Vegetable Oil

Outside Info:

Many vegetable oils are used for cooking. Some are also used for massage oils, lotions, oils to rub down dragons with, and for soap making. By the beginning of the second Pass, soap as we know it probably still exists, as it was a 'luxury' one had to pay for at Bitra Hold under Chalkin's Holdership, but was generously supplied at other Holds and Weyrs. Most of the 'current Pass' books (Dragonrider trilogy, Harper Hall Trilogy, etc) make reference to sandsoap or soapsand. The Dragonlovers guide mentions that soap as we know it may indeed be a luxury during the current pass because burnt wood is needed to make lye. However, the Masterharper of Pern makes reference to a bar of soap on one of Robinton's journeys. Lye can be created chemically, and it's my personal belief if the smith hall can create 'agenothree', it can probably make lye. Sandsoap may be soap flakes, an exfoliant mixture of fine sand and soap flakes, or a ground dried plant root that contains a saponin, sort of a natural soap. Animal fats are widely used to make soaps, but vegetable oils can also be added, or used exclusively, to obtain different properties in the soap.