Lorena Boquete Vilarino

cambridge, england

Stockholm 145: Cleaning by Means of Soap Weed

Take and treat soap weed with hot water. Make a ball from it as if from tallow. Then steep this in hot water until it is dissolved. The water, however, should go above the wool. Then boil up the water. Put the wool in and prevent it from becoming scorched. Leave it there a little while until you see that it is clean. Lift out, rinse it and dry it.

introduction:

Soap weed (Saponaria officinalis), also known as soapwort, is a perennial plant with a large concentration of saponins in both roots and leaves. Native to Europe, Asia and Western Siberia, it is however an invasive plant in part of North America.  Soap weed is used nowadays to make homemade shampoos and soaps, as it has been for a long time as well for washing textiles.  In this method, I first explore whether fresh leaves or roots can be made into the “tallow-like” balls mentioned in S145. Then, I use the material to wash raw wool fleece and compare the results with a commercial wool scouring soap.

1) Starting material

I bought Saponaria officinalis plants and plugs from a local garden centre and maintained them in plastic pots. I uprooted the plants and cut the roots from the stems, then pinched off the leaves to use and discarded the stems. After washing and drying, I used the leaves and roots separately.

2) Treating plant material with hot water

I placed the leaves (whole) or roots (cut in approximately 0.5cm portions) in a plastic container and added a small (approximately 5 mL) of hot, filtered (but not distilled) water. I bruised the leaves with a wooden stick until soft, and the roots until a foamy liquid was formed. I then used cheesecloth to filter the material, left the liquid to evaporate and rubbed the solids to form balls.

3) Dissolve in hot water

I added the balls to hot water, let them steep with heat. 

4) Washing the wool

I lowered the heat and introduced raw wool fleece locks in the water, stirring very carefully so the water could penetrate the locks. As a control, I used a commercial wool wash soap in the same way.

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