According to historical records, the earliest soap recipe originated in Mesopotamia in Western Asia (meaning "the place between two rivers", referring to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers). Around BC In 3000, people mixed 1 part of oil and 5 parts of alkaline plant ash to make a detergent. There are many legends about the origin of soap in Europe. It is said that the Gauls of ancient Rome mixed suet and suet during festivals. The beech tree ash solution was stirred into a thick consistency, applied to the hair, and combed into various hairstyles. Once, there was a heavy rain during the festival, and the hairstyle was damaged, but people unexpectedly found that the hair became cleaner. It is also said that when the Romans were worshiping the gods, they The barbecued beef and mutton fat dripped into the plant ash, forming "grease balls". When women were doing laundry, they found that clothes stained with "grease balls" were easier to wash. This all shows that people use animal fat and plant ash (alkali) soap It has been used for thousands of years.

Archaeologists discovered a soap-making workshop in the ruins of Pompeii, Italy. It shows that the Romans had started primitive soap production as early as the 2nd century AD. The Chinese were also very It has long been known to use plant ash and trona to wash clothes. People also mixed pig pancreas, lard and natural ash to make a block, called "pancreas".

Early soap was a luxury product until 1791 In 1823, the French chemist Lublin succeeded in producing caustic soda cheaply by electrolyzing salt, thus ending the ancient method of producing alkali from plant ash. In 1823, the German chemist Cheever discovered the structure and characteristics of fatty acids. Soap is fatty acid At the end of the 19th century, the soap-making industry was finally transformed from handicraft workshops to industrial production.