mountain rose herbs. com: Soap Nuts deseeded

This information was sent by a friend to help avoid those perfumed chemical laundry detergents. 

• Sapindus mukorossi
• Origin: India

COMMON NAME

Standardized: soap nuts
Other: Chinese soapberry, washnut

BOTANICAL NAME

Sapindus mukorossi Gaertn.
Plant Family: Sapindaceae

OVERVIEW

INTRODUCTION

Soap nuts are found in both the eastern and western hemispheres, but are native to India and Nepal. They have recently become a popular environmentally friendly alternative to chemical detergent, and are a gentle option for those with allergies to chemicals in regular detergents. Soap nuts contain saponin, a natural detergent. The soap nut shell absorbs water and releases the saponins which circulate as a natural surfactant in the wash water, freeing dirt, grime, and oils from clothing. There is considerable discussion as to what variety of Soap Nuts is preferable for use as a laundry soap alternative. Any Soap Nut from the genus Sapindus will work just fine as they all have Saponin producing properties, hence the genus name Sapindus.

PARTS USED

The husk or de-seeded nut.

TYPICAL PREPARATIONS

Just a few nuts (4-6) in a cotton muslin bag should work for an entire load. There will be little or no bubbles during the wash cycle, and it will smell lightly similar to apple cider. They can be used several times and then composted afterwards. They will look mushy and grey when they need to be changed. They can also be used in a powder form as a cleansing cream by adding a small amount of water.

SUMMARY

Soap nuts can be used for anything that you would normally use detergent for; washing the car, windows, etc. Some people have used them as a base for shampoos and hand lotions, and as an all purpose cleaner for around the home. They can be used as an anti-microbial for septic systems. Jewelers in India and Indonesia have used them to remove tarnish from jewelry and other precious metals for many centuries.

PRECAUTIONS

Specific: Not for internal use.
General: We recommend that you consult with a qualified healthcare practitioner before using herbal products, particularly if you are pregnant, nursing, or on any medications.

For educational purposes only. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/products/soap-nuts/profile

Intrepid Report Newsletter: Week of September 5, 2016 Three big lies that pervade America’s ‘news’ media, Syria: Raped by US imperialism

Your support is crucial to Intrepid Report’s existence

Bev Conover

We are now $635 from closing our budget gap. Please help by donatingwhatever you can, whether it’s a one-time donation of $5 or more or a monthly subscription.

Monday

Is privacy necessary?

By Emanuel E. Garcia, MD

Milan Kundera, speaking through the voice of his character Tereza in Part Four of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, asserts that “A concentration camp is the complete obliteration of privacy.”

Brexit unmasks EU arrogance

'The Malta experience'

By Joseph M. Cachia

That’s it! The quiet real people of Britain rose up against an arrogant, aloof and untouchable political class and contemptuous Brussels elite.

Brazil’s Rousseff impeachment vote: Fascists 61, Democrats 20

By Stephen Lendman

President Dilma Rousseff’s ouster was orchestrated in Washington, complicit with corrupted Brazilian fascists—usurping power by removing her.

New York’s Cuomo tries to bail out dying nukes

By Harvey Wasserman

New York’s “liberal” Governor Andrew Cuomo is trying to ram through a complex backdoor bailout package worth up to $11 billion to keep at least four dangerously decrepit nuclear reactors operating.

They want Kaepernick to go kaput!

By Philip A Farruggio

A 28-year-old man born of a single, white, 19-year-old woman and an African American father had a rough (to say the least) upbringing. Now that he is doing well financially and at the same time gaining in consciousness, Colin Kaepernick speaks up and speaks out.

Tuesday

Reagan sold your future, Trump will too

White working-class voters should think twice before electing another flag-waving, immigrant-bashing, billionaire-enriching politician.

By Mitchell Zimmerman

A generation ago, many white working-class Democrats bought into Ronald Reagan’s promise of a better nation. Eager for “morning in America”—and swayed by fear that advances for black people would come at their expense—they didn’t see that the shadow of a long sunset was creeping over their lives.

Canonization elevates Mother Teresa to sainthood

By Stephen Lendman

She’s more myth than “saint of the gutters” for allegedly helping the poorest of the poor. More on her unsaintly legacy below.

America’s least powerful identity group: the majority; America’s most powerful minority group: the capitalists

By Frank Scott

Class conflict cannot exist in a society without classes, which is what we’re told we have as citizens of the world’s greatest democracy, its most exceptional nation, and other political-religious beliefs to accompany the big economic one about our magnificent free market where nothing is free.

