The earliest detergent used was plant ash. "Book of Rites Nei Ze Pian" records: "Rinse off the dirt and ashes on the crown, and rinse off the dirt and ashes on the clothes." This is to use the potassium carbonate in plant ash to wash away the oil stains on the clothes and hats. Until now, this method is still used in some places.
The ancient textile industry took the rinsing job a step further with detergents. "Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji" records: "Shu silk. Use the fence as ashes, and use the silk as a pure material, and use it as a mirage..." Here, "mirage" is the ashes of burned shells. The main ingredient is calcium oxide (lime). It interacts with fence ash (potassium carbonate) in water to form a potassium hydroxide aqueous solution. Potassium hydroxide is a strong alkali. It not only has a strong ability to remove oil stains, but also can interact with wood fibers to gelatinize them and increase their luster and strength. The fiber surface of the linen fabrics unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb also shows traces of being treated in this way.
Later, people discovered natural soda ash (sodium carbonate), which can be used to wash clothes. In the "Shen Nong's Materia Medica" of the Han Dynasty, plant ash was called winter ash or pigweed ash, and natural sodium carbonate was called "halogen alkali". From the Tang Dynasty, it was renamed "stone alkali". After the Jin Yuan Dynasty, starch and spices were added to the alkali to make tablet powder and sold as a commodity. Li Shizhen said in "Compendium of Materia Medica": "Stone alkali came out of Jining, Shandong Province, and was harvested by people who plucked Polygonum genus. They opened the cellar and soaked it in water, rolled it up and dried it in the sun, poured the juice with raw water, and introduced two or three kilograms of flour per hundred. After a long time, it will condense like a stone, and the juice will spread all over the place, and it will be very profitable." At the same time, the business specializing in cosmetics and detergents also flourished, and Hexianglou and Hexianglou were opened in Qianmen, Beijing in the late Ming Dynasty. Old stores such as Huahan Chong are famous far and wide and remained open until the early days of liberation. At that time, rose alkaline was used for washing in the shape of peach, gourd, etc., and was packed in boxes and sold as gifts.
During the Daoguang period, Wen Kang wrote "The Legend of Heroes of Sons and Daughters". In Chapter 37, the smell of smoke oil on the hands of the eldest girl, the eldest sister, is written like this: "I soaked again and again, washed again and again. , I rubbed some fragrant soap and bean paste, and used some osmanthus soap and rose soap." This almost covered all the high-end detergents in the house at that time.
Soap and soap are mentioned here. It is generally believed that "Yizi" is the common name of soap. In fact, they each have their own history.
Modern soap is made of sodium hydroxide saponified oil and first appeared in Europe. The soap industry was first developed in the United Kingdom in the early 19th century. In my country, at the end of the 19th century, Xu Huafeng ran a soap factory in Shanghai. But the name "soap" is China's own. For example, in Volume 6 of Zhou Mi's "Old Martial Arts" of the Southern Song Dynasty, there is a "little broker" who sells "soap dumplings". There is also a similar record in "Zhuxingshi" in "West Lake Old Man Fansheng Lu". This kind of "soap dough" sold in the market is not today's soap, but is made from ground honey locust (saponaria locust) and is shaped into a ball the size of an orange. Saponin is the fruit of the Quillaja saponaria tree, which contains saponin (the product of the condensation of sugar and certain organic compounds). Saponin can produce a large amount of long-lasting foam in water and has strong detergent properties, so it has long been used by the public. as a detergent.
The "Shen Nong's Materia Medica" of the Han Dynasty and the "Xin Xiu Ben Ge" of the Tang Dynasty both described the soap locust and pointed out its descaling function. Because soap locust water can not only be used to wash clothes, but also is said to help hair growth and can be used as bath water to cure skin diseases, so it is very popular among people.
Because modern soap has similar functions to saponin - foaming and decontamination, the name "soap" has been inherited from ancient times.
In addition to saponins, some plants also contain saponins, which were also used by ancient people as detergents. For example, the Tatars use the leaching solution of the Caryophyllaceae plant, the Syrians use the leaching solution of the root of Amaranthus sibiricum, and my country and Japan also use the leaching solution of soapberry peel as a detergent.
Yanzi is a high-grade detergent made from animal pancreas as the main raw material. After the 5th century AD, Jia Sixie of Wei Dynasty mentioned that pig pancreas can remove dirt in "Qi Min Yao Shu". And even earlier, in the early Jin Dynasty, it had begun to become a detergent used by the court.
According to "Shishuoxinyu", Wang Dun was recruited as the consort by Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty. He just arrived at the princess's house and after using the toilet, "the maid held a gold bathtub filled with water and a glass bowl filled with bath beans. Because she poured the water and drank it, it was said that It’s just dry food, so please keep your mouth shut and laugh at it.”
The bath beans were originally used as a detergent for hand cleansing, but Wang Dun ate them because he didn’t know what they were selling, and became a laughing stock. But it can be seen from this that this detergent is made into small particles and is a high-end luxury product served in a glass bowl in the palace.
How are bath beans made? Sun Simiao, a great medical scientist in the late Sui and early Tang Dynasties, recorded the formulas of 15 kinds of bath beans in Volume 6 of "Qian Jin Yao Fang" and Volume 5 of "Qian Jin Yifang". Use the pig pancreas that has been cleaned of dirt and blood and removed of fat, grind it into a paste, add soybean powder and various spices and medicines to make it into granular form. This is also called "pancreas".
Later, the use of pancake became more common, and shops selling pancake appeared. For example, the aforementioned Hexianglou and Huahangchong call themselves Laojizi shop. At this time, it is no longer in the shape of beans, but the washed pig pancreas is added with spices and alkali and then balled into a ball the size of glutinous rice balls. In addition, there are also ones made from sheep pancreas, which are specially used by the Hui people.
Pancreas is less irritating than soap because the pancreas contains a variety of digestive enzymes that can decompose fats, proteins, etc., so it not only has a general decontamination effect, but also can remove milk stains, blood stains, and egg stains wait. Not only that, due to the action of enzymes (especially insulin), it can also protect the skin from wrinkles and cracks. It really plays the role of anti-wrinkle beauty. Therefore, in the past, when women washed their faces, they used alkali first and then soap again. Pancreatic acid is a high-grade enzyme detergent with physiological effects and an important invention in ancient my country. Today, because the pancreas is used in medicine to refine important drugs such as insulin, it is no longer used for general washing. But today, with the widespread use of modern soaps, laundry detergents and other detergents, people are beginning to pay attention to the role of enzymes again. British An Yian once added 5% yeast to soap to improve the quality of soap and obtained a patent. Germany's Lehm and Haas also use pig pancreas and bovine pancreas to add to the market in detergents. Since then, the United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Italy have produced enzyme-added detergents. Japan began production in 1970, and my country began producing detergent-specific enzymes - AP enzyme and KL enzyme in 1979. It can be said that it has restored a thousand-year fine tradition at a new level.