Boushra

Historical Review of the Evolution of Detergents:
The symbol used by the ancient Egyptians to represent a launder was a pair of legs immersed in water. This choice was logical, because at this time the standard way to launder clothes was to tread on them. But simple laundry was subjected to purely mechanical treatment.

It has long been known, however, that the washing power can be increased in various ways:

Rain water, for example, was found to be more suitable for washing than well water.
Hot water also was found to have more washing power than cold water.
The Egyptians even used soda as a wash additive; this was later supplemented with nasilicate.

Soap is the oldest surfactant; it was known to the Sumerians as early as 2500 BC.
Soap was regarded as a remedy and a cosmetic especially in hair pomade.
Only in the last 1000 years has it come to be used as a general purpose washing and laundering agent.

Notorious for its sensitivity to water hardness, water was gradually replaced by synthetic surfactants with more favorable characteristics.
Following World War II other ingredients for improving detergency performance were introduced.

Chief among these are the following:

• Complexion agents (STTP)

• Ion exchanging (ZEOLITHE)

• Soil anti-redepsition agents

• EnzymesFluorescent whitening agents (FWA)

• Foam regulators

• Bleaching activators

• Complex agents

• Polymers

Table 1 shows the historical evolution of surfactants with the concurrent development in washing machines:
History dates about washing