6 VEGETABLE OILS 



Cleome ; Hoorhoorya (Cleome viscosa, Liim. ; Polanisia icosandra, W. 

 & A.) — The st-eds of this plant, which are employed medicinally in India, 

 and sold in the bazaars under the name of chorie-ajooain, yield an oil, 

 when subjected to very powerful pressure, which is of a light olive-green 

 colour, and very limpid. It might prove of service in cases where a very 

 limpid oil would be an acquisition. 



Cocoa-nut Oil ; Taynga vennai, Tamul. ; Tencaya noona, Tel. ; 

 Nariel-ka-tael, Hind. ; Valeecha of Travancore (Cocos nucifera). — This 

 oil is too well known to need any description. It is. obtained in Con- 

 tinental India ; and an equally extensive trade is carried on in this valuable 

 fat with the Island of Ceylon, where it is known under the names of Navasy 

 and Tenibely. The enormous quantity of 900,000 gallons is annually 

 exported from Madras. The largest proportion goes to Great Britain and 

 France ; the rest to Arabia, Mauritius, &c. The prices vary from 401. to 501. 

 per ton, that called Cochin oil fetching the highest price. In Europe, 

 candles, soap, &c. ; in India, cookery, lamps, medicine, and anointing the 

 person, are all uses for which this fat is available. At the commencement 

 of 1861, Cochin oil was worth 551. 10s., and Ceylon about 531. per ton, in 

 the home market. In 1860, the relative prices were 41?. and 421. 10s. ; and 

 in 1859, 371. 10s. and 401. During the years annexed, the following were 

 the total imports into Great Britain : — 



1855 12,300 tons. 1858 9,889 tons. 



1856 6,000 „ 1859 9,237 „ 



1857 9,500 „ 1860 9,715 „ 

 Cocum or Kokum Butter (Garcinia purpurea). — This solid vegetable 



oil is of a whitish colour, and melts at a temperature of 95°, being 

 very little below that of piney tallow. It now forms an article of export 

 to Great Britain. 



The oil is extracted from the seeds by boiling. They are first dried 

 in the sun, and then pounded and boiled in water ; the oil collects on 

 the surface, and on cooling concretes into a solid cake. When purified 

 from extraneous matter, the product is of a rather brittle quality, of a 

 pale yellowish hue, inclining to greenish, and mild to the taste. The 

 seeds yield about one-tenth of their weight of oil. The tree is found 

 abundantly on the slopes of the mountains on the western side of India, 

 from within 100 miles of Bombay to Cape Comorin. 



Colocynth-seed Oil (Cucumis colocynihis). — The seeds of the officinal 

 colocynth contain rather more than 4 per cent, of a bitter fixed oil, 

 which has been extracted in India for medicinal purposes. 



Coorookoopillay (Inga dulcis). — The seeds of this common hedge- 

 plant of India yield, by expression, a light-coloured oil about the 

 consistence of castor oil. Of its qualities and uses 1 am at present 

 ignorant. 



Cotton-seed Oil (Gossypium herbaceum). — This oil is well known, 

 and consequently requires no description. It is manufactured rather 

 extensively in India ; and the samples we have seen were pale, limpid, 