‘Truth & Reconciliation’ in South Africa, Syria & my housing co-op

By Jane Stillwater

After South Africa finally realized that apartheid was a bad thing, the main action that country took to pull itself together again was its new and unique “Truth and Reconciliation” program—based on forgiveness. And Syria now has a Truth & Reconciliation program too, which seems to be working as well as the program in South Africa did.

I can put it down

By Missy Comley Beattie

During a flight, I usually read a mystery, for time zooming. My sister Laura, a crime/drama addict, provides recommendations. She says, “If someone isn’t murdered on page one, I’m not interested.” She’s kidding (maybe), but the books she praises have multiple plot developments, and just when you’re certain you know who did what, there’s a whiplashing twist.

Wednesday

Soros ran US foreign policy on post-coup Ukraine

By Wayne Madsen

A tranche of some 2,500 Internal documents, mostly Microsoft Word, Excel, and Power Point files, as well as pdf files, from George Soros’s Open Society Foundation (OSF) network of non-governmental organizations, which were obtained from the group “DC Leaks,” shows that Soros and his advisers lorded over US policy toward Ukraine after the 2014 coup supported by Soros and the Obama administration ousted the democratically-elected Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and his government. The leaked Soros documents describe how the OSF and Soros’s International Renaissance Foundation (IRF), based at 46 Artema Street in Kiev, worked with the US State Department after the 2014 so-called “Euromaidan” themed revolution to ensure that a federalized Ukraine was not in the picture.

Manipulating the American mind

By Stephen Lendman

In today’s information age, so different from my early years and young adulthood, it’s simple to stay well informed.

Your Turn: Election Day worries

In a highly unusual election season, there's lots of anxiety out there ahead of Nov. 8.

By Karin Kamp

Ahead of the fall campaign season, which unofficially kicks off on Labor Day, we asked our Facebook audience what their biggest concerns are for Election Day: Nov. 8.

The tyranny of 9/11: The building blocks of the American police state from A-Z

By John W. Whitehead

We’ve walked a strange and harrowing road since September 11, 2001, littered with the debris of our once-vaunted liberties.

Practice what you preach

By Linda S. Heard

It is about time that the US got off its high horse on human rights and understood that taking other nations to task on their human rights record is akin to throwing stones in glass houses. The latest recipient of the seemingly obligatory lecture is China.

Thursday

Syria: Raped by US imperialism

By Stephen Lendman

Endless US post-9/11 aggression against one nonbelligerent nation after another appears part of a neocon-sponsored WW III plot, likely culminating at some point with war on Russia, China and Iran—Syria and Ukraine perhaps the most threatening flashpoints.

Obama’s final ‘jihad’ in Asia

By Wayne Madsen

President Barack Obama has opted to ratchet up military tensions in Asia as one of his last foreign policy acts as president of the United States. Using climate change and free trade backdrops at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China, and the U.S.-ASEAN and East Asia Summits in Vientiane, Laos, as mirages intended to mask his aggressive military posture in the Asia-Pacific region, Obama seeks to cement his “pivot to Asia.” It is Obama’s sincere hope that his anticipated successor, his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, will expand on the expansionistic and aggressive regional showdown with China and Russia that his administration launched with his Asia “pivot.”

Three big lies that pervade America’s ‘news’ media

By Eric Zuesse

The Big Lies that pervade the U.S. ‘news’ media are the ones that are essential to sustain in order for the deceived American public to accept the fraudulent basis upon which the U.S. regime of Barack Obama has ‘justified’ his economic sanctions against Russia, and his pouring of U.S. troops and weapons onto and near Russia’s borders.

Don’t wait a year to stop using these dangerous products

FDA orders antibacterials removed from soaps

By Martha Rosenberg

When antibacterial dish, body and laundry soaps emerged in the 2000s, they were supposed to get you “better than clean.” They were an example of the “new, improved,” “more cleaning power,” “new fresh scent,” claims that drive consumer product sales.

GMOs, apple pie, cannibalism & a smoking gun

By Jane Stillwater

When I was a kid, I was totally fascinated by the Donner Party. How could they possibly do that? Eat their own kin? And if I had been in their shoes, would I have eaten my fellow Americans too?

Friday

‘My country, right or wrong’?

By Dave Alpert

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”

How much better can you eat?

