12 



THE 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



[July i, 1884. 



The factory at which our imformation was procured is the 

 oldest in thi>. part of India, ami possibly, the pioneer oil- 

 mill of the whole country. It is situate in the old Dutch 

 settlement of Jigahadapuram, which forms the southern 

 portion of the present town and port of Oocanada. This 

 establishment was opened in 1854 under the auspices of the 

 well-known name of "Burgomaster,'' and, subsequently chang- 

 ing hands, passed to its present proprietary — the well-known 

 and far-famed Pyda Ramakristniah, otherwise called the 

 apostle of Hindu-widow-retnarriage. The modus operandi of 

 the cold-drawn process of making castor oil, as carried out 

 here, may be distributed under the following sub-divisions 

 of labor: — 



1. — Shifting, or the freeing of the fresh seed from dirt 

 and impurities as a preliminary to manipulation. 



2. — Husking, in which the seed is partially crushed, so as 

 to loosen the shell from the kernel. 



3. — Winnowing, or the separation of these latter. 



4. — flowering, in which the kernels are crushed or bruised 

 sufficiently for disintegration. 



5. — Drying, to granulate, as it were, the broken product. 



6. — Bagging, or equally and uniformly encasing the thus 

 prepared kernel in gunny wrappers of a suitable size for the 

 press. 



, 7. — Milling, iu which the oil is expressed by machinery, 

 from these canvas covered packages or "bricks," and the 

 exuding product collected. 



8. — Boiling, or the first operation in refining. 



9. — Filtering, or the final process of purification before 

 storage in cistern or vat. 



10.— Canning or Barrelling for export. 



Thus husking (2) and flowering (4) are effected by ordinary 

 hopper machines, with horizontal rollers worked by hand 

 (3 men), the combined operations costing 3 dubs or 9 pies 

 per bag. 



The winnowing (3) is cheaply done by women and child- 

 ren. The proportion of husk to seed is one-fourth — that 

 is, about 41 lb. of refuse per bag of 164 lb. of castor seed. 

 There is no waste, as this refuse furnishes much of the fuel 

 used in boiling (8). 



The drying (5) is a simple process, being carried out on a 

 chuuam terrace or platform, within the precincts of the 

 establishment. 



The bagging (6) is done at the oil press by the press-men. 

 The powdered kernel is hand-squeezed and beaten into 

 "liricks," measuring 12 in. by 6 in. by 2 in., and enclosed 

 in gunny strips expressly cut for the purpose. 



The milling (7) or the extraction of the oil by pressing- 

 machinery is the most important of all the operations here 

 described. The appliance is the common press, with vertic- 

 al plates, used generally for seed oils, worked by hand 

 power. The quantity that may be obtained each day of 10 

 hours from each press is about 305 lb. of oil. Each machine 

 can press (164 — 11) 123 lb. of '.' kernel-flower " every 2 hours; 

 and, as 50 per cent, is the proportion of oil derived, the 

 result of five relaj'S; is, omitting fractions, 5 times the half 

 of 123 lb., or the figure mentioned' (305 lb). The labor 

 employed is 4 men per machine per piem, who are paid 

 on the outturn at the rate of R 2-4-0 per candy of 500 lb. 

 of unrefined oil, so that their daily earnings come to 6 

 annas each — apparently high wages, but by no means so 

 when the hard and trying nature of the work is didy weighed 

 and valued. 



Boiling (8), which might be considered the simplest of the 

 operation?, demands the exercise of the greatest care, to- 

 gether with some degree of skill. To a gallon of unrefined 

 oil, a pint of water is added, and the mixture is boiled in 

 iron pans till the water is evaporated. The principle | of 

 this process is embodied in the fact that, in the cauldron 

 the mucilage should encrust and the albumen coagulate, and 

 measures are therefore taken to regulate the temperature 

 accordingly. Otherwise, the resultant will be an inferior 

 product in color, odour, and flavour. When this operation is 

 carried out on a large scale, it requires but a small addition 

 of other fuel to the refuse (husk), which is always available 

 to keep the fires going. This makes the expenditure under 

 this head comparatively very small, involving little more 

 than the cost of the necessary attendance. Each oil-pan 

 has a capacity of 350 lb. They are of local manufacture, 

 aud are said to cost R62 each. The sediment remaining 

 after the boiling is completed and oil taken oft" is some- 

 times re-milled. 



