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Soap nut tree grown successfully

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet (Apr. 12) — Throw away those expensive laundry soaps and shampoos. A cheap, safe and environmentally beneficial alternative is here in La Trinidad.

Soap nut tree or Ritha (Sapindus mukorossi or Sapindus detergens) is successfully being grown by the environmental group PINE TREE/ITAG at its demonstration farm and tree nurseries.

Ritha is an excellent substitute for washing soap and shampoo. The fleshy portion of Ritha contains high quality saponin which makes it a very good detergent. It is important for rural areas and for people who can ill-afford chemically-laced detergents and shampoos.

Grown only in India, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan and other Himalyan territories, it is also used to treat diseases like common cold, pimples, epilepsy, constipation, and nausea, among others. It is also used as expectorant and enthelmintic in small doses. Ritha foliage can also be used as cattle fodder.

Ritha has large leaves. It is a handsome, deciduous tree. It belongs to the main plant order Sapindaceae and family Sapindeae. The species is widely grown in upper reaches of the Indo-Gangetic plains, Shivaliks and sub-Himalayan tracts at altitudes from 200 meters (m) to 1500 m. Also known as soap-nut tree, it is one of the most important trees of tropical and sub-tropical regions of Asia. It is also called doadni, doda and dodan in Indian dialects.

The tree thrives on deep clay soil in areas experiencing 150 millimeters (mm) to 250 mm of rainfall yearly. The trunk is straight and cylindrical. The foliage constitutes an umbrella-like hemispherical top measuring about 5 m in diameter. The tree can reach a height of 25 m and a girth of 3 to 5 m in nearly 70 years of its existence. Ritha is thus an excellent tree for planting along boulevards.

The bark of Ritha is shinning gray and fairly smooth when the plant is young. It is dark gray when the plant approaches maturity. Ritha leaves are long stalked odd pinnate. The rachis is nearly 30 to 50 cm long and bears 5 to 10 pairs of leaflets. An individual leaflet is about 7 to 15 cm long and 2 to 5 cm wide. It is acuminate and lanceolate in shape. The size of leaflets towards the tip of the rachis is smaller.

Ritha flowers during summer. The flowers are small and greenish white, polygamous and mostly bisexual in terminal thyrses or compound cymose panicles. These are sub-sessile; numerous in number and at times occur in lose panicles at the end of branches. The fruit appears in July-August and ripens by November-December. These are solitary globose, round nuts 2 to 2.5 cm diameter, fleshy, saponaceous and yellowish brown in color. The seed is enclosed in a black, smooth and hard globose endocarp. The fruit is collected during winter months for seed and or sale in the market as soap nut.

The dried fruit of Ritha is most valuable part of the plant. Its fleshy portion contains saponin, which is a good substitute for washing soap and is as such used in preparation of quality shampoos, detergents, etc. In fact the skin of the fruit is highly valued by the rural folks as a natural produced shampoo for washing their hair. They also use these for washing woolen clothes. This is why some botanists have named the species as Sapindus detergens.

In India, the Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow has recently developed a contraceptive cream out of Ritha fruit. It is being marketed under the trade name ‘Consap’. Ritha is also a very good reforestation material.

Ritha wood is hard and light yellow in color. It is close-grained and compact weighing about 30 kg per cubic foot. The wood is utilized for rural building construction, furnitures, wood carvings, oil and sugar presses, agricultural implements.

Ritha seedlings are now available and ready for growing this rainy season.

Orders can be made by writing PINE TREE at P.O. Box 74, La Trinidad, Benguet or by writing to its e-mail pinetreemab@hotmail.com. # Michael A. Bengwayan

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