is commonly found in the Western Ghats and plains of South India[3].This tree flourishes well in deep clay loamy soil with an annual rainfall of 200 mm. It is a medium sized tree can reaches a height of 25m.The flowers are small greenish white in colour and the fruits are solitary globose appears in the month of July- August. The fruit contains an active principle saponinwhich ranges from 6-10 % of mass weight[4]. Saponin from soapnut is also widely used in the native medicine [5], Pharmaceutical industries [6, 7], used as detergents [8] and used for environmental remediation [9]. The kernel contains 25- 30 % of fatty acid, approximately 85% of triglycerides and sterol. The oil extracted from the kernel is used as a bio-fuel [34]. It can be directly blend with the fossil fuel at the maximum of 20%. The seed oil can also be converted into biodiesel by trans esterification method. The fatty acid of this soapnut seeds has a great potential source for inhibiting the bio-corrosion of mild steel and copper alloys. Studies are on progressto evaluate the soapnut oil as a potential source for biodiesel and bio inhibitor in our centre.The oil cake obtained after the extraction of oil can be used as a bio manure, bioherbicide, biofungicide and biopesticide. The saponin from Soapnut acts as a natural bio-surfactant [35].The fruit is used as fish poison [36]. Key words: Soap nut, Sapindus trifoliatus, chemical content, medicinal uses
I had a tree of S. mukorosii in South Georgia USA (zone 8), which thrived after it got some size on it.....I think I protected it for the first winter or two. It never bore fruit while I lived there, but it covers the ground with them now, and some people at that place just throw a few in the washing machine with the laundry instead of detergent. There are a couple of native species in North America as well....
I've seen these at some eco and sustainability type festivals in Brisbane. There are a few Australian companies selling them now. I was told by one of them that their nuts are imported from Africa because it's illegal to grow them here as they are classified as a"weed" On face value they do certainly sound like the closest you'll get to a sustainable eco-friendly product.
Ive got a handful from the community garden so I was going to try them out. No seeds unfortunately. Wondering if the could be used as a soil wetting agent ?