By Emanuel E. Garcia, MD

It is, perhaps, the most powerful moment in the very powerful Polanski film “Chinatown,” when detective Jack Gittes, played superbly by Jack Nicholson in the role of a lifetime, confronts the corrupt tycoon Noah Cross, played superbly by John Huston. The detective asks the multi-millionaire who has been manipulating Los Angeles water rights for personal profit: “How much better can you eat? What can you buy that you can’t already afford?” Cross replies: “The future, Mr. Gittes!”

Distrust of 2016's hackable election is a media landslide with just one solution: Hand-counted paper ballots

By Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Finally, the major for-profit media is approaching consensus that it’s easy to hack U.S. political elections. Even candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are raising unprecedented doubts—from very different directions—about the reliability of the upcoming vote count.

Is Israel pushing for a Palestinian civil war?

By Ramzy Baroud

Division within Palestinian society has reached unprecedented levels, becoming a major hurdle on the path of any unified strategy to end Israel’s violent occupation or to rally Palestinians behind a single objective.

US: Russia blamed for each and everything that goes wrong

By Alex Gorka

Russia has once again been accused of being behind the hackers who have penetrated several, mostly unnamed, Washington-based think tanks.

20 Non-Toxic Ways to Have a Fresh Smelling Home

Sent by a friend.....simple ways to avoid toxic chemicals in your home:

20 Non-Toxic Ways to Have a Fresh Smelling Home

By: Dr. Loretta Lanphier, ND, CN, HHP, CH

(The Best Years in Life) After doing a month of chemo in 2001, I became very sensitive to certain perfumes, smells and/or odors. For example, I used to wear a wonderful high-end perfume and now just about all perfumes make me feel ill. My husband has had to return several colognes because I just could not stand the fragrance. I have even found that many of the home fragrances do not set well with me and can actually make me sneeze. However, I love a nice smelling home – who doesn’t? We know that “smells” can lift the spirit and actually calm the soul. Below are some great non-toxic wasy in which to keep your home smelling clean and fresh all year long.

1) Plants. Plants. Plants. A very natural and easy way to add oxygen to the air. Examples of plants to include are several palms, like Areca, Lady, Dwarf Date, and Bamboo, as well as Rubber Plant, Dracaena, English ivy, Boston fern, and Spider Plant. Make sure to keep the soil fresh (use organic potting soil) and the plants healthy.

2) Open a window. Easy and free. If you live in a heavy industrial or chemical area, be careful that you are not trading one concern for another. I recommend an effective air purifier.

3) Sprinkle baking soda in garbage cans and diaper pails and rinse with a solution of water and vinegar to remove odors. To remove odors from carpets, sprinkle lightly with baking soda, wait thirty minutes and vacuum thoroughly. Place open boxes of baking soda in areas around the home (don’t forget to include the fridge) to absorb odors. Small bowls of white vinegar can also be placed in out of the way areas. As the vinegar evaporates, so do the odors. Sprinkle baking soda in shoes to remove offensive foot odor.

4) On the stove or in a simmer pot, simmer cinnamon, cloves or citrus fruits in water. Your home will smell scrumptious!

5) Put a drop of pure citrus essential oil on a curtain or blind or on the toilet paper roll in the bathroom.

6) Make an old fashioned pomander like the kind used in colonial times. Easy to make, just stud oranges, lemons, or limes with whole cloves and place in a pretty bowl.

7) Bees wax or soy candles give off a pleasing light fragrance.

8) Even clean homes can smell bad from time to time. Find the source of the offensive odor and remove it — considering that it is not a human.

9) In a spray bottle, mix three parts white vinegar and one part water. Spray to your heart’s content (vinegar neutralizes odors on surfaces and in the air).

10) Grow herbs on your windowsill: Basil, mint and thyme can be grown indoors year-round. These naturally fragrant herbs will help clean the air.

11) Use grapefruit seed extract, tea tree oil, or lavender essential oil. Just a few drops in a gallon of warm water will do the trick. (Make a stronger solution for harder to banish concerns, such as mildew in the bathroom.) This solution can also be used in a misting bottle to add freshness to the air and to fabrics.

12) For odors in your garbage disposal, quarter a lemon or lime and toss it down. Add a few ice cubes to sharpen the blades as you grind everything up, leaving the disposal smelling citrus fresh!

13) Cut an Apple and Soak Up the Smells – This sounds bizarre, but a cut up apple is a great odor absorber.

14) Place several drops of pure essential oil in a glass spray bottle. Fill with distilled water. Use as a room spray. You can control the intensity of the smell by how many drops of the essential oil are added.

15) Bathroom – Keep a bottle of peppermint essential oil (peppermint essential oil is very inexpensive) on the toilet tank lid and after flushing put one drop of peppermint essential oil into the tank. Instruct older family members how to do this.

