DIGESTIBILITY OP SOME NUT OILS. 11 



Summary of digestion experiments toith butternut oil in a simple mixed diet. 



Experiment No. 



Subject. 



Protein. 



Fat. 



Carbo- 

 hydrates. 



Ash. 



732 



R. F. C 



P. K 



Per cent. 

 45.5 

 61.2 

 72.6 



Per cent. 

 85.3 

 86.2 

 94.7 



Per cent. 

 96.2 

 97.5 

 97.2 



Per cent. 

 28 8 



733 



45.8 



734 



J. C. M.. . 



63.7 





Average 







59.8 



88.7 



97.0 



46.1 









The supply of butternut oil obtainable was small and so it was not 

 possible to provide as large a quantity of it per day as was the case 

 with the other oils studied, and the average daily consumption was 

 only 46 grams per man. The butternut-oil blancmange was as palat- 

 able as the similar dish used in the other tests, and there is every 

 reason to believe that more of the oil would have been eaten had it 

 been possible to supply a blancmange richer in it. The digestibility 

 of the total fat in the diet was found to be 88.7 per cent. The calcu- 

 lated digestibility of butternut oil alone, which represented the 

 greater part of the total fat, when estimated in the usual manner, 

 with corrections for metabolic products and undigested fat from the 

 basal ration, is 95.4 per cent, a value which compares favorably with 

 the digestibility of other food oils which have been studied. 



The protein and carbohydrates supplied by the ration were utilized 

 as completely as in other experiments of this series, being 60 per cent 

 and 97 per cent digested, respectively. Considering the results as 

 a whole, it is apparent that butternut oil, expressed from fresh, sound 

 butternuts, when eaten as a constituent of a simple mixed diet, is a 

 well assimilated and palatable food oil. 



ENGLISH-WALNUT OIL. 



The English or Persian walnut tree {Juglans regia) is widely dis- 

 tributed, and the nuts are very generally used for human food. Eng- 

 lish-walnut oil is expressed for illuminating and for edible purposes 

 in several parts of Europe. The cold-pressed oil is almost colorless 

 and has a pleasant smell and agreeable taste, while, according to 

 Lewkowitsch, 1 if hot pressed it has a greenish tinge and acrid taste 

 and odor. 



A survey of the literature revealed little information as regards 

 the digestibility of English-walnut oil. Jaffa x made a series of 11 

 digestion experiments in which he studied the digestibilty of walnuts 

 eaten in conjunction with other common food materials. On an aver- 

 age the subjects ate 97 grams of fat per day, of which 86 grams was 

 walnut oil. The digestibility of the total fat of the diet was 85 

 per cent. Since the fat derived from the other constituents of the 



1 Loc. cit. 



