620 
The Philippine Journal of Science 
1921 
The Philippine Bureau of Forestry is using large numbers of 
both species in its reforestation projects and is also distributing 
seed and encouraging the people to plant these species. During 
1918, there were exported 184,428 kilograms of lumbang oil from 
Aleurites moiuccana, valued at 129,838 pesos. One American 
concern, which has experimented with lumbang oil, inquired as 
to the possibility of obtaining 4,000 tons per month. This fact 
would seem to indicate that there is a good market for consider- 
able quantities of this oil. 
The species Aleurites moiuccana is also distributed through 
Polynesia, the Malayan region, and the Hawaiian Islands. In 
Hawaii the oil from Aleurites moiuccana is called kukui, or 
candlenut oil. The latter name is also used in other parts of the 
world. According to Wilcox and Thompson 1 the Hawaiians 
strung the nuts on sticks and used them for lighting their houses. 
This use of the kernels gave rise to the name “candlenut.” 
Lumbang oil is used for various purposes such as the prepara- 
tion of paints, varnishes, and linoleum, and for illumination, 
wood preservation, etc. It has been manufactured in the Phil- 
ippines in very primitive mills for years and is used locally for 
illumination, mixing paints, and for protecting bottoms of dugout 
canoes and other small craft against water and against marine 
borers. 
The oil manufactured locally is made in a few Chinese shops 
in Manila, with primitive hand apparatus. The nuts are hot- 
pressed to save labor, but it is said that cold-pressing produces 
a better grade of oil. 
Lumbang oil has a light yellow color and an agreeable odor and 
taste. It is a drying oil and dries in thin films when allowed to 
stand. In this respect it resembles linseed oil and also Chinese 
wood oil (tung oil). Lumbang and linseed oils differ, however, 
from tung oil when heated. Tung oil heated to a temperature 
of about 200° solidifies and in this condition is unsuitable for 
making varnishes. Lumbang and linseed oils do not behave 
in this manner when heated. Oil from Aleurites moiuccana 
(lumbang) or Aleurites trisperma (baguilumbang) when heated 
to a temperature of about 315° and allowed to cool does not 
gelatinize. When heated continually these oils begin to distill 
regularly at about 315° and do not gelatinize until about one- 
third has been volatilized. 2 In so far as this property is con- 
1 Wilcox, E. V., and Thompson, A. R., Press Bull. Hawaii Agr. Exp. 
Station 39 (1913). 
2 West, A. P., and Brown, W. H., Bull. P. I., Bur. Forestry 20 (1920) 121. 
