>8 
Laurel-Nut  Oil. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Feb.,  1889. 
about  four  times  the  Calcutta  price  of  castor  oil  in  Burma.1  In  the 
Colonial  and  Indian  Exhibition2  held  in  London  in  1886,  this  oil  was 
shown  from  India,  Ceylon,  Straits  Settlements,  Queensland  and  Fiji. 
It  is  known  out  of  India  as  domba,  dilo  or  ndilo  oil. 
Laurel-nut  oil  is  greenish-yellow,  bitter  and  aromatic,  but  it 
has  not  been  investigated  chemically.  Lepine  found  a  sample  to 
have  the  sp.  gr.  0*942,  and  to  solidify  at  -j-5°.  During  a  recent  visit 
to  Travancore,  I  found  a  large  trade  being  done  in  the  nuts  and  oil  of 
Calophyllum  Inophyllum  in  the  village  of  Neyoor,  about  sixteen  miles 
from  Cape  Comorin,  and  here  I  purchased  a  sample  of  oil  for  exami- 
nation. The  oil  was  similar  in  appearance  to  some  I  expressed  myself 
from  some  freshly  dried  almonds  obtained  from  Neyoor.  The  fol- 
lowing notes  give  the  results  of  a  chemical  examination  of  the  oil  made 
Avith  the  assistance  of  Allen's    Commercial  Organic  Analysis." 
The  oil  had  a  greenish-yellow  color,  thick  consistence,  fragant  odor 
and  bitter  taste.  It  commenced  to  congeal  at  the  temperature  of  19° 
C,  and  became  quite  solid  at  16°,  when  it  had  a  specific  gravity  of 
0-9315. 
The  free  acidity  of  the  oil  was  found  by  shaking  a  weighed  portion 
with  alcohol  and  titrating  the  solution  with  normal  alkali,  using  phenol  - 
phthalein  as  an  indicator.  One  hundred  grams  of  the  oil  required  1*89 
grams  of  caustic  potash  to  neutralize  the  free  acids. 
The  oil  was  saponified  by  boiling  a  weighed  quantity  for  one  hour 
with  alcoholic  potash,  and  the  excess  of  alkali  was  determined  by  titra- 
tion with  normal  hydrochloric  acid.  It  was  found  that  100  grams 
required  19*6  grams  of  KHO  to  convert  it  into  a  soap  ;  the  saponifica- 
tion equivalent  was  therefore  2  5*6.  The  soap  solution  in  alcohol, 
allowed  to  stand  for  a  few  hours  partially  crystallized  into  lustrous 
white  scales. 
The  volatile  fatty  acids  obtained  by  Reichert's  distillation  process 
were  very  small  in  quantity,  2*412  grams  of  oil  required  the  equiva- 
lent of  0*1  cc.  of  normal  alkali  for  saturating  the  volatile  acids,  which 
is  equal  to  0*23  per  cent,  of  KHO. 
Two  drops  of  sulphuric  acid  added  to  20  drops  of  the  oil  gave  a  red 
coloration  with  orange  streaks  ;  after  stirring  the  whole  became  an 
orange-brown  mixture.  The  oil  shaken  up  with  an  equal  volume  of 
nitric  acid,  sp.  gr.  1*4,  formed  a  light  reddish-brown  emulsion  ;  after 
1  "  Guide  to  the  Economic  and  Commercial  Court,"  Calcutta,  1886. 
2 Pharm.  Journal,  [3],  xvii.,  pp.  6, 142,  226. 
