7/29/2019 Soap History

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History of SoapThe oldest known lathers are certain plants that contain saponin, a substance which yields soap-like suds.The best known saponaceous plant is soapbark (Quillaja Saponaria), an evergreen shrub native to Chilewhose inner bark is used in some shampoos.

Man-made soap, however is formed when a fatty acid and an alkali are brought into contact in thepresence of water. Although the circumstances of discovering this chemical reaction are unknown, it hasbeen speculated that it was first discovered by the Romans at Sapo, a hilly area near Rome, whereanimals were burned in sacrifice to the gods. The animal fat and ash thus accumulated at the altar wouldreact with rainwater to form soap which trickled down the hillside into the river Tiber where ordinaryRomans found the sudsy water conducive to cleaning soiled garments. Regardless of the truth of thislegend, the name of the product in many languages seems to be a derivative of the word Sapo: soap(English) , sapone (Italian), savon (French), and Sabun (Arabic).

The first evidence of soapmaking process was recorded on Sumerian claytablets dating from 2500 B.C. The soap, produced from goat fat and ashes of a nativebush, was used to clean wool and fleece. It is thought that the Celtic Gauls made a

hair shampoo from goats fat and beechwood ash and used it in bartering with thePhoenicians around 600 B.C. The irrefutable evidence of ancient soapmaking is a soapfactory that was uncovered in the ruins at Pompeii, in southwest Italy, preserved bythe lava ashes of Vesuvius when it erupted in 79 A.D. The first reference to soap, usedfor cleaning persons or clothes however, is by the Greek physician, Galen, in the second century A.D.

Production and use of soap was almost completely halted during the European Dark Ages that followedthe fall of The Roman Empire. Only in the eastern Mediterranean regions of Byzantine Empire and theexpanding Arab world soapmaking remained alive and active. Around the 8th century however,soapmaking was revived in Italy and Spain. By the 13th century, soapmaking appeared in France and bythe 14th, in England. Louis Pasteurs theory that microbes were the cause of many diseases, fostered aconcern with cleanliness that prompted the hygienic movement of the early 1800 and by mid 1800s soapfactories were established in most large villages where householders could obtain the precious bar soap

in exchange for the fat of the slaughtered animals.

The large-scale and controlled production of soapas we know it today became possible in1823, when a French chemist, Eugene-Michel Chevreul, outlined the chemical reaction between fat andlye which produces soap and another until-then-unknown substance, which he named glycerin. By 1885,the English industrialist William Hesketh Lever had founded the Lever Brothers(as in Unilever, the consumerproduct conglomerate with annual sales of over $57B) and was making and selling the first soap with a registeredname the Sunlight. The Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century which produced inexpensivecotton clothing that required more frequent washing increased the demand of soap.It wasnt long before the growth in soap production outgrew the supply of animalfats and oil seeds from tropical plantation. The shortage of vegetable oil wasresolved in 1909 with the development of the hydrogenation process, whereby

inferior vegetable oils could be transformed into hard soap bars and by 1914, Leverhad solved the problem of animal fat shortage by making artificial animal fat.

The soapmaking process was changed drastically around 1940, when chemists developed a method tomake soap continuously and not batch by batch. The new method was faster and more efficient, withwarm soap extruded continuously before being cut and stamped into bars. Todays multi-billion dollarsoap and detergent industry is dominated by Proctor & Gamble, Colgate Palmolive, and Unilever.

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