Pancreas is a kind of compound washing product invented in ancient China, which contains components of pig pancreas and plant ash.

Invention of Pancreas: There was a detergent called "bath bean" in Wei and Jin Dynasties. It was recorded in Sun Simiao's "Qianjin Yaofang" and "Qianjin Yifang" in Tang Dynasty that the dirty blood of pig pancreas was washed, the fat was removed and ground into a paste, then bean powder, spices and so on were added, evenly mixed, and then naturally dried to make bath bean for washing. Who first thought of using pig pancreas to remove dirt? No one knows so far, but he must be a brilliant man. In the process of making bath beans, the pig pancreas was ground, which enhanced the exudation of digestive enzymes contained in the pancreas. The mixed soybean powder contained saponin and lecithin, which had the function of enhancing foaming power and emulsifying power, not only enhanced the washing ability, but also moisturized the skin, so it was a relatively high-quality detergent at that time. However, because it is really difficult to obtain pig pancreas in large quantities, bath beans have not been widely popularized and are only used by a few upper-class aristocrats.

Later, people improved the production technology of bath beans. They added sugar when grinding pig pancreas, and replaced bean powder with sodium carbonate (soda ash) or plant ash (mainly potassium carbonate), and added molten pig fat. After mixing evenly, they pressed it into a ball or block, which is called "pancreas". Lard melts at 40℃, and pig pancreas plays the role of lipase decomposition at this time, which decomposes lard into higher fatty acids, and these fatty acids undergo saponification reaction with plant ash alkali added later, resulting in fatty acid soap. This is the main chemical composition of modern soap!

Washing function of pancreas: The chemical composition of pancreas is very similar to that of soap today. Moreover, there are many kinds of products with various floral scents, such as sweet-scented osmanthus and rose, which are quite similar to all kinds of soaps with different scents today.

In addition, due to the existence of lipase and protease in the pancreas, it also has the function of compound decomposition of dirt, which is similar to the function of modern enzyme-added washing powder, and can be called ancient enzyme-added low-foam multifunctional detergent.