The Evolution of Soap By Iris Fuchs At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Have you ever wondered what soap is, what ingredients it is made out of and how it is made? How do you think our ancient ancestors got clean? Did they use soap at all? How has soap evolved over the centuries to be the conventional soap we know of today. In modern day, there are so many types of soap available in virtually all shapes, colors and scents.

Prehistory

It is believed that prehistoric man used only water as a cleanser and purifier.

Ancient Babylon

In ancient Babylon (2800 B.C.), wood ashes were burned with animal and vegetable fats and this substance was used to cleanse and treat skin disease. It was also used for a shiny hair look and as hair nourishment.

The Greeks

The Greeks were known to wash themselves with clay pumice and sand which stimulated the blood circulation in the body as well as removed dirt.

The Romans

Soap got its name when the Romans at ‘Mount Sapo’, a popular location for animal sacrifices, discovered it. Rain mixed the animal fat residue (tallow from cattle) with the burned wood on the clay and a chemical reaction occurred. Women living on the banks of the Tiber river discovered that clothes which they washed using this substance were much cleaner and cleaned with much less effort.

The Early Americans

The early Americans made soap using a process known as ‘Cold Process’, which yielded soap comprised of animal fat and lye extracted from wood ashes (potassium hydroxide). The substances were mixed in the right concentrations and animal fat would be added along with steady stirring. Because of the time it took the soap to cure, soap makers would commonly repeat this process twice a year.

Modern Day

Today, natural soap is most commonly made using the Cold Process method where lye (a base) is added to a vegetable alkali (an acid) such as palm oil, coconut oil, or olive oil, which causes the chemical reaction known as ‘saponification’. When the mixture becomes the desired consistency, it is poured into a mold. The bars are then removed from the mold after setting (approximately 24 to 48 hours). They are restacked, covered and left to cure. As in the old days, the curing process can take anywhere from 3 to 8 weeks depending on the formula. In modern times, animal fats are typically no longer used in this process since vegetable oil based soaps were found to be chemically superior and can be of higher quality than soaps made with animal fats. Vegetable oils are more readily absorbed by the skin, while animal oils have been found to clog pores and aggravate certain skin conditions, such as eczema.

Summary

It is remarkable that the basics of the soap making process are essentially unchanged over the course of the past 2000 years. Of course, the advent of modern day technological advancement, along with our understanding of chemistry has made the soap making process much more accurate and a refined science and art.

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