September, 1908.] 



215 



Oils and Fats 



The cake left after expression of the 

 oil has, according to the same authority, 

 the following composition :— 



per cent. 



Oil ... ... ■» 8-94 



Albuminoids ... ... 21-68 



Carbohydrates... ... 19"05 



Fibre ... ... ... 33*00 



*Ash ... ... ... 9-33 



Water ... ... 8-00 



100-00 



* Containing sand, 1'37 per cent. 

 The Oil. 



The oil obtained by expression from 

 the seeds is the most important product 

 of the sunflower, and is valuable for 

 many purposes. In its pure state the 

 oil is said, on account of its palatability 

 and sweetness, to be excellent for table 

 use, for frying fish, and for other culi- 

 nary purposes ; indeed, it is much used 

 in Russia as an adulterant of and substi- 

 tute for olive oil for all domestic pur- 

 poses. It may also be used for woollen 

 dressing, lighting, and varnish and soap 

 making. For the last mentioned pur- 

 pose it is said to be superior to most oils. 

 It has also been substituted recently for 

 other fixed oils in the making of mar- 

 garine. 



Other Uses of the Plant. 



As already stated, the stalks of the 

 plant yield a fibre, which is, however, 

 too brittle to be of much value for tex- 

 tile purposes. The stalks are, however, 

 said to be useful for both fuel and mauu- 

 rial purposes. Both the leaves and stalk 

 make a valuable manure, either directly 

 ploughed in or after being used as cattle 

 litter. 



Smith observes that the sunflower is 

 an excellent plant for bees, large quanti- 

 ties of honey and wax being obtained 

 from the flowers. 



According^ to Balfour, the blossoms 

 yield a brilliant, lasting and useful dye. 

 Crookes states that the petals are pecu- 

 liarly rich in the amphorphous resinous 

 substance, Xanthin, the base of the yel- 

 low pigment from which they derive 

 their colour. The seeds yield " helian- 

 thic acid," which, when treated with 

 hydrochloric acid in a current of hydro- 

 gen, is resolved into glucose and a violet 

 dye.— Natal Agricultural Journal, No. 4, 

 Vol., XI. April, 1908. 



ARGEMONE MEXICANA. 



(Mexican Poppy.) 



The present Agricultural Ledger brings 

 together the latest information on the 

 uses, composition and commercial pros- 

 pects of the seeds and oil of an American 

 weed naturalized all over India and 

 other parts of the world. The Mexican 

 Poppy or Gamboge Thistle (Argemone 

 Mexicana) grows in desert land and 

 saliferous soils of the United Provinces 

 and the Punjab, sometimes where few 

 other plants persist. The plant yields 

 an abumdant crop of seed which is very 

 oleaginous, and. considering the demand 

 for oil seeds at the present time, sugges- 

 tions are made for utilising t ie oil and 

 cake in the arts and agriculture. The 

 Ledger owes its inception to observations 

 on the extensive use, in Behar, of oil of 

 the seeds, which were mad? by the 

 Reporter on Economic Products to the 

 Government of India. The uses are 

 two : one is as a remedy for skin 

 diseases, the body being smeared with 

 the oil ; the other is for burning. Under 

 normal conditions, it seems that not 

 very much of the oil is burnt, but that 

 it is quite a regular practice in the dis- 

 tricts of Patna, Darbhangaand Mozuffer- 

 pur to put by a supply to s«?rve as a 

 remedy in skin troubles ; but in the 

 current year bad crops had led to a 

 considerable amount of want, and many 

 people were turning their hands to 

 unusual avocations, among them the 

 gathering of an amount of the seed of 

 this plant far beyond what is customary. 

 Everywhere in the districts named, in 

 April, May and June last, women with a 

 clumsy pair of tweezers were busy 

 plucking the prickly pods just before 

 they were ready to open and to scatter 

 their seeds. The tweezers are made of 

 two pieces of a split bamboo or of a bent 

 piece ot hoop iron. The morning's 

 gathering is spread out in the midday sun 

 for the pods to open, and the seed that is 

 obtained is crushed in the ordinary oil 

 press. In Chota Nagpur it has been 

 observed that the seeds are sometimes 

 collected into little heaps by ants, thus 

 lightening the labour of women and 

 children, whose duty it is to gather 

 them. 



The Reporter on Economic Products 

 collected at Dalsiugh Sarai and Barh 

 the samples of oil, which have been 

 examined in part by Lieutenant-Colonel 

 D. St. J. Grant, I.M.S., Chemical 

 Examiner to the Government of the 

 Punjab, and partly by myself, for the 

 purpose of this account of the plant as 

 one yielding an oil seed, 



