Soapnut Tincture & Alcohol-Free Extract

Soapnut (Sapindus mukorossi) is the Indian soapberry or ritha, a deciduous tree of the soapberry family, Sapindaceae, native to the Himalayan foothills from Kashmir to Nepal and across southern China and Japan, and planted in India as a shade and crop tree. It grows 15 to 20 meters with pinnate leaves of five to ten pairs of lanceolate leaflets and large panicles of small greenish-white flowers. The round, fleshy fruit, about 2 cm across, turns golden-brown and sticky as it dries, with a pericarp rich in saponins that foam in water like soap. We extract the dried nut.