Green Materials

     While searching for an inspiration for this blog, I happened to be staring around my apartment.  I wanted to find something to write about that I could relate to my life.  I ended up digging through my cleaning products (buying all environmentally-friendly cleaning products is a crusade I embarked upon about two years ago, and it's going really well).  I found a product, and decided to do some research on the internet to find out exactly how awesome this product is.
     One brand that I use is called Seventh Generation, which is apparently one of the most popular brands of green cleaning products out there.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they have a really informative website.  The Free & Clear All-Purpose Cleaner that I chose to research has only a handful of ingredients, almost all of which are plant-based.  The only exception to the plant-based ingredients was a synthetic preservative.  The use of this preservative was something I could understand because since the ingredients in this product are natural, it would probably have a pretty short shelf-life if there was nothing in it to ensure that it did not age too rapidly.  Also, there is clearly not a whole lot of this preservative in my cleaning product, because it is the last ingredient listed on the label.
     The first ingredient listed on the label for the cleaner I found is caprylyl glocuside.  I did some research on this compound, and learned that it is a pretty interesting product because it is able to do something that chemicals used in traditional cleaning products cannot.  It is used to mix oils from plants and water that are not normally able to mix, so that they can be together in the same product and they will not separate.  It is very mild, and I also learned that it is quite prevalent in many lines of green household cleaning products.  The molecular formula for it is C22H46O6.
   One alternative to the caprylyl glucoside that is in traditional cleaning products is sulfates.  Sulfates serve the same purpose that this plant-based ingredient does, and it has various detrimental affects on the human body.  The most mild that I was able to find is that sulfates strip natural moisture from the human body, along with other things like amino acids.  I would take my cleaners made from plants over that any day.