142 Brigade-Suroeon J. E. T. Aitchison's Notes on Froducln 



Oats, wild. Avena fatua. 

 Oil — rogfian. 



The oils produced in these districts may be classed under 

 (1) those chiefly restricted to lighting ; (2) food oils ; (3) medi- 

 cinal oils. 



I. Oils restricted to Lighting Purposes. 



The chief plant grown to yield an oil for burning is 

 EiciNUS COMMUNIS, the Castor Oil plant, which may be seen 

 growing in strips round the margin of cotton and melon 

 fields. This yields by far the greatest proportion of the oil 

 that is consumed in the country for lighting purposes. 

 From the seed of the cotton plant, Gossypium herbaceum, is 

 extracted an .oil which is only used in lighting. Poppy, 

 Eape, and Eruca-seed oils are used as lighting oils, but are 

 also employed in dietary. 



In Turkistan the oil of Cannabis sativa is extensively used 

 in lighting, and that of linseed both for lighting and as a 

 food oil ; these are almost unknown in these districts, as the 

 plants are not grown here, and the oils are rarely imported. 

 Apricot-seed oil is equally used for burning and in diet in 

 that country. 



II. Food Oils. 



Sesamum and El^agnus oils are almost entirely used for 

 food purposes, along with a little of the Poppy, Eape, and 

 Eruca-seed oils. The oil of the seeds of several of the 

 CucuRBiTACEiE are used on rare occasions in the diet. The 

 oil of the seed of Pistacia Terebinthus, var. mutica, is 

 much used along with food in those localities where the 

 tree grows, eaten mixed with oxygal as a flavouring to bread. 



III. Medicinal Oils. 



That of the Walnut, the Pistacio Nut, and Apricot are 

 used here in medicine alone, as also is the imported Castor 

 Oil. On one occasion alone did I hear that the oil of the 

 locally grown plant EiciNUS communis was useful in medi- 

 cine. A natural mineral oil, or pitch, is collected in the 

 Kohistan range, and an artificially prepared tar, or pitch, 

 made by the destructive distillation of sheep and goat 

 manure, are both employed in local medicine. 



