We all have been hearing so much about washing our hands with soap during this COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, we have been using soap forever. But, have you ever thought what soap is made of? How it can kill germs? When the first soap was made?
Soap is one of those things you might not really care about unless you run out. The average household has dish soap (try saying that ten times fast), hand soap, and bath soap. The earliest recorded evidence of the making of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 BC in Ancient Babylon. A recipe for soap having water, alkali, and cassia oil was written on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC.
People around the world have been making soap for thousands of years. Early soaps were made by mixing vegetable and animal fat with oils and salts. Even though we don't use those things for soap, the basic principals of soap are still the same. Soap is supposed to be made of an acid and a base. The acids are fat, or fatty acids and triglycerides. The base is sodium hydrogen oxide. When these ingredients are combined, a reaction occurs called saponification. Fatty acids separate from the triglycerides and fuse with the hydroxide ions forming a salt which we call... Soap!
When we wash something, soap is busy doing two things. It decreases the surface tension of the water, and it binds dirt, bacteria, and oil. Water alone cannot get rid of this junk, because water cannot mix with oil. It could wash off dirt if you scrub and scrub and scrub, but it can't remove oily buildup. When we rinse our muddy hands under the water faucets,
the force of the water pushes the mud off your hands and water dissolves some of the stuff that makes up the mud and pushes it down the drain. Your skin makes natural oil which helps our skin to stay soft and moisturized. Also, we produce sweat which is mostly water and salt. Though the sweat helps to cool our body, it leaves behind all the salt and
other minerals. The dirt and dust sticks to this salt and oil in our hands and body, and gives a good breeding place for bacteria and germs. Water can definitely dissolve lots of dirt in our hands and skin but one thing, it cannot remove is the oil itself. Do you know why? Because Oil and Water just don’t mix. You don’t believe me? Try this at home. Take a glass and pour some water in it and then add a few drops of oil and see what happens. Do you see oil floating on top of the water? So now the question is, if water cannot get rid of that oil mixed with germs in your skin then what can come to your rescue? SOAP.
Soap can’t dissolve oil but it can stick to it really well and wash it away. If you look at the particle that makes up the soap, you can see they each have two different ends and each end has a different property. One end of the soap particle pulls towards the water and the other end pulls towards the oil. When you wash your hands with soap, one end of the soap particle sticks to the oil and the other end to the water, so when you rinse off, soap, oil, water, and the germs all go down the drain.
There are LOTS of different kinds of soap, and they're not the same. Different soap makers prefer different ingredients and consumers prefer different scents, feel or property of a soap brand. The most popular claim for soap is actually antibacterial soap. But, do you think it works like how we think it does? The answer is no. Antibacterial soaps contain components like triclosan or triclocarban that take time to work. In order for this soap to actually clean stuff, you need to keep it on a surface for two minutes. Do you really think that we have so much of patience? 😉 The CDC states that antibacterial soap isn't necessary, but washing your hands nicely (which means 20 seconds while singing the Happy Birthday song!😊) with normal soap and water is the best way to ward off infections.
Stay safe, wash your hands, and remember the soap story!
