BAUHINIA 



PURPURBA 



THE MAHUA TREE 



Mahua 

 Butter. 



Seeds or 

 Nuts. 



Oilcake. 



Oil. 



The Seed, Oil and Butter. -From the remotest antiquity it has 

 been known that the seeds of this plant contain a large quantity of an 

 exceedingly good edible oil, which owing to the ease with which it solidifies 

 is often called MAHUA BUTTER. The oil from B. butijracea is gene- 

 rally upheld as more valuable than that of the other three species, chiefly 

 because it solidifies almost immediately after being expressed from the 

 seeds. Roxburgh (As. Res., viii., 477-85) has given a full account not 

 only of the butter of B. butyracea but of the oil of B. lonyifolia, 

 the last mentioned being from the pen of the Rev. Dr. John. In the 

 Journals of the Agri. Horticultural Society of India numerous papers have 

 appeared urging the desirability of an extended production and use of 

 these oils (1848, vi., 219-22, also app. Ixix, cxiv. ; 1861, xii., 345, n.s. ; 

 1869, i., 394-7 ; 1886, vii., 76-92 ; etc). Instructive and useful are also 

 the articles by Lockwood in the Journal Linncean Society (1878, xvii., 

 89) ; in the Dictionary (1885, i.) ; in The Agricultural Ledger (1899, No. 12) ; 

 and in Mukerji's Handbook of Indian Agriculture (1901, 290-1), which carry 

 the subject up to the most recent and very admirable paper by G-. M. Ryan 

 (Ind. For., 1903, xxix., 543-9). This, among other features of interest, 

 sets forth particulars of a new trade that seems of growing value to India. 

 The seeds (nuts), he observes, are commonly known as mohoti, and are 

 collected about the end of May to beginning of June. There is a con- 

 siderable local demand for them all over the country, but apparently a 

 practical margin for export is annually available. Ryan puts the 

 price of the seeds at Rs. 4J per cwt., which shows a net profit to the 

 trader of 13 annas. During the past five or six years the foreign traffic 

 has rapidly expanded, and stands now at about 500,000 cwt. It would 

 seem that these nuts are consigned to Hamburg and Antwerp, and the 

 supplies are drawn from Bombay, Rajputana, Central India, Central 

 Provinces and even the United Provinces. A difficulty would appear, 

 however, to exist in Europe in the disposal of the cake, which in India is 

 used as a manure. [Cf. Leather, Agri. Ledg., 1897, No. 8, 23.] 



The oil of the mdhua proper (not mahua butter) is greenish-yellow, 

 and is largely eaten all over India, and in addition is used to adulterate 

 ghi. It is sometimes called dolo oil. In South India the solid form is 

 called illipi butter. Here and there a fair quantity of soap is made 

 from this oil. The oil is also largely burned by the hill tribes, who 

 express it crudely from the seeds. Apparently the only limitation to 

 the uses of the oil is the want of enterprise in its extended production. 



D.E.P., BAUHINIA, Linn. ; Fl. Br. Ind., ii., 275-84; Gamble, Man. Ind. 



i., 419-26. Timbs., 280-5 ; Pharmacog. Ind., i., 536-7, 549 ; Cooke, FL Pres. Bomb., 

 i., 430-4 ; Duthie, Fl. Upper Gang. Plain, i., 297-301 ; LEGUMINOS.E. A 

 genus of arborescent or scandent plants diffused throughout the tropics. 

 Out of 130 species which have been described, 30 are Indian ; those 

 enumerated below are, therefore, the species of economic importance. 



Indian B. anguina, Roxb. The nag-put, naiwilli, suhatungrnugrik a climber of N. and 



Economic ^. Bengal, Sikkim, Chittagong, Martaban, Burma and South India, etc. 



Species. ^. niacrostachya, Wall. The gunda-gilla an extensive climber found in the 



forests of Sylhet and Assam. 



B. malabariea, Roxb. The amli, karmai, gourubati, laba, amli-taki, kattra, chep- 

 pura, korala, kundapula, etc a bushy tree met with in the Sub-Himalayan 

 tract, from the Ganges to Assam, and in Bengal, Burma, and South India. 



Bt purpurea, Linn. The koiral, kolidr, etc. a moderate-sized deciduous tree of 



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