THE CONSTITUENTS OF “ CHUFA ” OIE, A FATTY OIL 
FROM THE TUBERS OF CYPERUS ESCULENTUS 
linnE 1 
By Walter F. Baughman, Associate Chemist, and George S. Jamieson, Chemist 
in Charge, Oil, Fat and Wax Laboratory, Bureau of Chemistry, United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture 
A chemical examination of the constituents of chufa has been made 
by Power and Chesnut, and the results obtained by them are embodied 
in a separate communication to this number of the Journal of Agricul¬ 
tural Research (p. 69). The fatty oil obtained by these investigators 
was submitted to this laboratory for a more complete determination of 
its constituents. 
Chufa oil, which is sometimes known as sedge oil, and in Germany as 
earth almond oil ( Erdmandeloel ), has received occasional mention in 
chemical literature for a great many years, but has never been given a 
very complete examination. As early as 1851 R. T. M. Luna published a 
paper relating to the. tubers of this plant, in which he described a few 
experiments he had made with the oil (7). 2 Carl Hell and S. Twerdome- 
doff attempted to determine, in a qualitative way, the constitutents of 
the oil, and reported it (4) to consist principally of olein with a smaller 
amount of myristin, but they were not able to ascertain the presence 
of higher fatty acid glycerids. As will be shown later, the present 
authors have verified the presence of a large percentage of oleic acid, 
but have detected only a trace of myristic acid (less than 0.01 per cent), 
and are unable to explain Hell and Twerdomedoff’s apparently good 
evidence of its presence in much larger amounts, although the oil em¬ 
ployed by them was extracted from tubers grown in Europe. 
The oil used for this investigation was extracted from the ground 
tubers with petroleum ether. It was not put through any refining process 
and, therefore, should not be considered as consisting of pure fatty acid 
glycerids, but, like other crude oils, should be expected to contain more 
or less nonfatty material. 
CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 
The more important data are as follows : 
Specific gravity 25°/25°. 
Refractive index, 20°. 
Iodin number (Hanus). 
Saponification value. 
Unsaponifiable matter (per cent). 
Acid value. 
Acetyl value. 
Reichert-Meissl number. 
Polenske number. 
Saturated acids, per cent (observed). 
Unsaturated acids, per cent (observed). 
Saturated acids, per cent (corrected). 
Unsaturated acids, per cent (corrected). 
Iodin number of unsaturated acids. 
o. 9120 
1. 4680 
76.5 
191- 5 
o. 6 
IS- 7 
10.5 
o. 2 
o-3 • 
18. 3 (Iodin number 6.5) 
74. 6 
17. 1 
75-8 
96.9 
1 Accepted for publication Aug. n, 1923. 
* Reference is made by number (italic) to “Literature cited,” p. 82. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Washington, D. C. 
ags 
(77) 
Vol. XXVI, No. 2 
October 13, 1923 
Key No. E-25 
