One of my most interesting encounters at Nature Bazaar this November was with a young American, an ardent consumer of “natural” and “organic” products. We got talking at a stall selling reetha (soapnut) powder. Two Delhi ladies were staring at it doubtfully, wondering how it could replace their regular brand of shampoo. “Back in the US, we make special trips to Indian stores to buy soapnuts…,” said she, “and now I find that in India there are people who don’t even know it exists!”
She collared the hapless women and began a lengthy treatise on the soapnut: “It’s one of the best cleansers that nature has given us, grows so freely all over India — how come you ladies don’t use it?” she demanded. She’d been washing her hair with soapnut for the last two years, said she, and hadn’t yet felt the need to use any other shampoo. The ladies shifted uncomfortably on their feet, and mumbled something about their grannies using reetha in their time… “Your grandmothers knew what they were doing,” said she earnestly, “soapnuts contain saponin, an important ingredient in factory-made soaps, detergents and shampoos. Although soap nut solution doesn’t foam like soap, it is a gentle and safe cleaner for hair as well as laundry,” said she. The American was spot on, for in traditional India, delicate silk and woollen fabrics were usually washed in soapnut solution to maintain their softness and lustre.
Soapnuts had other uses as well, said two people manning the next stall, which sold handicraft from Jharkhand. “I don’t know whether medical science acknowledges the curative properties of reetha, but we swear by them,” said one of them. Apparently, soapnut trees are very common in Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. In fact, farmers prefer to plant them along their fields of paddy, as they’re believed to repel poisonous snakes. Soapnut powder in small doses, said they, was used to treat gynaecological troubles as well as intestinal worms and stomach ache. Then one of the two men began laughing: “A folk healer once suggested that I should smoke the dried rind of soapnut to rid myself of the tobacco habit. He told me that reetha would help reduce my craving for a real smoke…” The cure failed miserably, and as for the taste, the man still shuddered when he spoke about it.
Some of reetha’s supposed qualities seemed more magical than real. Tribal people in Jharkhand and Chattisgarh made special necklaces from reetha nuts to keep evil spirits at bay, said our Jharkhand stall friends. “We also believe that reetha can miraculously draw out venom in case of a snake bite,” one said.
The two Delhi ladies were shifting on their feet, clearly wondering why they were standing there listening to tribal remedies they’d never need, while the American girl took copious notes of the conversation with anthropological zeal. “How amazing,” said the American, “I knew soapnuts made great shampoo and laundry detergent for my washing machine, but didn’t realise there was such interesting folklore about them…” The two ladies suddenly stirred, “How can you use reetha in the machine? Won’t it clog the pipes?” The American explained how she boiled the nuts, filtered the solution, and then used it for laundry as well as dish washing. Before we knew it, the Delhi ladies were buying packets of reetha, calling friends on their mobiles saying they’d found the most perfect organic detergent for their washing machines… They made off in a flurry of cloth bags and dusty reetha and the American drawled, “They were tough nuts to crack, but when they crumbled, they bought the entire stall!”