The word ‘sopa’ derives from the Romans who gave the name ‘sapo’ to a stone found near Rome which was used for general cleaning purposes
The first soaps recorded are probably the saponins made from plants, leaves, roots, woody seeds, berries, barks of so-called soap root plants. It was discovered that these substances formed soapy solutions that dissolved dirt and made it easier to remove it from clothes.
Soap-making technology was known in ancient times when alkaline boiling agents were prepared from wood ash which was used for the saponification of tallow or discarded animal fat or vegetable oil
The oldest known formula (3000 B.C.) for soap making has been traced to Mesapotamia, and describes a mixture formed by one part oil and five and a half parts potash. From oil or animal fat, mixed with the ashes of beechwood a soft soap was produced (potassium salt), which was easy to make and produced for domestic use until the nineteenth century. Hard soap, obtained by mixing vegetable oil with the soda from the ashes of seaweed, was industrially produced. Often scented, it was sold as a luxury item and was made in Venice, Marseille and Castille from the fifteenth century. The price of soap went down a lot from 1820-30, thanks to the industrial production of soda.The resulting improvement in personal hygiene towards the middle of the nineteenth century, contributed to lowering the rate of infant mortality.
In 1903, two German chemists, Hermann Geissler e Hermann Bauer, invented a process for the production of dry powdered soap. Liquid soap, overheated, was sprayed under pressure on the upper walls of a tank, from which it fell in the form of solid granules. In 1906 this dry soap was traded by a German company Henkel under the name Persil (the name comes from the main components perborate and silicate). The product caught on, to the detriment of normal soap bars, thanks especially to rigorous advertising. From the 1930s it was overtaken by new detergents consisting of one or more detergents in combination with other substances that make the most of its cleaning power or at least improve its characteristics.