﻿PHILIPPINE OIL-BEARING SEEDS. 447 



Sesamum indicum. — The black-seeded variety lias been grown as a 

 minor crop for many years in these Islands; the white-seeded, which 

 produces a finer grade of oil, is found only where it was introduced by 

 W. S. Lyons 14 of the Philippine Bureau of Agriculture. He reports very 

 favorably on the possibility of culture in these Islands of this important 

 oil-bearing seed. 



Ricinus com munis (castor-oil plant). — A weed universally distributed 

 throughout the tropics of the world and more or less cultivated in tem- 

 perate and subtemperate regions. It grows in waste places in and about 

 towns throughout the Philippines, apparently seed producing throughout 

 the entire year. This plant is entirely naturalized and grows wild in 

 the Islands, although it is occasionally cutivated for ornamental purposes. 

 In the provinces it is used medicinally, two or three plants frequently 

 being found near the nipa houses pf the poorer classes. It is not culti- 

 vated here on a commercial scale, the castor oil used in Manila and the 

 larger towns apparently being imported from Europe. The plant thrives 

 without cultivation in poor soils and is one of the commonest and most 

 widely distributed species found in the Philippines, having been intro- 

 duced by way of the Malayan region probably long before the Spanish 

 conquest. The original home of the species presumably is Africa. 



I can find no data regarding the methods of gathering the crop, but it 

 is presumed that the capsules are picked by hand from time to time, as 

 the seeds ripen throughout the year. 



The following notes are abstracted concerning the castor-oil industry, 

 from data compiled by Dougherty 15 of the United States Bureau of 

 Statistics : 



First and most important is its nse in connection with calico dyeing and 

 printing, in the preparation of so-called "turkey-red oil" which is sulphuretted 

 castor oil, a product soluble in water, possessing the important property of 

 fixing aniline dyes. The second and probably the next most important channel 

 of consumption is the drug trade. It is used in China as a cooking grease, as 

 lard is used in America. It is used extensively in British India and other 

 countries as an illuminant. Australia imported 709,000 gallons in 1898 and 

 Cape of Good Hope 307,000 gallons in 1902 for the same purpose. The peculiar 

 properties of this oil, which is heavy, viscous and non-drying, adapt it for 

 lubrication purposes, as is well known. Heavy petroleum is used more exten- 

 sively only on account of its greater cheapness. Its value as a lubricant is 

 suggested by the fact that petroleum products adulterated with resin are now 

 sold under the name "machine castor oil." Castor oil also has properties that 

 adapt it as a leather dressing. Many minor uses may be mentioned such as its 

 employment in the manufacture of sticky fly paper, and so-called "glycerine soap." 



Process of manufacture. — The equipment for a castor-oil mill is identical in 

 its main features with that of mills for the manufacture of linseed, cotton-seed, 



14 Farmers' Bull. (190:5). No. 7, 12. 

 '•Year Book. U. S. Dept. Agr. ( 1905), 287. 