Then comes the final operation of filtering (9) through 

 coarse cloth, while the pure oil is let run into tanks, and 

 is thereafti r known as Cold Dbawn Oastoe Oil. 



The method of canning or barrelling (10) is that follow- 

 ed in the case of other seed-oils. The tins are of the usual 

 kerosine size, holding from 40 to 43 lb. of oil. AVhen filled 

 they are put into wooden cases — 4 tins to a box. The tins 

 are locally made, and sold at from 7 as. to 8 as. each ; while boxes, 

 made of country wood, cost a rupee a piece. The empty 

 cask is said to cost from R7 to R7-8; and as it is capable 

 of holding 500 lb. of oil, more or less, the saving in cask- 

 iug over canning is something like R2-8-0 per candy. But 

 this saving is at the expense of purity, for the oil de- 

 generates when kept in wood. 



The weekly slip of quotations issued by the Cocanada 

 Chamber of Commerce on the 21st March last showed that 

 castor seed stood at R6-1-0 per bag of 164 lb. net, packed in 

 Bengal gunnies ; and castor oil in cases at R61-0-0 per candy 

 of 5001b. 



Although these figures represent export value free on 

 board, they may enable us to arrive at the cost of production 

 with the probable value of the benefit to be derived 

 therefrom. 



It takes 8 bags of seed to yield one candy of oil, so 

 that R4S-8-0 represents the first outlay, to which R9-0-0 

 should be added for tins and cases; R2-4-0 for pressing; 

 R0-6-0 for husking and crushing; RO-4-0 for boiling, sifting, 

 etc. These give a total of R60-6-0 which, when taken from 

 R61«0 leaves only as. 10-0 to profit. This figure has, 

 however, to be increased by the value of the eight empty bags, 

 R2-0-0; and the price of one candy of punnoek (oil-cake), 

 say, R9-0-0; which items raise the margin of gain to 

 R4-10-0 per candy. When a portion of this sum is written 

 off for stock, superintendence and contingencies, the re- 

 sidual difference will go far to prove that there might be 

 less remunerative industries than castor oil manufacture. 

 — Madras Times. 



AQUEOUS EXTRACTION OF CINCHONA BARK.* 



BY PEOFESSOK REDWOOD. 



Among the various forms that have been devised for the 

 administration of cinchona bark, preparations produced by 

 aqueous extraction have always occupied a prominent posi- 

 tion. Even since the discovery of the alkaloids, which are 

 the only powerfully active therapeutic constituents of the 

 bark, medical men have not been always satisfied with the 

 use of these to the exclusion of other constituents, and 

 therefore tincture, infusion, decoction, and fluid extract, are 

 preparations which have been frequently employed, and 

 from the use of which effects have resulted which the 

 alkaloids alone have failed to produce. Where water alone 

 is used for extracting medicinal properties from bark, as 

 in the three last named preparations, there is a strong 

 ground of objection to the mode of operating officially 

 authorized iu those cases, which is that a great part of 

 the most valuable constituents of the bark operated upon 

 is left in the marc, the menstruum used being incapable 

 of dissolving them, and holding them in solution. This result 

 with reference especially to Extractum cinchona Uqvidum of 

 the British Pharmacopoeia, has called forth a good deal of 

 criticism when that preparation has come under discussion ; 

 but the_ defects which have beeu pointed out and com- 

 mented upon, as indicated by analyses made both of com- 

 mercial samples and of samples specially prepared for the 

 purpose, may, in several, and in all the most glaring in- 

 stances, be ascribed in great part to faults other than those 

 which essentially appertain to the process. It cannot, how- 

 ever, be contended that the process is a good and satis- 

 factory one. Some of our best practical pharmacists have 

 for some time past beeu seeking, or having found have 

 been applying, processes which are said to yield better 

 results, but unfortunately we have no published account 

 of the investigations which have led to those results. 



I have on several occasions endeavoured to induce some 

 of my pharmaceutical friends to undertake the investig- 

 ation of the best mode of preparing liquid extract of cin- 

 chona, with a view to publication; but, nut. having suc- 

 ceeded in that direction, I have made some experiments 



* Read at an Evening Meeting of the Pharmaceutical 

 Society, April 2, .1884. 



