Question

What are the similarities and differences between natural detergents and man-made detergents?

Answer 1

Before going through the question let us first know about detergents. In dilute solutions, a detergent is a surfactant or a combination of surfactants with cleaning properties. There are two types of detergents, Natural and Man-Made detergents.

Complete answer:
Natural detergents are readily available and widely used. Humans create synthetic detergents or man-made detergents for washing. Soapnut (ritha) and soap pod are examples of natural detergents (shikakai). Soap is an example of man-made detergent. Surfactants are substances that are used to clean surfaces.

Man-made detergent is any synthetic substance other than soap that is an efficient cleanser and can be used as a surface-active agent in both hard and soft water. This is a non-soap cleanser that works by lowering the surface tension of aqueous cleaning solutions.
similarities and differences between natural detergents and man-made detergents are as follows:

Natural Detergents	Man-Made Detergents
1. Natural detergents are widely used and widely available.	1. Human beings create man-made or synthetic detergent.
2. Natural examples include soap nut (reetha) and soap seed (sikakai).	2. Soap is an example of detergent.
3.Natural detergents are substances that are used to clean surfaces.	3. This is also used to clean surface
4. Natural detergents are safe for the environment.	4.Detergents made by humans are toxic to the environment.

Note: A synthetic detergent is any synthetic material other than soap that is an efficient cleanser and works equally well in hard or soft water as a surface-active agent. The long-chain structural units in synthetic detergents are made from fats or kerosene as raw materials. Saponin is a compound used in natural detergents.