No, not quite spit. What it is, is this: I've noticed, after getting mucus from my spit all over my toothbrush and brushing hand and having to rinse it off, that mucus (the clear stuff, not green snot) seems to have a detergent-like effect. Perhaps it would be possible to synthesize an 'all-natural' mucus hand soap. Don't know what it'd cost, but it might prove, after tweaking, to be as effective as regular soap, but more natural to the hands and gentler on the skin than soap.
-- galukalock, Apr 02 2003

Dissolving chewing um http://www.straight...com/classics/a2_201
Does saliva contain inducible enzymes? [bungston, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004]

Baked http://www.ncbe.rea...MES/washenzyme.html
Enzymes found in saliva are already being used in detergents [XSarenkaX, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004]

there's an acid in spit. cannot you find a nice idea to give us?
-- po, Apr 02 2003


How many times do I hafta tell you to read the whole thing *before* anno'ing?

Yes there's acid in spit, although it's very mild. But this *ain't* *spit*. Just the mucus in spit, huh?! And not even from other people! Synthetic mucus.
-- galukalock, Apr 02 2003


How do you figure that saliva (or "mucus", as you invariably call it) has "detergent-like" qualities? I find it to be sticky - that's it.
-- XSarenkaX, Apr 02 2003


where does it say <sigh> acid in spit and why the fuck have i spent ten minutes trying to remind myself what acid it was in spit at all?

this is so rubbish - you could do better if you tried.
-- po, Apr 02 2003


I'd like to know the circumstances when you noticed this 'detergent-like effect'. What did you do, drool on your shirt?

po's right, galu. You could do with some heavy editing of which ideas are worth posting of late.
-- waugsqueke, Apr 02 2003


It *ain't* spit, spitooie, saliva, Hochh-ptoo, or anything besides mucus. Mucus is but *one* component of saliva. And I figure it to have detergent properties because it seems to cut the oils on my hands. What is the consistency of hand soap? It's sticky.
-- galukalock, Apr 02 2003


If you got it on your hand from spitting on it and noticed something, you're talking about spit. If you isolated the mucus that you insist is only one component of spit somehow to study its properties, please elaborate. We're all dying to know how it was done and tested.
-- XSarenkaX, Apr 02 2003


Snot a good idea.

You shall have a fishy
In a little dishy
You shall have a fishy
When the boat comes in

Was that the theme to a British tv programme when I was a kid?
-- Helium, Apr 02 2003


(Helium) It was but for the life of my I cannot remember what it was.
-- sufc, Apr 02 2003


do we care?
-- po, Apr 02 2003


I don't like this idea as I'm Blennophobic.
Do we care?. I don't know
-- sufc, Apr 02 2003


I didn't spit on my hand. My mouth produces a lot of mucus when I brush my teeth, and it got on my hand even though I was trying to keep from drooling. I then found that my hand seemed to be much cleaner. That's all the testing I've done.
-- galukalock, Apr 02 2003


Thank you sufc, I like it when my 30 year old memories work their way back up to the top.
-- Helium, Apr 02 2003


This idea is not completely outrageous. Soaps are long carboxylated fat molecules. Judging by the smell, some of those automotive waterless hand cleaners are long alkanes - like decane. Cetaphil is a popular soapless cleanser product, also made of long molecules.

Maybe the cleaning properties of these things are somehow bestowed by the fact the the molecules are very long and tangly. Mucins are long tangly proteins and it is possible that they might have soaplike properties.
-- bungston, Apr 02 2003


If this detergent in saliva existed, my dog would be cleaner than me.
-- Pericles, Apr 02 2003


Spit'n'polish. It's not just for shoes anymore.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Apr 02 2003


Mom's spit and a handkerchief were always superior to clean five children's faces before Sunday school.

The hair gel reference and "There's Something About Mary" movie remind me of another mucus that one can try to wash off the skin until the cows come home.
-- FarmerJohn, Apr 03 2003


I'm not sure about anything else here (because I'm not a rocket scientist), but blissmiss, I'm afraid that the acid is mild. I say this because the belly does, in fact face the onerous onus you described (not that I personally eat crap), and is properly equipped to do so, with (among other things) hydrochloric acid and bile. They're not mild.
-- galukalock, Apr 03 2003


Your mouth produces saliva. Not mucus; SALIVA. Say it with me: Saliva.

[fogfreak] is probably right about the toothpaste part being the cleaner in your lame experiment. If you're going to claim that saliva cleans, use it, alone, to clean something.

If you're going to say that some part of saliva is the cleaning agent, isolate it first, then test its cleansing properties. In my experience, both saliva and mucus have been the stuff I wanted to wash OFF me, not the cleansing agent.
-- XSarenkaX, Apr 03 2003


Whether this is a cleansing soap or not it would still be a great "gift" to give to someone you don't like so much. Just think of the smile that would beam on your face when you knew your enemy was washing their entire body with YOUR saliva!!!

