Renewable, natural, traditional dish wash cleaning materials used in India: an overview

Abstract

Background: India has been using natural, renewable resources for dishwashing and cleaning since pre-Harappan times, which speak to the country’s rich biodiversity and long standing traditions of health and hygiene. The current review focuses on several Indian traditional dish wash materials that are categorized according to their mechanism of action as scrubbers and scrappers, abrasives, degreasers, deodorizers and saponin biosurfactant dish wash cleaning materials. Main body of the abstract: Scrubbers and scrappers include rice straw, bagasse, coconut coir, coconut brooms, jute and agave fibers, luffa, etc. Soil, clay, sand, crystal salt, lime, rice husk, bran, starch, ash (wood, dung, husk), charcoal, biochar, and other materials are examples of abrasives. Materials that contain organic acids, such as citrus, mango, gooseberry, tamarind, tomato fruits, are used as degreasers. On the other hand, Citrus peels, drumstick seeds, sour butter milk, etc., come under deodorizers. The saponin biosurfactant rich fruits and seeds of soapnuts, soap pod, green gram, Bengal gram, bitter Albizia, etc., function as surface active agents. A few of them use multiple mechanisms to clean the vessels. They are used in many forms (solid, powder, liquid, paste, sponge, fiber, scrub, broom) and obtained from a variety of plant plants (leaf, bark, stem, fruit, seed) as well as the earth’s crust. Short conclusion: Compared to commercial, manmade surfactants, natural organic and biosurfactant cleaners have several major advantages over synthetic ones, such as their natural availability, affordability, renewability, biocompatibility, biodegradability, minimal environmental and human toxicity, hypo-human allergenicity and multifaceted biological activities. They are free from preservatives and carcinogenic byproducts, free from phosphate-induced eutrophication and sustainable in terms of local resource use, fossil fuel independence and low carbon footprint production. In addition to kitchen utensil cleaning, few of them are utilized for their myriad of functionalities such as jewelry polisher, face mask, bathing soap, hair cleanser, hair conditioner and washing detergent. The use of renewable and natural cleaning materials aligns with several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 6, Goal 9, Goal 12, Goal 13, Goal 14 and Goal 15.