Everyone knows the green climbing artist called Ivy. It can be found on many house walls and in the forest. Although ivy has a very bad reputation for its toxicity, this plant with its enormous spreading urge is a cheap, environmentally friendly and ingenious kitchen helper, because ivy has soap-like properties thanks to the saponins it contains.
Ivy is similar to the Indian soapnut, which has comparable ingredients.
But the soap nut has some disadvantages compared to our ivy. It must be bought because it is not a native plant and therefore not freely available. Ivy, however, grows almost everywhere and is sometimes even considered an unwelcome intruder in the carefully maintained garden.
The Indian soapnut is imported to Germany via long transport routes. This causes unnecessary costs and high CO2 emissions.
Due to the high demand from Western countries, the price of soap nuts has risen so much in India that many poorer Indians can no longer afford them, which is why they are increasingly washing with chemical cleaners. These enter the groundwater and pollute the environment.
That’s why ivy is an ingenious alternative to the soap nuts. It is the poisonous saponins that develop the soap-like effect. This means that you should test, as with detergents, before, if you have no contact allergy. And, like other detergents, most saponins are washed out by modern washing machines.
And so it goes: Take a handful of thick ivy leaves and tear them in the middle. Then just put it in a sock or a laundry net. Then you simply have to put the closed net or the sock into the drum with the laundry, then you can start the wash cycle.
Tip: Do not use the young, light green leaves, but the mature, which have a nice, strong color, so you can maximize the cleaning effect.
If there are stubborn stains on your laundry, you can add a little washing soda or curd soap. Incidentally, this is also recommended in very limy water to avoid a slight gray haze, which interferes especially with white laundry.
It’s so easy to wash naturally and environmentally consciously while protecting your wallet. Thanks, nature!
