In the Nilgiris the oil is used for anointing the body. The medicinal effects are variously reported as purgative (in the United Provinces) and as prophylactic against cholera (in Thana division, Bombay). It is more usual
to apply it externally in massage for rheumatism (Bombay), for the cure of headache (Sambalpur, Central Provinces). Its application in Bombay, Malabar, and Coorg is said to be effective in removing itch and other forms of skin diseases, and this remedy is known to the wild forest tribes. The powdered seeds are applied to ulcers of animals and for removing maggots.
The seeds,
The seeds are ovoid or rounded in shape, about five -eighths of an inch long by half an inch broad, smooth, reddish-brown in colour, and marked with an indented hilum at one end. One hundred seeds weigh 57 grains giving an average weight of 8.7 grains per seed. On removing the brown, brittle shell a dirty white kernel is disclosed with white markings on the testa. One hundred parts of seeds afford 66 parts of kernels and 34 parts of shells. The kernels extracted with ether or petroleum spirit yielded in the Calcutta Indian Museum laboratory 61.4 per cent, of oil, showing that the entire seed contains 40.5 per cent, of oil.
Mr. J. H. Walker of the Oil Department of the Gouripore Company, Naihati, obtained a yield of 60.4 per cent, of a thick fixed oil from the kernels, which is equivalent to 36.7 per cent, on the nuts.
Composition of seeds and oil.
The first analysis of the seeds appears to have been made by Dr. L. Van Itallie [Apoth. Zeitung. (1889), 4.506], who separated about 36 per cent, of a buttery fat, which he called the Macassar oil of commerce. It had a specific gravity of 0.924 at 15° C, melted at 28° C., had an iodine number of 53, a saponification equivalent of 219 (1 gram required 230 mgm. of potash for saponification), contained 91 per cent, of insoluble fatty acids and 6.3 per cent, of glycerol. The fatty acids present included acetic, butyric, lauric, arachic and oleic acids.
The next recorded analysis of Macassar oil is that of Dr. K. Trummel [Apoth., Zeitung. (1889), 4.518]. The oil had a melting point of 21°-22° C. The presence of hydrocyanic acid was detected and 0.47 per cent, obtained by steam distillation. Benzaldehyde was detected in the distillate by its transformation into benzoic acid by the action of potassium permanganate.
Dr. Trummel in conjunction with Mr, Kwassick further investigated the oil in 1891 (Pharm. Zeit. May 1891, 314), after confirming previous results the authors separated the constituents of the oil. The fatty acids, with the exception of 3.15 per cent, of free oleic acid, were present as glycerides. Of these in combination 70 per cent, consisted of oleic acid, and of the solid fatty acids 5 per cent, was palmitic and 25 per cent, arachic acid, the characteristic acid of the ground-nut. Lauric acid was not present, and of the volatile fat acids only acetic and no butyric acid could be detected. Hydrocyanic was found in the oil and in the seeds, being determined as 0.03 per cent, in the former and 0.62 per cent, in
