It is also known as soap berri. Natural Reetha powder cleans hair completely, recommended for washing oily hair. The soap nut powder has excellent foaming and shampooing properties. It gives a natural color, softness and a silky touch to hair and leaves no lice alive.
It is a deciduous tree, growing to 25 m tall. The fruit appears in July-August and ripens by November-December. These are solitary, round nuts 2-2.5 cm diameter, fleshy, yellowish brown in color. The seed is enclosed in a black, smooth and hard globose covering. The fruit is collected during winter months for seed and or sale in the market as soap nut. The dried fruit of Ritha is most valuable part of the plant. Its fleshy portion contains saponin, which is a good substitute for washing soap and is as such used in preparation of quality shampoos, detergents, etc.