2 The Philippine Journal of Science 1922 
basis of the drugs most used has remained the same for centu- 
ries, chaulmoogra oil. Rock® has found an old Buddhist account 
of “a Burmese king voluntarily exiled for leprosy about 1,000 
years ago who cured himself with the [chaulmoogra] oil, and 
likewise effected the cure of a beautiful young woman whom he 
afterwards married, founding a dynasty.” 
CHAULMOOGRA OIL 
This oil, according to the present official definition, is the 
fixed oil from the seeds of Taraktogenos kurzii, a large tree which 
grows in the Assam Valley and Chittagong Hill Tracts, India. 
Similar oils, not correctly called chaulmoogra but perhaps quite 
as effective, are obtained from Hydnocarpus wightiana,* grow- 
ing on the Malabar coast; H. venenata,?*+ Ceylon, Deccan, and 
Burma; H. castanea,t Burma; H. anthelmintica,t Siam and 
French Indo-China; Asteriostigma macrocarpa, Travancore; H. 
alcalae,? Albay, P. I.; H. hutchinsonii,» Mindanao, P. I.: A. sub- 
falcata,’ Zambales, P. I.; and Onchoba echinata,*® Sierra Leone. 
" Pangium edule,? found in the southern Philippines and neigh- 
boring islands, gives an oil somewhat similar in composition, 
but the oil from Gynocardia odorata, which was long confused 
with chaulmoogra, is totally different, from both the chemical * 
and the bacteriological * standpoints. 
Chaulmoogra oil, like most fixed vegetable oils, is composed 
nearly entirely of fatty acids combined with glycerine. The 
principal fatty acids in the oil from Taraktogenos kurzii and 
a few closely related species, most of which are mentioned above, 
are of a peculiar type known as the chaulmoogric acid series. 
* Rock, J. F., U. S. Dept. Agr. Weekly News Letter 9 (1921) 1.- 
*Muir, E., Handbook on Leprosy. Orisa Mission Press, Cuttack, India 
(1921) 39. 
*A chemical investigation of these oils will be reported in the near 
future. 
“Goulding and Akers, Chem. Soc. Proc. 29 (1913) 197. 
_ "Power, F. B., and Barrowcliff, M., Journ. Chem. Soc. 87 (1905) 897. 
The sample of MGyneicirdhd, odorata” sodda obtained by Brill and Williams, 
Philip. Journ. Sci. § A 12 (1917) 211, from the Department of Agri- 
culture at Assam was evidently Taraktogenos or Hydnocarpus. Since 
the external appearance of all these seeds is somewhat similar, it is 
important to note the easy distinction pointed out in Muir’s Handbook, p. 39. 
The radical of the Gynocardia seed is lateral, while that of the Tarakto- 
genos and Hydnocarpus is terminal. 
*Unpublished work with tubercle bacilli by Dr. O. Schdbl, Bureau of 
Science. 
