| medicinal soft soap | A soap made with vegetable oils, potassium hydroxide, oleic acid, glycerin, and purified water; used as a stimulant in chronic skin diseases. Synonym: green soap, soft soap. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| hard soap | A soap made with olive oil, or some other suitable oil or fat, and sodium hydroxide; used as a detergent, and in the form of a suppository or soapsuds enema for constipation; used also as an excipient in pills. Synonym: Castile soap. (05 Mar 2000) |
| salt water soap | A soap made of palm or coconut oil for use with sea water in which it is soluble. Synonym: salt water soap. (05 Mar 2000) |
| soap | A substance which dissolves in water, thus forming a lather, and is used as a cleansing agent. Soap is produced by combining fats or oils with alkalies or alkaline earths, usually by boiling, and consists of salts of sodium, potassium, etc, with the fatty acids (oleic, stearic, palmitic, etc). See the Note below, and cf. Saponification. By extension, any compound of similar composition or properties, whether used as a cleaning agent or not. In general, soaps are of two classes, hard and soft. Calcium, magnesium, lead, etc, form soaps, but they are insoluble and useless. "The purifying action of soap depends upon the fact that it is decomposed by a large quantity of water into free alkali and an insoluble acid salt. The first of these takes away the fatty dirt on washing, and the latter forms the soap lather which envelops the greasy matter and thus tends to remove it." (Roscoe & Schorlemmer) Castile soap, a fine-grained hard soap, white or mottled, made of olive oil and soda; called also Marseilles, or Venetian, soap. Hard soap, any one of a great variety of soaps, of different ingredients and colour, which are hard and compact. All solid soaps are of this class. Lead soap, an insoluble, white, pliable soap made by saponifying an oil (olive oil) with lead oxide; used externally in medicine. Called also lead plaster, diachylon, etc. Marine soap. See Marine. <alchemy> Pills of soap, pills containing soap and opium. Potash soap, any soap made with potash, especially. The soft soaps, and a hard soap made from potash and castor oil. Pumice soap, any hard soap charged with a gritty powder, as silica, alumina, powdered pumice, etc, which assists mechanically in the removal of dirt. Resin soap, a yellow soap containing resin, used in bleaching. Silicated soap, a cheap soap containing water glass (sodium silicate). <botany> See Quillaia bark. Soap bubble, a hollow iridescent globe, formed by blowing a film of soap suds from a pipe; figuratively, something attractive, but extremely unsubstantial. "This soap bubble of the metaphysicians." (J. C. Shairp) Soap cerate, a cerate formed of soap, olive oil, white wax, and the subacetate of lead, sometimes used as an application to allay inflammation. Soap fat, the refuse fat of kitchens, slaughter houses, etc, used in making soap. <alchemy> Soap liniment, a liniment containing soap, camphor, and alcohol. Soap nut, the hard kernel or seed of the fruit of the soapberry tree, used for making beads, buttons, etc. <botany> Soap plant, same as Soapberry tree. Soda soap, a soap containing a sodium salt. The soda soaps are all hard soaps. Soft soap, a soap of a gray or brownish yellow colour, and of a slimy, jellylike consistence, made from potash or the lye from wood ashes. It is strongly alkaline and often contains glycerin, and is used in scouring wood, in cleansing linen, in dyehouses, etc. Figuratively, flattery; wheedling; blarney. Toilet soap, hard soap for the toilet, usually coloured and perfumed. Origin: OE. Sope, AS. Sape; akin to D. Zeep, G. Seife, OHG. Seifa, Icel. Sapa, Sw. Spa, Dan. Sbe, and perhaps to AS. Sipan to drip, MHG. Sifen, and L. Sebum tallow. Cf. Saponaceous. (11 Mar 1998) |
| soft soap | A soap made with vegetable oils, potassium hydroxide, oleic acid, glycerin, and purified water; used as a stimulant in chronic skin diseases. Synonym: green soap, soft soap. (05 Mar 2000) |
| soluble soap | Any soap made with potassium, sodium, or ammonium hydroxide: ordinary animal soap, Castile soap, green soap, etc. (05 Mar 2000) |
| superfatted soap | A soap containing an excess (3 to 5%) of fat above that necessary to completely neutralise all the alkali; used in the manufacture of medicated soap, and in the treatment of skin diseases. (05 Mar 2000) |
| domestic soap | Soap made with sodium hydroxide and a purified animal fat consisting chiefly of stearin; used in pharmacy in the preparation of certain liniments. Synonym: curd soap, domestic soap, tallow soap. (05 Mar 2000) |
| insoluble soap | Soap made with a fatty acid and an earthy or metallic base (iron or calcium salts of fatty acids). (05 Mar 2000) |
| tallow soap | Soap made with sodium hydroxide and a purified animal fat consisting chiefly of stearin; used in pharmacy in the preparation of certain liniments. Synonym: curd soap, domestic soap, tallow soap. (05 Mar 2000) |
| african green monkey kidney cell | <cell culture> Cells taken from the kidneys of the African green monkey Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus and used to grow certain viruses like poliovirus. (05 Feb 1998) |
| algae, green | Algae of the division chlorophyta, in which the green pigment of chlorophyll is not masked by other pigments. Classes include charophyceae, bryopsidophyceae, conjugatophyceae, oedogoniophyceae, chlorophyceae, and prasinophyceae. Common genera are acetabularia, chlamydomonas, chlorella, nitella, prototheca, scenedesmus, spirogyra, and volvox. (12 Dec 1998) |
| blue-green algae | The former name for the blue-green bacteria, now classified as Cyanobacteria. A group of prokaryotes. Synonym: Cyanobacteria. (05 May 2002) |
| blue-green bacteria | <organism> Modern term for the blue green algae, prokaryotic cells that use chlorophyll on intracytoplasmic membranes for photosynthesis. The blue green colour is due to the presence of phycobiliproteins. Found as single cells, colonies or simple filaments. In Anabaena, in which the cells are arranged as a filament, heterocysts capable of nitrogen fixation occur at regular intervals. According to the endosymbiont theory Cyanobacteria are the progenitors of chloroplasts. (18 Nov 1997) |
| blue-green bacterium | <organism> Modern term for the blue green algae, prokaryotic cells that use chlorophyll on intracytoplasmic membranes for photosynthesis. The blue green colour is due to the presence of phycobiliproteins. Found as single cells, colonies or simple filaments. In Anabaena, in which the cells are arranged as a filament, heterocysts capable of nitrogen fixation occur at regular intervals. According to the endosymbiont theory Cyanobacteria are the progenitors of chloroplasts. (18 Nov 1997) |