The friend Teodoro native of Mucuchies, spoke to me days ago about the soap tree, as an ecological alternative of the sovereign Venezuelan people, for his personal cleanliness and to wash his clothes, including Doña Petra's fustanes and calzones from Orlando. This as a result of the current shortage of personal hygiene products of said agreed list.
Mrs. Marta, wife of Mr. Theodore, tells me about the matter, that: - they are the fruits of the tree Sapindus mukorossi, better known as the soap tree. Of Indian and Nepali origin, and whose fruit nuts have been used for centuries as a detergent. Women use these nuts to wash their hair, the washing nut leaves hair very soft and shiny.
Mrs. Marta adds while preparing a fragrant and steaming Creole coffee, -With the fruits of this tree, it is possible to bathe or wash clothes, and does not pollute the water of rivers or streams with chemicals as conventional detergents do, that its origin is natural, and the flora or fauna will be safe.
The clothes are very soft and have a very pleasant smell. While their seeds were used to make crafts such as necklaces and rosaries.
Due to the passing of the years, after the arrival of the Spaniards, the indigenous soaps like this one based on plants were substituted by the bleach / fat soap, and later by industrialized soaps.