2 VEGETABLE OILS 



some fragrant attar. The kernels are bruised and rubbed up to the 

 consistency of cream, and subjected to moderate pressure in a cloth bag. 

 The oil concretes immediately it is expressed. An important article on 

 Bassia fats, by P. L. Simmonds, Esq., appeared in the Technologist, vol. i., 

 p. 217, which will render unnecessary any very detailed account of them 

 here. 



Mahowa, or JSpie (Bassia latifolia). — This fatty substance, obtained 

 also from the kernels of the fruit, is an article of common consumption 

 in India, and may often be met with under the names of Mowha or 

 Yallah oil in the London market. It melts at about the same temperature 

 as Eloopie oil, and would be equally valuable for candle-making. The 

 tree is common in the Bengal Presidency, extending also all across 

 Central India, even to the western coast. 



Eloopie ; Ilpa ; Illepie yennai, Tarn. ; Mohay-ka-tael, Hind. 

 (Bassia longifolia). — This solid fat is obtained from the kernels of the 

 fruit, and is generally of a dirty white colour, and not so firm as the 

 Bassia butter of B. lutyracea. It melts at a temperature above 70°. The 

 tree is common everywhere in Southern India, and the fat or oil is 

 employed largely by the natives. A competent authority (Mr G. F. Wilson) 

 has pronounced it extremely valuable for the manufacture of candles. 

 Though much used by the natives, who extract 30 per cent, of oil from 

 the seeds, it is seldom sold. Candles and soap are made from it ; but it is 

 •chiefly used as a substitute for butter in the native cookery, and for 

 burning in their lamps. 



The very great difference in colour, consistence, and flavour observable 

 in different samples of this oil is entirely attributable to the mode of 

 preparation, and to the pressure in some cases of a large quantity of 

 mucilage and extraneous matter. In Tanjore it is obtainable at the rate 

 of 2 rs. 8 as. per maund. 



Belgaum Walnut ; Dessee Akroot ; Hidgelbe Badam (Alenrites 

 triloba). — Under the name of Kukui or Kekui oil, I recently drew attention 

 to the medicinal properties of this oil in the ' LondonMedical Beview.' It is 

 also called Lumbang oiL The fruit from whence it is procured is very 

 abundantly produced, not only in India, but in the islands of the Pacific 

 and elsewhere ; and the facility with which the oil is separable from the 

 nut is also not an unimportant recommendation. It is, moreover, useful 

 as a lamp oil 



Dr Biddell wrote in 1853 of this oil — "The nut in taste resembles 

 the common walnut ; but as they are considered unwholesome until kept 

 a year, few like to eat them, even then. A friend gave me, some time 

 ago, a small bottle of walnut oil he brought with hhn from the Upper 

 Provinces : it has a fine scent like the fresh walnut, and I believe it to 

 have been made from the nut generally eaten, as I remember often 

 hearing, when up in Hindoostan, that the natives made oil from the nuts 

 common in the Himalayas ; and I attribute the oil retaining its peculiar 

 odour to its being, in all probability, pressed, and not extracted by boiling. 