Little boys & girls could make their own saliva-soap & give it to their bratty older sisters as revenge. Don't like your roommate? Just slip a fresh bar of saliva soap in the shower before they get in! Ahhhh...sweet revenge!!!
-- funkychunky, Apr 03 2003


I wish I had one of my own bars around when my dad washed my mouth out for saying "shit" once too often.
-- FarmerJohn, Apr 03 2003


galu... making the great leap of presumption for a second a) that mucus does exist in saliva (which is what your mouth is producing - mucus is the stuff that comes out of your nose, if you weren't aware of the difference, and I really don't want to think about you getting nose stuff on your hand while brushing your teeth); and b) that it does indeed possess "detergent-like" qualities... do these things suggest that it's the best thing around to be using as a soap?

Think it through, man. Imagine the 'mucus' collection that would have to go on in the production process (there's another thing I really don't want to have to think about). You would have to charge quite a premium for this mucus-based soap to cover the overhead costs. And there ain't nobody gonna buy that shit.

This, the stinky bathrooms, the cancer thing... you need to do a higher degree of self-editing. The quality of your ideas lately, quite frankly, sucks.
-- waugsqueke, Apr 03 2003


Yeah. But, for the moment, I have nitpicks.

Am I the only one who read that mucus monomer link? It says right there, written by people who HAVE chemically analyzed the junk, that there IS mucus in saliva (your mouth is lined with--say it with me--mucous membranes).

Also, we must differentiate between mucus (the clear stringy junk) and snot (which only comes from the nose). Snot contains mucus, but also antibodies, leukocytes (if my memory serves me correctly), germs, toxins, and probably a bit of blood. Okay? All right.

And again, yeah, these aren't exactly the very best Nobel-prize-winning ideas ever produced.
-- galukalock, Apr 03 2003


seriously if you are this interested in the subject, why don't you apply for a grant to study the subject more fully and write a paper on your findings. this may be your raison d'etre and in years to come, the world may come to thank you and praise your name and put your face on postage stamps ;)
-- po, Apr 03 2003


In a way, mouth and throat mucus serves a function very similar to that of soap. Soap serves to capture adherent dirt, separate it from the substrate, and allow it to be washed away. Mucus captures inhaled dirt / foreign particles, holds them separate from the substrate and allows them to be carries away, into a tissue or swallowed or whatever. Consider the "black booger" phenomenon which occurs after a dusty day. It is the same tyrannical principle.
-- bungston, Apr 03 2003


I’m more of a ptyalin person myself. Yeah I spit in my diving mask before I use it so it doesn’t fog up, but I rinse it out the phlegm before wearing it. BTW, ptyalin can be purchased in a squirt bottle – mucus free – just for this purpose. Never tried using it as a cleaning agent though.
-- Shz, Apr 03 2003


Okay, so per the "monomers" link above, mucus *is* present in saliva. And per [bungston]'s annotation, perhaps it is possible that it performs similar duties to that of soap. I still don't like the idea of lathering up with it. :P
-- XSarenkaX, Apr 07 2003


Well, duh. That's why you synthesize it instead of get it from people. (Pictures SpitSoap, Inc. stand outside supermarket going on a mucus drive.) Yup. Synthetic is definitely best.
-- galukalock, Apr 07 2003


Spit works for cats. Just cut out the soap manufacturers and like yerself clean. You never see a dirty moggy do you.
-- The Kat, Apr 07 2003


Thanks for a stroll down memory lane [reensure]. Loved those five cent fudgecicles at the corner grocery store.
-- FarmerJohn, Apr 07 2003


[helium]

I dont remember it being a theme tune. I know it as a north-east nursery rhyme/lullaby.

Dance to your daddy
My bonny laddy
Dance to your daddy
My bonny lamb

You shall have a fishy
In a little dishy
You shall have a fishy
When the boat comes in

Dance to your.....

You shall get a coatie
And a pair of breeches
And you'll get an eggy
And a bit of ham

Dance to your...

You shall get a pony
Fit to ride for any
And you'll get a whippy
For to make him gang

Dance to your daddy
My little laddy
Dance to your daddy
My bonny lamb
-- squeak, Apr 08 2003


"When the boat comes in" with James Bolam (sp?) in the 70's
-- po, Apr 08 2003


I was pondering the mucus soap notion while thinking about how one might get clean if one were on a tropical atoll. Soap would poison the reef. But many marine critters use mucus to trap plankton and such for eating. Perhaps a cleansing agent made of polymers from sea slug slime or something similar might be an ecofriendly way to wash up at sea?
-- bungston, Aug 16 2004



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