Natural Cleaning Solution

Natural Cleaning Solution aka Bio Enzyme

This all purpose cleaning solution is used for floor cleaning, washing veggies, plants, pest control, personal care and dirt remover.

Preparation: 

• Remember the ratio 1:3:10 – Jaggery to Citrus Peels to Water. That is take one part of Jaggery, 3 parts of Citrus peels and 10 parts of Water. If you use one cup of Jaggery, use the same cup to measure the other two ingredients as well. But you need not be 100% accurate to the last dot – the cleaning solution is forgiving if you add a bit more of this or that (not too much or too less though!). Take a big enough and air tight container with a lid which can accommodate this solution + still have a 10 – 15 % space left empty. Mix these three ingredients in that container, put the lid on, label it with the date of creation and leave it in a dark place (such as inside your kitchen cupboard or under the sink). 
• Once the solution starts fermenting (will be explained in a bit), it will start releasing some gases that will get built up in the empty space in the container. Before this gas becomes too much and “pops” outside, you will need to release them. Hence, you will need to open the lid once in a day (for first one week at least), air it out for a minute or so (no need to stir or do anything else!), put the lid back on, keep it back in the dark place and again forget it for another day. From second week onwards, the gas activity will reduce a bit and you need not open every day - you can open every other day.
• It is not advisable to use metal and glass as it will not be able to expand. There are gases that will get released during the process of production – so plastic is a better option. You can use any old plastic container lying around.
• There are two ways you can make this process faster. 
• You can add yeast (the regular Baker’s yeast( 3-4 globules are enough) you will get in Departmental stores). This will make the cleaning solution ready in just 20 days. 
•  You can add the leftover pulp of a previous batch. This will make the cleaning solution ready in 30 days.

Otherwise, it will take some three months time to prepare with citrus peels, jaggery and water alone.

• As for how to know when it is ready: Three factors. 
• 1. Time  - As mentioned, it takes 3 months to make the Cleaning solution without any yeast. If one adds yeast, it can get done in 20-25 days (provided right environment is maintained for the microbes to flourish). This has been calculated based on lot of people's experience and research.
• 2. Stopping of Gas production - As the fermentation slows down, so will the production of gases from the solution. At the end of the time period, most of the food materials, if not all, would have been converted by the microbes into Vinegar or Alcohol and there won't be anything left for them to munch. So they will start to de-activate or die. This signals that solution is ready. However, one needs to use this indicator along with the time as sometimes fermentation might slow down in between also due to unfavorable conditions (we will see more details of this below).
• 3. Peels settling down - the Peels we used to make the solution - as they get processed by the microbes (in essence, eaten up) - will start to settle down to the bottom of the container. This is a good indicator - sometimes, some peels will continue to float while most settle down. That is okay.

Filter the solution to separate the diluted part and pulpy part separately. For harder stains, the pulpy part can be used.

some of the "unfavorable" things that can happen that can slow down or affect the cleaning solution production process:

1. Leaving your container open and letting in too much oxygen - As mentioned, fermentation releases carbon dioxide along with minor quantities of other gases. This CO2 needs to be let out while letting in bit of Oxygen. However, if we completely leave the container open, too much aerobic condition will affect the final quality of the solution produced.

2. Worms and Flies in your cleaning solution container - this will also occur only if you had NOT been careful about your container and left it open at some point inviting flies to come in and breed. This can slow down fermentation to a great extent and take away the food meant for microbes. We can try to correct when worms occur (we need to add extra jaggery and by closing container in air tight manner for 1 week - hopefully, the worms will die. Otherwise, one just needs to abandon and start again.

3. Temperature - Microbes like a temperature that is close to our body temperature. So if we are able to maintain that in the solution, then the fermentation will happen pretty fast. But if we create extreme temperature fluctuations or worse make it too hot or too cold, fermentation will get affected. For example, keeping the solution inside your fridge - thats a big NO. Keeping your sunlight in direct sunlight - that's a big NO. Shifting your container continuously from place to place causing lot of temperature fluctuations - that's a BIG No. Tip: Try to keep the Enzyme under the sink in your kitchen (relatively warm place in your house) or even on top of your fridge (where heat is generated) protected by a cloth underneath. 

4. Forgetting to open for months and months - Now, just the way leaving your container totally open is also a problem, not opening at all can also be a disaster. The built up gas, for one, can cause an explosion! Two - the accumulated CO2 will end up killing the microbes as well. Hence, the suggestion to open it once a day initially (when fermentation rate if at its highest). After that, when fermentation slows down and gas production slows down, you can open it once in two or three days.

Uses of Natural cleaning solution:

1. As a surface cleaner: Floor Cleaner, Tile Cleaner, Toilet Cleaner, Stove/Chimney Cleaner (concentrated version or the pulpy residue), Window Cleaner, Car wash, etc.

2. As a dirt remover: Laundry liquid , Vessel Cleaner, stain remover, etc.

3. As a personal care product (to be used after individual testing ONLY): Body wash, Shampoo, Hair conditioner, Shoe odor remover

4. As an antibacterial and antiviral: Refrigerator cleaner, Cabinet cleaner, Unclogging drains

5. Washing Vegetables and Fruits to neutralize harmful fertilizers/pesticide residues on them

6. Pest Control: Continued use of Cleaning Solution have been known to repel small insects, ants, cockroaches at home (though it doesn't kill them). Also, Cleaning Solution is being used extremely effectively in fumigation along with Soapnuts and Neem Oil. 

7. Plant Care: It is a wonderful bloom nutrient. Also helps in managing plant pests like whiteflies, mealybugs and spider mites.

8. Treating Reject water: Reject water coming from RO plants, ACs and kitchen grey water can be treated with the natural cleaning solution. Adding 10ml to a bucket of above reject water makes a great difference. It has a power to clean rivers.

9. Adding a litre of natural cleanser solution in a overhead tank may reduce scaling issues with taps and pipes.


There may be many more uses that may just need to be discovered!