Question

What is the difference between Natural detergents and man-made detergents ?

Answer 1

• Natural detergents: Substances that are naturally available and can be used as detergents.

• Soap nut (ritha) and soap pod (shikakai) are the natural detergents in common use

• Man-made detergents: The chemically synthesized compounds which are also used as surfactants.

• The long structural units in the synthetic detergents are obtained from raw materials which are mainly fats or kerosene.

• These are Sodium salts of alkyl benzene sulphonates.