278 The Philippine Journal of Science 1919 
This contains a white, oily, fleshy kernel consisting of a very 
thin embryo surrounded by a large endosperm. This is in turn 
covered by a thin, white, papery seed coat. This thin seed coat 
adheres flrmly to both the shell and the kernel, so that the kernel 
is separated from the shell with difficulty. 
The importance of lumbang bato oil has been known since 
1873 when Prof. Julius Wiesner,® reporting on The Foreign Plant 
Stuffs in Industrial Use at the Vienna Universal Exhibition in 
that year, said : 
A source of oil not hitherto regarded by the European oil industry is 
the Bankul nut (from Aleurites triloba), which deserves to be brought into 
use, on account not only of the low price of the raw material, but also from 
the high quality of the oil. 
In the Philippines the oil is now being used in the caulking of 
vessels, in the manufacture of soft soaps, and as a substitute for 
linseed oil in the local manufacture of paints; also there is a 
demand much in excess of the present production for this oil 
from United States paint manufacturers. Therefore, the great 
value of the oil for industrial purposes is now well established, 
and its extraction based upon a more systematic method should 
be carefully considered. 
Among the various procedures now in use for the purpose of 
minimizing the work involved in removing the kernel from the 
shell of lumbang bato nuts, none of which has been found wholly 
satisfactory, are the following: 
In some localities the Chinese place large quantities of nuts on 
the ground, cover them with straw and after burning the straw 
immediately sprinkle the nuts with cold water. They claim that 
with this method the nuts burst. In Laguna, Tayabas, and Ba- 
tangas Provinces, the nuts are placed in tanks of boiling water 
and left there for from five to six hours. This loosens the kernel, 
and when sufficiently cool the nuts are cracked and the kernels 
are separated from the shells. These two methods produce 
brown kernels from which only brown oil can be expressed. 
In Moro Province, along the coast of Davao, the nuts are dried 
in the sun until the kernels loosen sufficiently, which may be 
ascertained by occasionally cracking a few nuts for trial. The 
drying takes from five to ten days or more, depending upon the 
condition of the weather; the nuts are then cracked and the 
kernels removed. This process is very slow, although the kernel 
usually comes out whole and is of the best quality. 
' Andes, L. E., Vegetable Fats and Oils, 2d ed. Greenwood and Co., 
London (1902) 6. 
