DIPTEROCARPUS 



TURBINATUS 



Kanyin 



THE GARJAN OIL PLANT 



Industrial 

 Uses. 



Besinous 

 Concretion. 



Varnish. 



Substitute for 

 Copaiba. 



Chinese 

 Wood-oil. 



Specific 

 Variability. 



Adulteration. 



Medicine. 



that the extraction of the oil is not pursued there because it is not re- 

 munerative enough. 



Very little is known for certain of the industrial uses of the oil, still 

 less of the resinous concretion as distinct from the liquid oil. The 

 former is fairly extensively employed by the Burmese for torches, and 

 the oil is largely used in preserving bamboo wickerwork and in paying 

 the seams of boats. As a varnish it is believed to protect woodwork from 

 the ravages of insects. In Europe it has been in fact made into a varnish, 

 and is reported to be a useful ingredient in lithographic ink. It was in 

 the Dictionary pointed out that an important way of utilising the article 

 might be found in taking advantage of Mr. Laidlay's discovery that it 

 acts as a solvent to caoutchouc. Sir W. O'Shaughnessy remarked 

 fifty years ago that it would likely be found a perfect substitute for the 

 expensive balsam of copaiba. In the Journal Chemical Society (1902, 

 xxi., 1404) it is affirmed that " Chinese wood oil " is not suitable to replace 

 linseed oil in the preparation of varnishes. It cannot be heated above 

 160 C. Capital (April 1904) gives useful particulars regarding Chinese 

 wood-oil a substance which cannot possibly be mistaken for garjan 

 (see p. 46). 



Chemistry. In the Dictionary will be found an abstract of the results obtained 

 by the distinguished authors in the Pharmacographia. More recently Hooper 

 has published his examination of the samples procured by the Reporter on 

 Economic Products, from which the following passage may be furnished : 

 "Eighteen samples of garjan balsam from Bombay, Madras, Tippera, Chittagong, 

 Assam and Burma had been submitted to analysis. The specific gravity ranged 

 from 0'957 to 0'999, the percentage of volatile oil from 36'9 to 71*1, and the 

 acid number from 3 '12 in a Chittagong sample to 21'9 in one from Rangoon. 

 These oils, procured from o. turW.na.ttts, n. /><, etc., were very irregular 

 in composition and physical contents, and would lead one to believe that 

 adulteration is practised in certain quarters. The balsam secreted by it. 

 inin-i-<-ni<itns and known in the trade as ' Jusi ' is more uniform in com- 

 position. It has a thick honey-like consistence with a high sp. gr. and acid 

 value, but a low proportion of volatile oil. Samples of the oleo-resin of 

 J. firl.fft.tiiU and n. tnrW.na.tn*, uar. niiaa.inaniriix, collected from botanically 

 authentic sources from the Andamans, were of exceptionally good quality. The 

 chemical examination of a series of balsams of this character enables one to 

 recognise their peculiar reactions, so that it is easy to detect substitutions and 

 adulterations. During the course of the inquiry a sample of oleo-resin from 

 South India, although labelled Dipterocarpna, was found to be the product of 

 the ' yen nemaram' (Hardtelckia pl-nua.ta). . . . To thoroughly understand the 

 differences of composition of gums, resins, and oleo-resins, samples should be 

 collected from the trees and the conditions of age, climate, soil, etc., studied on 

 the spot." [Cf. Wiesner, Die Rohst. dea Pflanzenr., 1900, i., 236-7 ; Tschirch 

 and Weil, Ace. Gurjun Balsam, in Proc. American Pharmaceut. Assoc., 1904, lii., 

 700-1 ; Pharm. Journ., 1905, Ixxiv., 722; Tschirch, Die Harze und die Harzbe- 

 halter, 1906, i., 489-512; Hooper, Kept. Labor. 2nd. Mus. (Indust. Sec.), 1906-7, 

 8 ; Pharm. Journ., 1907, Ixxviii., 4.] 



Medicine. This substance is not very largely used in Indian medicine, and 

 does not appear to have been known to the early authors. It is apparently 

 alluded to in the Makhzan, but it is not mentioned by Dutt in his Materia Medica 

 of the Hindus. The most recent opinions on the subject only need be here 

 quoted. Dr. Dougall and subsequently Moodeen Sheriff (Mat. Med. Mad., 

 1891, 49-50) drew attention to the properties of the oil. The latter says, 

 " The best medical properties of this oil are its usefulness in gonorrhea and 

 gleet, and in all forms of psoriasis, including lepra vulgaris." Again: "With 

 regard to its usefulness in psoriasis and lepra vulgaris, I am not aware of any 

 other local stimulant which is more efficacious in those diseases than this drug." 

 But in the Pharmacographia Indica (i., 192) mention is made of the investigations 

 conducted by the Government of India, and it is then added that " as far as 

 we have heard the new treatment has not been a success." [Cf. Dymock, Mat. 



502 