16) Make sure that dirty clothes do not accumulate in piles or in the dirty clothes hamper. Placing a small pomander filled with baking soda inside the dirty clother hamper will help with odor.

17) Change heater and air-conditioning filters often. Spray rubbing alcohol on the vents inside your home. If there is mold on the vents use a solution of Oxy-SC and water to kill the mold.

18) Replace old carpeting. Wash rugs in the bathroom area at least one time weekly.

19) For bathroom floors (tile and ceramic) invest in one of the smaller steam cleaners that uses water only. You can also place 1-2 drops of essential oil into the water for a nice fragrance.

20) Aromatherapy diffusers work well and can actually clean the air of viruses and bacteria. Be sure to use good quality essential oils. Reed diffusers work well as long as the scent in not laden with chemicals.

The Basic Ten Safe & Natural Cleaning Ingredients for your Cleaning Cabinet
Stock your home with these ten products, and you can clean just about anything — safely and naturally.

1) White vinegar: An antifungal that also kills germs and bacteria.

2) Baking soda: Eliminates odors and works as a gentle scouring powder.

3) Borax: Borax, the common name for the natural mineral compound sodium borate, eliminates odors, removes dirt, and acts as an antifungal and possible disinfectant. Use with care around children and pets, as it can be toxic if swallowed.

4) Hydrogen peroxide (3% concentration): A great nontoxic bleach and stain remover, as well as a proven disinfectant. Remember that this acts like a bleach so be careful what it is used on. (Must be diluted with water!)

5) Club soda (fresh): A stain remover and polisher.

6) Lemon juice: Nontoxic bleach, grease-cutter, and stain remover.

7) Liquid castile soap: An all-purpose cleaner, grease-cutter, and disinfectant. “Castile” means the soap is vegetable-based, not animal-fat-based.

8) Corn meal: Great at picking up carpet spills.

9) Olive oil: Makes a wonderful furniture polish.

10) Pure essential oils: Some—such as lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus, lemongrass, neroli and tea tree oils—have antibacterial, antifungal, or insect-repelling properties.

Non-Toxic Cleaners and Fresheners That You Can Make At Home

All-purpose cleaners: From kitchen counters and appliances to bathroom surfaces and walls. Clean House, Clean Planet author Karen Logan offers this recipe for the all-purpose “Alice’s Wonder Spray”: Put 2 Tbsp. white vinegar and 1 tsp. borax into a 16 oz. spray bottle. Fill the rest with very hot water and shake to blend until the borax is dissolved. Add 1/4 cup of liquid castile soap only after you’ve completed the above steps. If you want to scent your spray, also add 10–15 drops of an essential oil, such as lavender, lemongrass, thyme, eucalyptus, rosemary, rose, or clove. The spray will keep indefinitely.

Glass cleaner: To make windows and mirrors shine, use club soda in a spray bottle. Add 1 tsp. of lemon juice to increase your window cleaner’s degreasing power. Logan recommends using a terry-cloth cotton rag for best results.

Bathroom surface cleaners: Use baking soda or borax as a scouring powder. For a softer scrub, combine 1/2 cup baking soda with enough liquid soap to achieve a frosting-like consistency. You may want to add 5-10 drops of an essential oil for fragrance. Club soda works beautifully on plumbing fixtures.

Toilet cleaner: Sprinkle baking soda or borax, or pour white vinegar into the toilet, and let sit for a few minutes. Scrub with a good toilet brush.

Organic grapefruit lavender room spray

•1 cup distilled water

•1 cup vodka. Vodka helps to freshen and preserves the spray, but in a pinch, it’s not necessary. Your house will smell clean even without the alcohol.

•Organic pure essential oil – about 15-20 drops of lavender and 12-15 drops of grapefruit

•One empty refillable glass spray bottle

Mix all your ingredients in the spray bottle. Shake well before each use. Spray around your house.

Organic clove, orange, and cinnamon room spray

•1 cup distilled water

•1 cup vodka.

•Organic pure essential oil – about 10 drops of clove, 15-20 drops of orange, and 12 drops of cinnamon.

•One empty refillable glass spray bottle

Mix all your ingredients in the spray bottle. Shake well before each use. Spray around your house.

If the scent in either of the above is too strong or too weak you can adjust the essential oil content to suit your needs. Some people (me) like a lot of scent, but if you’re scent sensitive, less essential oil may be needed. Also, I’d be careful spraying this near fabrics. This is a safe home air freshener without chemicals and toxins, but it might oil-stain fabrics if you spray too much.

