What is a natural alternative to surfactant?

Author: Ralph Kshlerin  |  Last update: Friday, August 29, 2025

Decyl Glucoside It is commonly used as a human-safe and environmentally safe alternative to conventional anionic surfactant sulfates (like sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate). Decyl Glucoside produces less stable foam than Coco Glucoside but is excellent for enhancing viscosity.

What can be used as a natural surfactant?

To help guide your formulation process, I've compared five of the most popular plant-derived non-ionic surfactants that you can experiment with:
  • Coco Glucoside.
  • Decyl Glucoside.
  • Lauryl Glucoside.
  • Sucrose Cocoate.
  • Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside.

What can you use in place of surfactant?

In most domestic homeowner situations, the easiest and most accessible surfactant to use is dishwashing liquid. As mentioned earlier, soap contains the surfactant Sodium stearate. Liquid dishwashing liquid can be added to a tank mix of the herbicide or pesticide being applied and mixed with water.

Is baking soda a surfactant?

"Soap is a surfactant. Shampoo contains surfactant and detergents contain surfactants. Baking soda does not."

Can you use olive oil as a surfactant?

The effect of a mild surfactant can be obtained in a particularly effective way by mixing an emollient and anionic surfactants, both obtained by olive oil transesterification. As an emollient, a product obtained via transesterification of olive oil with glycerine derivatives is particularly suitable.

Natural Alternatives to Synthetic Surfactants in Personal Care

Can I use Dawn dish soap as a surfactant?

The short answer is yes you can but only if you want mediocre to poor results. Here's why: Non-ionic surfactants are one of the most popular type of surfactants that weed killers, herbicides and other lawn chemicals call for.

Is coconut oil a natural surfactant?

Many natural and organic skincare and hair care products are also using Coconut Oil as their key ingredient. The surfactants that are used in these natural skincare and haircare products are derived from Coconut Oil. One such natural surfactant which we are going to discuss today is Coco-Glucoside.

How do the Amish make laundry soap?

Amish Laundry Soap Recipe
  1. ½ cup washing soda (Arm and Hammer works)
  2. 1 ½ cup of Borax.
  3. 1 Bar of Fels Naptha Soap.
  4. 5-Gallon bucket completely cleaned out.
  5. Stove pot.
  6. Medium bowl.

Is white vinegar a surfactant?

Finally, despite lacking surfactant properties, white vinegar turned out to be significantly more effective than we initially predicted. This is because white vinegar is composed of acetic acid and previous research indicates that paraffin wax is highly soluble in acetic acid (Arshadi 1).

What acts as a surfactant?

A common example of this in practice is a detergent. When a detergent is added to a liquid, it causes a reaction that reduces the surfactant's surface tension, which increases its spreading and wetting properties. Other examples of surfactants are germicides, fungicides, and insecticides.

What does Dawn dish soap do to your yard?

Dish soap isn't selective about removing oils and drying out cell membranes. It will dehydrate and kill the grass just as it would the nasty pests in your garden. So, yes, dish soap is not an entirely safe way to remove insects and lawn pests. With that said, soaps won't always kill your lawn altogether.

Can I use vegetable oil as a surfactant?

Currently, vegetable oils that are used to synthesize natural surfactants for enhanced oil recovery include castor oil, jatropha oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, sunflower oil, as well as waste cooking oil.

How do you make surfactant?

Synthetic or petrochemical feedstocks are produced by oil, gas and chemical processing. The resulting chemicals, synthetic alcohols, can be further processed or reacted (including through alkylation, ethoxylation or sulphation) to produce a range of different types of surfactant molecules.

What can you use instead of surfactant?

In an attempt to save money, some people will use a liquid dish-washing detergent in place of a commercially manufactured surfactant.

Can sugar be used as a surfactant?

Currently, “sugar-based surfactants” such as alky(poly)glycosides and sucrose fatty acid esters are being manufactured [42], and play important roles in the surfactant & detergent industry.

What is the most gentle surfactant?

Amphoteric surfactants are very mild cleansers, so they are usually used as co-surfactants in a surfactant blend. They're very gentle and help make the overall formulation gentler. They're also used to help stabilize lather and strengthen the micelles that help cleansing surfactants remove dirt and oil.

Is there a natural surfactant?

Surfactants are a very large category that include several specific types, many of which are naturally derived. For example, lecithin occurs naturally in both plant and animal tissues, including eggs, and is widely regarded as one of the most common emulsifiers.

Is Dawn detergent a surfactant?

Dawn dish detergent is a powerful surfactant.

Is OxiClean a surfactant?

The OxiClean™ formulation is a combination of ingredients, the key ingredient being sodium percarbonate, sodium carbonate, surfactants and polymer.

What does the Amish use for toilet paper?

While mainstream society quickly embraced toilet paper's convenience and hygiene benefits, many Amish communities continued using traditional materials like leaves, rags, or corn cobs for personal sanitation.

What did pioneers use for laundry soap?

The soap was handmade using tallow, lye, and water. Lye is made from wood ashes usually gathered from the fireplace and put in a wooden hopper. They typically needed about one wooden barrel of ashes to make the lye. The pioneers poured about 4 liters of water over the ashes to soak them.

What is the most natural laundry detergent?

The best non-toxic laundry detergent is one that delivers cleanliness to your clothes while ensuring safety and sustainability.
  • NaturOli* (Our Top Pick)
  • Truly Free*
  • Ecos Free & Clear*
  • Meliora Unscented Powder Detergent*
  • Molly's Suds*
  • Aspen*
  • ATTITUDE*
  • Clean Cult*

Is cocoa butter a surfactant?

Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter also slows the loss of water from the skin by forming a barrier on the skin's surface. Sodium Cocoa Butterate is used as a surfactant. Also called a surface active agent.

Can I use Castile soap as a surfactant?

Liquid castile soap can sort of work as a stand-in for liquid surfactants, but again, I don't recommend it. A finished castile soap product (like Dr. Bronner's) will already be diluted with water, so using it in place of an undiluted liquid surfactant product will result in a much weaker product.

Is there synthetic surfactant?

Synthetic surfactants have been developed and can be used for babies born prematurely (before 34 weeks) who have RDS. The review of trials found evidence that synthetic surfactant for babies with RDS is effective. Synthetic surfactant reduced the risk of pneumothorax (air in the lung cavity) and death.

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