36 
American Butter Factories. 
The modes of preparing annatto for commerce are various and 
intricate. M. Le Blond, a French chemist, gives an account of 
its manufacture as follows ; he says : — 
The pods of the true Bixa Orcllana being gathered, their seeds 
are taken out and bruised, and placed in a vat, which is called 
a steeper, when they are covered with water. Here the substance 
is left for several weeks or even months. It is then squeezed 
through sieves placed above the steeper, that the water containing 
the colouring- matter in suspension may return to the vat. The 
residuum is preserved under the leaves of the banana or palm, 
till it becomes hot by fermentation, when it is again subjected 
to the same operation, and this treatment is continued, till na 
more colour remains. The precipitate is boiled in copper to a 
consistent paste; it is then suffered to cool, and is dried in the 
shade. The annatto of commerce, as is well known, is often 
largely adulterated, during the boiling process, with red ochre, 
powdered bricks, calcothar, farinaceous substances, chalk, sul- 
phate of lime, turmeric, &c., while salt and oil are added as 
preservatives against a bug which is generated in annatto, espe- 
cially that which is adulterated with farinaceous substances. 
Instead of this long process, which engenders disease by the 
putrefaction induced, and which affords an inferior product, 
M. Le Blond, proposed simply to work the seeds until they 
are entirely deprived of their colour, which lies wholly on the 
surface ; to precipitate the same by means of an acid, and to 
boil in the ordinary manner, or to drain in bags as is practised 
with indigo. This process, it is said, has never been successfully 
carried out on a large scale until now (1870), as no precipitate 
could be found that did not in one way or another injure the 
colour. Small quantities were prepared according to Le Blond's 
theory, and the French dyers found it to be worth four times 
more than the ordinary annatto of commerce, that it was more 
easily employed, that it required less solvent, that it gave less 
trouble in the coppers, and that it furnished a purer colour. 
The American preparation of G. De Cordova, under the name 
of annattoine or dry extract of annatto, is claimed to be an im- 
provement on, and a perfection of, the Le Blond and Vauquelin 
theories. The latter asserts that boiling injures the colour, 
and as this has been clearly proven, Cordova reduces the pre- 
cipitation to a powder, instead of boiling it to a paste. As this 
preparation gives a beautiful colour, and is very much cheaper 
than any preparation of annatto in the market, at the same time 
being free from any deleterious adulteration, the managers of 
American factories are greatly pleased with it, and it is rapidly 
taking the place of other preparations. 
It is cut or made ready for use in the following manner. 1st. 
Put 2 lbs. of annattoine in 4 gallons of clear cold water, and let 
