110 PHILIPPINE RESINS, GUMS, AND OILS 
and a diameter of about 45 centimeters. The leaves are alter-- 
nate and compound with three to seven leaflets, which are 
smooth, pointed at the apex, usually rounded at the base, and 7 
to 10 centimeters in length. The flowers are purplish, about 
1.5 centimeters in length, and borne in racemes. The pods are 
somewhat flattened, somewhat oval in outline, and with a single 
seed. 
This species is distributed from northern Luzon to southern 
Mindanao. 
Genus. TAMARINDUS 
TAMARINDUS INDICA L. SAMPALOK. 
TAMARIND-SEED OIL 
A description, figure, and the local names of this species are 
given in the bulletin on edible plants. 
Lewkowitsch * says that in famine times the seeds are univer- 
sally eaten by the poorer classes of India, and that they yield 
4.5 per cent of oil which has the following constants: 
Saponification value... 2 ee ee ee ee 183 
Todine+ value: :. 23. St 22s ie ee ee ee 87.1 
Hefter + states that the seeds yield 15 per cent of oil. 
According to Watt: + 
An oil of an amber colour, free of smell and sweet to the taste, is 
prepared from the seeds by expression. This oil appears to have been 
brought to notice for the first time in 1856, when a Captain Davies sent 
a sample to the Agri.-Horticultural Society of India, with the remark 
that it was, in his opinion, suitable for culinary purposes. The Society’s 
Sub-Committee reported favourably on the oil, and suggested that it 
might be found useful in the preparation of varnishes and paints, as well 
as for burning in lamps. A member of the Committee remarked that it 
was occasionally employed in Bengal for making a varnish to paint idols, 
and for finishing kurpa cloth, but that it was very little appreciated. 
The Sub-Committee further noticed that the sample submitted to them 
had an odour of linseed-oil, but Captain Davies explained that this was 
not a property of the oil itself, but was due to the mill in which it had 
been expressed, having been one ordinarily employed for making linseed- 
oil (Agri.-Hort. Soc. Ind., Journ., 1885). The authors of the Pharmaco- 
graphia Indica have examined it, and write, “Braunt states that the seeds 
contain 20 per cent of a thickly fluid oil with an odour of linseed, and 
classes it with the non-drying oils. By expression from the dry seeds, 
we were unable to obtain any oil, and by solvents the yield was only 3.9 
per cent. The oil possessed greater siccative properties than boiled linseed 
oil.” The subject appears to be well worthy of further investigation, 

* Lewkowitsch, J., Chemical technology and analysis of oils, fats, and 
waxes, Volume 2 (1914), page 238. 
y+ Hefter, G., Technologie der Fette und Ole (1908), Volume 2, page 466. 
+ Watt, G., Dictionary of the economic products of India, Volume 6, Part 
3 (1893), page 405. 
