TECTONA 



GRANDIS 

 Teak 



Confusion in the 

 Seed. 





THE TEAK-WOOD TREE 



Oil. 



Chittagong. 



Season. 



Expression of 

 OU. 



French pharmacist, G. Desprez. In 1899 he discovered that the seeds received 

 in Europe did not belong to Gynofardim orfo-f and the fact was communicated 

 to Lieut.-Col. D. Prain, who had found about the same time that the seeds sold 

 in the Calcutta bazars were not those of a GymMsarain, and subsequently that 

 the tree which yields the chaulmugra seed was Tarnktnaeno* Knrzii, a plant 

 described by Sir George King in 1890. The two seeds can be easily distinguished. 

 ctynoea-rdia is about one-half shorter than that of Taraktogenos. The shell of 

 Gynoc.ardla is thicker and harder, marked on one side by a few radiating ridges 

 or furrows, and the kernel is pale yellow. The shell of TarahtogenoB is plain and 

 the kernel dark-coloured. 



Chaulmugra OIL has long been known and used in India as a remedy for 

 cutaneous diseases, and has become a drug of some importance in European 

 practice (p. 204). A full account of the history and composition of the oil is given 

 by Hooper. The seeds are brought to Calcutta, chiefly from Chittagong, and are of 

 two kinds (1) mature seeds with brown kernels, rich in oil ; (2) immature seeds 

 with black kernels, poorer in oil. The seeds arrive in the market at the end of 

 the rainy season in November and December. At present the price of the seed is 

 stated to be Us. 3 to Rs. 4 per maund at Chittagong and Sylhet, and the Calcutta 

 price Rs. 6-9 per maund. To extract the oil the kernels are separated from the 

 shells and dried in the sun. They are then pounded with a pestle and mortar, and 

 the broken kernels put into canvas bags and the oil expressed with the aid of fire 

 in a castor-oil mill. The oil is of two kinds (1) clear, bright, straw-coloured ; 

 (2) muddy and precipitating a sediment of earthy colour. One maund of oil 

 is obtained from 4 to 5 maunds of seed. The price of the oil is Rs. 60 per 

 maund. [Cf. Mason, Burma and Its People (ed. Theobald), 1883, ii., 646 ; 

 (Gynocardia) Pharmacog. Ind., i., 142-6 ; Bories and Desprez, Contrib. to Study 

 of Gynocardee Chaulmoogra Oil, 1898 ; Holmes, Pharm. Soc. Mus. Rept., 1903. 57 ; 

 Power and Gornall, Constit. of Chaulmoogra Seeds, Wellcome Chem. Res. Lab., 

 1904, No. 45 ; Constit. of Chaulmoogric Acid, No. 46 ; White and Humphrey, 

 Pharmacop., 1904, 555-6.] 



D.E.P., 



vi., pt. iv., 



1-14. 



Teak. 



Areas. 



Indian. 



Barman. 



TECTONA GRANDIS, Linn. ; Fl. Br. Ind., iv., 570; Stat. Atlas 

 Ind., 1895, 29-31 and map; Gamble, Man. Ind. Timbs., 1902, 526-34; 

 Prain, Beng. Plants, ii., 828 ; Cooke, FL Pres. Bomb., 1905, ii., 424 ; 

 Brandis, Ind. Trees, 1906, 505-6 ; VERBENACE^E. The Teak Tree, sdgun, 

 sdkhu, chingjagu, sag, sigwan, khaka, teka, loheru, sdgwdn, tegu, tekku, pedda 

 teku, tyagada mara, jddi, kyun, etc. A large deciduous tree, indigenous in 

 both peninsulas of India. The wood is that chiefly exported from India, 

 more particularly Burma, and is the most important building timber of 

 the country. 



Gamble discusses the teak areas under two divisions, the western or Indian 

 and the eastern or Burmese. " The Indian region has for its northern limit the 

 rivers Nerbudda and Mahanadi, but here and there it may occasionally be found 

 north of this line, as in Jhansi and Banda, while south of it, it scarcely occurs in 

 Orissa or the Circars. It is found in deciduous forest, bvit is not gregarious ; and 

 the localities where the most important forests are found are ( 1 ) Chanda district, 

 Central Provinces ; (2) North Kanara ; (3) Wynaad, especially the tracts known 

 as Benn6 and Mudumalai ; (4) the Anamalai hills; (5) Travancore. There are 

 also considerable extents of teak forest in other parts of the Central Provinces ; in 

 Berar and Bombay ; on both sides of the Godavari in Bhadrachalam, Rumpa 

 and Yernagudem ; in the Nallamalai hills of Kurnool and Cuddapah ; in South 

 Arcot and in Mysore. But teak may be found sporadically in places in forests 

 throughout the Indian region, and even in such very dry apparently barren rocky 

 hills as those of Western Karnul and Bellary, patches of stunted more or less 

 gregarious teak are not uncommon. In the Burmese region, teak is chiefly found 

 in what are called by Kurz the ' upper mixed forests,' which occupy the parallel 

 ranges of (1) the Arrakan Yoma, eastern slope ; (2) the Pegu Yoma ; and (3) the 

 Martaban hills and the hills which continue these ranges northwards. The 

 northern limit, according to J. W. Oliver, is about Myitkyina and Kamaing, in 

 lat. 5 30', though there it is mostly of stunted growth. Teak has been largely 

 planted about stations all over India, even so far north as Saharanpur, Dehra 

 Dun and Lahore, in avenues and gardens ; and forest plantations have been made 



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