What are laundry detergent and soap made of?

In Europe on the origin of soap legend a lot of archaeologists in Italy's Pompeii ancient ruins found in the workshop of soap production. That the Romans as early as the second century AD has begun the original soap production. Chinese people also knew very early on the use of grass ash and natural alkali washing clothes, people also pig pancreas, lard and natural Hundred Days mixed, made of blocks, called "pancreas".

At the end of the 19th century, the soap industry from the handmade workshops eventually transformed into industrialized production.

In 1907, the Germans took borates and silicates as the main raw materials and invented laundry detergent for the first time. The main ingredient of laundry detergent is sodium p-dodecylbenzene sulfonate, and the others are bio-enzymes, surfactants, detergent aids, stabilizers, dispersants, whiteners, and fragrances, etc. Laundry detergent are relatively mild.

Caustic soda is also sodium hydroxide, also known as kerosene. It is highly corrosive! If touched will corrode the skin and will char clothing. Soap and laundry detergent are alkaline, but they and caustic soda are two completely different things.