Sapindus mukorossi, alternativă la Saponaria officinalis ca agent de curăţare a textilelor istorice

Wet cleaning plays an important role in historic textiles conservation. In line with a growing concern for environmental protection, natural surfactants (such as Saponaria officinalis root extract) are increasingly used for this operation. A readily available organic surfactant is soap nut extract (Sapindus Mukorossi), but it produces a brownish color solution. The aim of this study was mainly to evaluate the safety (in terms of color retention) of the use of soap nut extract as a cleaning agent for textiles versus Saponaria officinalis root extract, and secondly, to apply the cleaning methodology to a historical piece. Different types of white fabrics - cotton, linen, wool, silk, viscose were washed with the two plant extracts in 5 and 10% concentration, with and without subsequent rinsing with water. The degree of color retention on textile samples before and after treatments was evaluated using the NS820 Portable Spectrophotometer. In most cases, the color retention was lower (and well within the acceptance limits) for soap nut extract as compared with Saponaria extract; greater differences were recorded for wool samples and the limits were exceeded when washed with the concentrated solution of Saponaria, without subsequent rinsing.