In ancient times, what we now call soap was made.

The earliest detergent used was plant ash. Book of rites? The article records: "The crown is dirty and the clothes are dirty and clean." This is the use of potassium carbonate in plant ash to wash off the grease stains on clothes and hats. Until now, this method has been applied in some places.

The detergent used for rinsing in ancient textile industry went further. Zhou Li?' "Kao" records: "Sui silk. The column is gray, the silk is pure, all kinds of utensils are real, and cockroaches are the main prostitutes ... "The cockroaches here are the ashes after the shells are burned, and the main component is calcium oxide (lime). It reacts with ash (potassium carbonate) in water to produce potassium hydroxide aqueous solution. Potassium hydroxide is a kind of strong alkali, which not only has strong degreasing ability, but also can react with wood fiber to gelatinize it and increase its luster and strength. The fiber surface of hemp fabric unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb also shows traces treated in this way.

Later, people discovered natural soda ash (sodium carbonate), which can be used to wash clothes. In Shen Nong's Classic of Materia Medica in Han Dynasty, plant ash was called winter ash or Kunnoa ash, and natural sodium carbonate was called "bittern alkali", which was renamed as "caustic soda" in Tang Dynasty. After the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, starch and spices were mixed with alkali to make ingot powder, which was sold as a commodity. In Compendium of Materia Medica, Li Shizhen said: "Alkaloid came out of Jining, Shandong Province, and was adopted as Polygonum hydropiper. Soak in water, dry in the sun, burn in raw water, and introduce 23 kilograms of flour per 100. After a long time, like a stone, even the juice flows everywhere, which is very profitable. " At the same time, the business specializing in cosmetics and washing products has also flourished. Old shops such as Hexianglou and Hua Han Chong, which opened in front of Beijing in the late Ming Dynasty, were very famous until the early liberation. At that time, it was made into peach shape, gourd shape and so on. Rosebase, which is packaged and sold as a gift.

During the Daoguang period, Wenkang wrote "Biography of Heroes of Children". During the 37-hour trip, the smell of smoke and oil on the hands of older girls and big sisters was written like this: "I soaked and soaked, washed and washed, wiped a bunch of scented soap and fragrant beans, and made some osmanthus and rose pancreas." This almost told the senior detergent at home at that time.

Soap and pancreas are mentioned here. It is generally believed that "pancreas" is the common name of soap. Actually they have their own history.

Modern soap is made of sodium hydroxide saponified oil, which first appeared in Europe. /kloc-At the beginning of the 9th century, the soap industry first developed in Britain./kloc-At the end of the 9th century, soap factories were established in China and Xu Huafeng. But the name "soap" is China's own. For example, there are "soap balls" for sale in Zhou Mi's "Old Wulin" Volume 6 "Little Broker" in the Southern Song Dynasty. It is also recorded in the "Cities" of "Countless Victory Records of the Old People in the West Lake". This kind of "soap ball" in the market is not the soap of today, but made of Gleditsia sinensis, the size of which is like an orange. Gleditsia sinensis is the fruit of Gleditsia sinensis, which contains saponin (condensation product of sugar and some organic compounds). Gleditsia saponin can produce a large number of lasting foams in water and has strong detergency, so it has long been used as a detergent by the people.

Gleditsia sinensis It is recorded in Shen Nong's Classic of Materia Medica in the Han Dynasty and the new leather repair in the Tang Dynasty, and its descaling effect is pointed out. Because Gleditsia sinensis can be used not only for washing clothes, but also for shampooing. As bath water, it can treat skin diseases, so it is deeply loved by people.

Because modern soap has functions similar to those of honeylocust-foaming and decontamination, the name of ancient "soap" is used.

In addition to Gleditsia sinensis, some plants also contain saponin, and ancient people also used saponin as detergent. For example, Tatars use the extract of Dianthus plants, Syrians use the extract of Vaccaria seed, and China and Japan also use the extract of Sapindus peel as detergent.

Pancreas is an advanced detergent made of animal pancreas as the main raw material. After the 5th century, wei ren and Jia Sixie mentioned in Qi Yao Min's Book that pig pancreas can be decontaminated. Earlier, it began to be a court detergent in the early Jin Dynasty. According to "Shi Shuo Xin Yu", Wang Dun was recruited by the Emperor Wu of Jin as a Xu, and just arrived at the princess. After going to the toilet, "the maid holds a golden basin for water and a glass bowl for bath beans. Because she drinks in the water, she calls it dry rice and laughs when she worships the servant girl. "

Bath beans were originally used as detergent to wash hands, but Wang Dun didn't know what to eat and became a laughing stock. However, it can be seen that this detergent is made into small particles and is a high-end luxury in the palace with glass bowls.

How to make bath beans? At the end of Sui Dynasty and the beginning of Tang Dynasty, Sun Simiao, a great medical scientist, recorded 15 kinds of bath bean formula in Volume 6 and Volume 5 of "One Thousand Jin Fang Yao", in which pig pancreas was washed and defatted, ground into a paste, and mixed with bean powder and various spices and drugs to make granules. This is also the "pancreas".

Later, the use of pancreas became more and more common, and shops dealing with pancreas appeared. For example, the aforementioned Hexianglou and Huahanchong call themselves Old Pancreas Shop. At this time, it is no longer bean-shaped, but the washed pig pancreas is agglomerated into balls the size of glutinous rice balls after adding spices and alkali. In addition, it is also made of sheep pancreas, which is special for Muslims.

Pancreas is less irritating than soap, because it contains a variety of digestive enzymes, which can decompose fat, protein and so on. Therefore, it not only has a general decontamination effect, but also can remove milk stains, blood stains, egg stains and so on. Not only that, it can protect the skin from wrinkles because of the action of enzymes (especially insulin). Really played the role of anti-wrinkle beauty. So in the past, women used to wash their faces with alkali first, and then with the pancreas. Pancreas is a kind of advanced enzyme detergent with physiological function and an important invention in ancient China. Today, because the pancreas is used to extract important drugs such as insulin in medicine, it is no longer used for general washing. However, with the widespread use of modern detergents such as soap and washing powder, people began to pay attention to the role of enzymes. Aang, an Englishman, once added 5% yeast to soap, which improved the quality of soap and obtained a patent. Lem and Haas in Germany also added pig pancreas and bovine pancreas to the detergent and put it on the market. Later, the United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Italy successively produced detergents containing enzymes. Japanese production started from 1970, and China began to produce detergent-specific enzymes-AP enzyme and KL enzyme from 1979. It can be said that the fine tradition of thousands of years has been restored at a new level.