"Saponified" is chemist for "turned into soap." React coconut oil with sodium hydroxide (lye) and you get two things: soap and glycerin. That soap is in our Fragrance-Free Laundry Detergent. The same soap goes by sodium cocoate on ingredient lists, and that page decodes the label name and covers our dish bar.
Quick facts
- What it is: Soap made from coconut oil, also listed as sodium cocoate.
- Its job in our products: Lifts grease and dirt out of fabric so they rinse away.
- Where it comes from: Coconut oil, reacted with sodium hydroxide.
- EPA Safer Choice: Green circle, listed as fatty acids, coco, sodium salts.
- EWG grade: A (listed as sodium cocoate). See the EWG entry.
- CAS number: 61789-31-9
How coconut oil becomes soap
Coconut oil is made mostly of triglycerides: three fatty acids attached to a glycerin backbone. In saponification, sodium hydroxide breaks those bonds. Each triglyceride splits into one molecule of glycerin and three sodium salts of fatty acids, and those salts are the soap.
Which fatty acids? About half of coconut oil's, 45.1 to 53.2% under the international Codex standard, are lauric acid, so sodium laurate is the biggest single part of coconut oil soap.
Why soap cleans
A soap molecule is a fatty acid chain with a charged head. The chain is attracted to oil, and the head, paired with sodium, to water. In the wash, the chains tuck oily soil into tiny clusters called micelles, heads facing out, so the soil stays suspended and leaves with the rinse instead of settling back onto your clothes.
Soap's weak spot: hard water
Hardness is mostly dissolved calcium and magnesium. The U.S. Geological Survey rates water at 0 to 60 mg/L (as calcium carbonate) as soft, 61 to 120 as moderately hard, 121 to 180 as hard, and above 180 as very hard. The harder the water, the more of those minerals react with soap to form insoluble soap scum, which takes that soap out of action and is the residue you may notice on fabric.
That is why our Fragrance-Free Laundry Detergent also contains sodium carbonate and sodium gluconate, which deal with water hardness so the soap stays free to clean.
The ratings, and what HERA found
A green circle on an ingredient does not make a finished product Safer Choice certified, and we do not claim that it does. More on both ratings in how we vet ingredients.
HERA, the European cleaning industry's ingredient risk assessment program, assessed soaps (fatty acid salts) in household laundry and cleaning products. It concluded that this use poses no concern in any environmental compartment and does not raise safety concerns for consumers. In wastewater, it notes, soap ends up mostly as relatively insoluble calcium and magnesium salts. That review covers the ingredient, not our finished detergent.
Handling and safety
Soap is alkaline. At full strength it can irritate eyes and dry or irritate skin. Our laundry detergent is concentrated until it meets the wash water, so measure it as directed and keep it out of your eyes. If any gets in eyes, rinse cautiously with water for several minutes. If any is swallowed, call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222, free and open 24 hours a day. Store it up high or in a latched cabinet, out of reach of children and pets.
Which Green Llama products use it
- Fragrance-Free Laundry Detergent (60 loads) (fragrance-free)
- Complete Fragrance-Free Laundry System (fragrance-free)
- Expert Home Cleaner Kit (includes scented sprays)
- Ultimate Home Bulk Bundle (fragrance-free)
Full ingredient lists are on each product page. Or browse all our ingredients →
Sources
- America's Poison Centers. (n.d.). Get poison help. https://poisoncenters.org/get-poison-help
- Codex Alimentarius Commission. (1999). Codex standard for named vegetable oils (CODEX-STAN 210-1999). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. https://www.fao.org/4/y2774e/y2774e04.htm
- Environmental Working Group. (n.d.). Sodium cocoate. EWG's Guide to Healthy Cleaning. https://www.ewg.org/cleaners/substances/5534-SODIUMCOCOATE/
- Human & Environmental Risk Assessment on Ingredients of Household Cleaning Products. (n.d.). Fatty acid salts [Human health and environmental risk assessments]. HERA. https://www.heraproject.com/substance/fatty-acid-salts-2/
- National Center for Biotechnology Information. (n.d.). Glycerol (PubChem compound summary). PubChem. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Glycerol
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). Safer Chemical Ingredients List. Safer Choice. https://www.epa.gov/saferchoice/safer-ingredients
- U.S. Geological Survey. (n.d.). Water basics glossary. https://water.usgs.gov/water-basics_glossary.html
