4 VEGETABLE OILS 



kernels have lately b6en met with in English commerce under the name 

 of Cassia seeds ; an evident corruption of Cashew. The tree is common 

 in the East and West Indies. In Bengal it is found chiefly near the sea. 

 The nuts are largely employed as a table-fruit. 



Cashew-apple Oil. — Is a powerful vesicatory, extracted from the 

 pericarp of the same fruit. It very much resembles the oil obtained 

 from the marking-nut {Semecarpus anacardium). 



Cassia Seed (Cinnamomum Cassia). — Under this name a sample of oil 

 was shown at one of the Madras Exhibitions, but it appears to be 

 unknown to the natives of India. 



Castor Oil (Ricinus communis). — Two varieties of the castor-oil plant 

 are produced all over India. One variety has small, and the other large 

 seeds : the former yields the most valuable or medicinal oil ; the latter, 

 a dark oil, commonly burnt in lamps. 



Arendi-ka-tel, Hind. ; Sitt-amunakei-yennai, Tamil. ; Chitt Amin- 

 dialoo-noona, Tel. ; Amsinacoo of Travancore. — The mode of prepara- 

 tion of this medicinal oil in India is thus described : — The fresh seeds, 

 after having been sifted and cleaned from dust, stones, and all extraneous 

 matters, are slightly crushed between two rollers, freed by hand from husks 

 and coloured grains, and enclosed in clean gunny. They then receive a 

 slight pressure in an oblong mould, which gives a uniform shape and density 

 to the packets of seed. The "bricks," as they are technically called, are then 

 placed alternately with plates of sheet-iron in the ordinary screw or hydraulic 

 press. The oil thus procured is received in clean tin pans, and water in 

 the proportion of a pint to the gallon of oil being added, the whole is 

 boiled until the water has evaporated ; the mucilage will be found to have 

 subsided and encrusted the bottom of the pan, whilst the albumen solidified 

 by heat forms a white layer between the oil and the water. Great care 

 must be taken in removing the pan from the fire the instant the whole of 

 the water is evaporated, which may be known by the bubbles having 

 oeased ; for, if allowed to remain longer, the oil, which has hitherto been of 

 the temperature of boiling water, or 212°, suddenly rises to that of oil, 

 or nearly 600°, thereby heightening the colour, and communicating an 

 empyreumatic taste and odour. The oil is then filtered through blanket, 

 flannel, or American drill, and put into cases for exportation. It is usually 

 of alight straw colour, sometimes with a greenish tinge. The cleaned 

 seeds yield from 47 to 50 per cent, of oil, worth in England from 4d. to 6d. 

 per lb. The result of experiment on the oil-producing properties of seed, 

 sorted into three qualities, shows that 980 lb. of kernels and 488 lb. of raw 

 oil were obtained from 1,400 lb. of seed. 



1st sort, 632 lb. kernels. 324 lb. oil. 



2nd „ 184 „ 87£ „ 



3rd „ 164 „ 76i „ 



980 488 



The average cost of the oil in the Madras Presidency is nearly 4d. 



