BAPIUM 



I Hi: 80AP-NUT TREE iriiu 



Chlneae Tallow lre 



wood (the lowest). Every part has a value. The heart-wood alone, how- 

 <-onstitutes the odoriferous wood. In a sample reported on in the 

 Imlian Forester (1884, x., 318) this came to four- thirteenth* -ugh 



one-third of the total weight felled. 



D.B.P.. 

 lit, 84-6; 



vt.pt It, 



Soap-nut. 





SAPINDUS MUKOROSSI, *;,/.; S. d*erg**4, Roxb., FL 

 Ind.. ii.. 280; Gamble, Man. Ind. Timbt., 196; 8. Mukorou / 



/. Plants, i., .".I I : Duthic, PI. Vj>, Ind. 



<, 191. Mrt with iii tin- lower hill* up to 4,000 f-. and 



cultivated here and there from Bengal to the Chenab valley. Wild in the 



Mi nl. 11 di.strii -t. 3. laurifolius, VaM. ; >S. rmarginatiu, Vahl. ; (iambi*, 



/.c. : S. trifoliatns, Fl. Br. Ind., i., 682 (in part, but not of Linn.) ; Prain, 



It; S. laurifoliwt, Cooke, Fi Pru. Bomb., i., 266 ; Brandis, U. 191 ; 



SAPINDACE^. A handsome tree often met with in cultivation, also wild 



from Bengal, through the Central Provinces, Rajputana, etc., to Bombay, 



South India and Ceylon. 



The former is the Soap-nut tree of Northern In.liu and the Utter of Central, 

 rn and Southern India. They are collectively described by the Native* 

 <.f India under the vernacular lunno ritha, and in Sanskrit by the nanvw p' 

 and urifta. Other vernacular names are, however, used, mirh as rithia, rita, ariMa. 

 dodan. kanmar, tin, wl-rak, prounanga, puvandi, kunkudu, thai*. Uuilay, cktuta, 

 etc. The fruits of the North Indian form come into market about January or 

 February, and of the South Indian a little later, say about March to April. From 

 time immemorial these "nuts," or, rather, dried fleshy berries, have been em- 

 ployed as detergents, and by the dyers of India are supposed to DOMSM special 

 merits as a preparation (if not mordant) for certain dyes. In Kashmir the soap- 

 nut is preferred for washing shawls to European soaps. In other part* of the 

 country they are specially valued for washing silk, and by the Indian jewellers 

 axe resorted to for the restoration and brightening of the silverineas of plate and 

 ornaments tarnished by exposure. 



As one of the many curious uses of these nuts, it may be said that they are 

 sometimes employed in washing and bleaching cardamoms, and are supposed 

 not only to improve the colour but also the flavour of the spice (see p. 515). The 

 soap-nut is used medicinally, both by the Hindus and Muhanunadana, and its 

 properties are detailed in the Makhzan-el-Adunya and the Talcef-Sheree/. More 

 up-to-date details will be found in the Pharmacographia Indica (i., 367-70), 

 and in the Materia Medico of Madras, by Moodeen Sheriff (112-4), etc., etc. 

 Mr. A. Storey of Oodeypore pointed out that the honey of the flowers of these 

 trees was poisonous to bees (Journ. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc., 1890, v., 423). The 

 oap-nut is much used in China for the same purpose as in India (Hosie, Prov. of 

 Ssii'ch'uan. 1904, No. 5, 31). 



Quillai Bark (the bark of Qulllajn J>OIH; Kew Bull., 1904, 1-4) M OoilUl Baric. 

 ent to Europe from Chili as a soap substitute, and a demand has arisen for the 

 same, which suggests the possibility of a foreign trade in the Indian suap-nuta 

 the above species as also the pods of Av*rlm -H-IMH (see p. 14). 



v. .. , 



SAPIUM SEBIFERUM, Itojcb. ; FI. Br. Ind., v., 470 ; 

 Gamble, Man. Ind. Timbs., 1902, 624-5; Hooper, Agri. Ledg., 1904, 

 No. 2 ; EUPHORBIACE.E. The Chinese Tallow-tree, pippal-yang, mom- 

 china, tdr-charvi, etc. A small glabrous tree, indigenous and cultivated 

 in China and Japan ; introduced into and cultivated in Northern India, 

 having become almost wild in the Dun (Kanjilal, For. Fi, 1901, 301-2) ; 

 fairly abundant in Garhwal t Kumaon and Kangra. 



The plant is easily raised from seed, but is usually propagated by layers or 

 cuttings. The fruit is a 3-celled capsule, each cell with a single eoed, * 

 with a thick greasy substance the so-called vegetable TALLOW. In China thw 

 is used in place of animal tallow for the manufacture of candle* and soap, alao in 

 .dressing cloth. In addition to the solid fat, the seed-kernel yield* about 50 per 



979 



D.E.P., 



chine** 

 Tallow- 

 tr - 



. 



