as when full grown, I therefore conceive that it buries itself to its greatest depth before seeds begin to enlarge, and while the germ is only on obtuse point."
Found all over the warm parts of Asia, In the Dekkan and Concan.
Parts used : — The nut and oil.
Uses :—The oil may take the place of olive oil. " In Bombay the oil is expressed at the Government Medical Store Depot for pharmaceutical purposes, to the extent of about 6,000 lbs. annually. It is used as a substitute for olive oil" (Dymock).
" The experiments of Winter in the United States is that it is well adapted for the preparation of cerates and ointments, but that it would not serve as a substitute for olive oil in the preparation of lead plaster. Falicres found it to possess great aptitude for the nitric solidification, hence he has recommended its use in the preparation of Unguentum Hydrargyri Nitratis" (Bentley and Trimen). " The unripe nuts are sweet and are given to women whose supply of milk is insufficient for their children ; the unripe nuts are less oily and, therefore, more easily digested" (Subba Rao).
Leather has shown that the Mauritius variety of ground-nut contains from 44 to 49 per cent, of oil, while the indigenous varieties contain only 40 to 44 per cent. Newer samples have more recently been imported and it has been noticed that they are uniformly more rich in oil than the local kinds. These figures refer to the proportion of oil in the kernels. The proportion by weight of unhusked nuts to kernels is as 4 to 3. The bulk of the Indian manufacture of the oil is in the hands of owners of native rotary mills. Mills of the European pattern have been tried in South India, but they could not compete with the crude native mills as the cake from the former was too dry and powdery. Recently mills have been opened in Calcutta and elsewhere in Bengal for the manufacture of the oil and have created a large import traffic in the nuts. The nuts having been shelled the expression is carried out in two stages. The first expression is carried out at the ordinary temperature, and the cold drawn oil is nearly colourless, has a pleasant taste and is used as a salad oil. The second expression is made at a temperature of 30° to 32° and yields an oil suitable for edible purposes and for burning. Sometime a third expression is made at a higher temperature and gives a turbid oil suitable for soap making. Arachis cake contains the highest amount of proteins of all known oil-cakes. That from non-decorticated nuts contains 5*35 per cent, of nitrogen and 0'9 per cent, of phosphoric acid, and that from the kernels contains 7*9 per cent, of nitrogen and 135 per cent, of phosphoric acid.