Original article source: http://www.oasisadvancedwellness.com/health-articles/2011/02/20-non-toxic-ways-to-have-a-fresh-smelling-home.html

 

 

 

 

Keep Toxins Out of Our Oceans

The information below highlights what we're doing to ourselves, our home and our environment with TOXIC CHEMICALS.

Recently, FEBREEZE was considered and this horrifying list of ingredients was discovered:
 

Febreze Ingredients

Below you'll find a list of just some of the 87 chemicals found by the EWG in Febreze Air Effects, listed in order of their toxicity to humans:

• BHT - Known as a neurotoxin, endocrine disruptor, immunotoxicity, non-reproductive organ system toxicity, skin eye and lung irritator
• Acetaldehyde - Known to cause cancer, toxic to reproduction and development, immunotoxin, non-reproductive organ system toxin, skin, eye and lung irritator
• "Fragrance" - One of the three ingredients actually disclosed, it's a neurotoxin, immunotoxin and allergen
• Propylene Glycol - Causes cancer, allergies, toxic to immune system, accumulates in the system, non-reproductive organ system toxin, is classified with "enhanced skin absorption" and irritates the skin, eye and lung
• 1,3-Dichloro-2-propanol - Carcinogenic (causes cancer)
• Limonene - Allergen, immunotoxin and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Methyl pyrrolidone - Toxin to reproduction and development, allergen and immunotoxin, non-reproductive organ system toxin and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Alcohol denatured - Also disclosed in the ingredients of Febreze, it's linked to cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, organ system toxicity and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Butylphenyl methylpropion al - allergen, immunotoxin and and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Ethyl acetate - linked to developmental/reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity, organic system toxicity and and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Geraniol - Linked to allergies, immunotoxicity, organi system toxicity and and skin, eyes and lung irritation
• Linalool - allergen, immunotoxin, and and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Benzaldehyde - neurotoxin, and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Diethylene glycol monoethyl ether - non-reproductive organ system toxicity
• Ethylhezanol - developmental and reproductive toxin and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Hexyl cinnamal - allergen, immunotoxin and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• And way too many more....

You can find the EWG's full report on Febreze and other common cleaners here.


Unfortunately, if you check SNOPES, they provide false assurance about the safety of FEBREEZE because they only considered the ingredients disclosed on the product. With the list of chemicals above, do you really want to risk its use when there are safe alternatives available?

 

1,000,000 Strong Against Offshore Drilling shared David Suzuki's photo.

Keeping toxins out of your home will help keep toxins out of our oceans.

To see all 7 habits for a healthy ocean, visit: http://ow.ly/nLmOg

Habit for a healthy ocean #5 - Keep toxins out of your home. Even a tiny amount of some household chemicals can have a huge impact on ocean health. Keep our oce...ans safe by choosing green alternatives to toxic cleaning products, and never pour bleach or motor oil down the drain - find out about safe disposal programs in your area. Our Queen of Green blog has more tips for keeping toxins out of your home: http:// davidsuzuki.org/blogs/queen-of-green

To see all 7 habits for a healthy ocean, visit: http://ow.ly/nLmOg

 

 
National Wildlife offered the article below about SAVING ENERGY and MONEY that included this section:

Make your own cleaning products. Baking soda, water and vinegar and maybe a little cream of tartar provide almost all the basic ingredients for good cleaning, “especially if you keep at your cleaning chores so they don’t become monstrous,” says Rangan. Baking soda dissolved in water, for example, is a good all-purpose cleaner for kitchens and bathrooms, while vinegar removes soap residues and can be added to the rinse cycle in your washing machine to brighten and soften clothes. Homemade cleaning products also are far less toxic—better for the environment and for your family’s health. Annual savings: $50 to $100.

 

Green Consumer

Ten Ways to Save Energy and Money, Too

06-01-2009 // Gabrielle Redford

- See more at: http://mobile.nwf.org/Home/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Green-Living/Archives/2009/Green-Consumer.aspx#sthash.ZKuE4TiL.dpuf
 

Chemicals in Your Home Never Tested for Safety

Your couch is just the beginning!

League of Conservation Voters

Is your couch safe? Flame retardants soaked into couch cushions can cause cancer, infertility, or even reduced IQ, but the chemical industry has fought to keep these #ChemicalsofConcern in our homes, schools and workplaces.

Hit LIKE and SHARE this image from Senator Frank R. Lautenberg if you support the Safe Chemicals Act, which would require that chemicals found in everyday products are tested for safety.