Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/233

Rh Oil from the seeds of Calophyllum inophyllum. The seeds contain 22.8— 31.5 H2O and 50.5—55 oil per cent. The oil has a yellowish-green colour, an odour resembling fenugreek, a bitter taste, and, on keeping, fatty glycerides are deposited. It solidifies at 3°, melts again at 8°, and has a sp. gr. 0.9428 at 15°, Reichert-Meissl number 0.13, saponification number 196.0, acid number 28.45, iodine number 92.8, refracto-meter number 76 at 40°; it contains 0.25 per cent, of unsaponiũble matter. The increase in weight due to oxygen absorption, when measured by Livache's method, amounted to 0.25, 0.71, 1.32, and 1.84 percent., after 18, 40, 64, and 136 hours. Treatment with 5 per cent, soda solution removes the resinous constituents. The purified oil solidities at 4°, melts again at 8°, and has Reichert-Meissi number 0.18, saponification number 191, iodine number 86. The fatty acids of the oil are chiefly palmitic, stearie, and oleie. J. Ch. S. Vol. 88 pt. 2, page 277.

The seeds are brownish black, almost spherical, ¾— 1 inch in diameter and consist of an easily-broken shell surrounding a round, soft, whitish kernel which weighs about 4 grms. The kernels contain 13 per cent, of moisture and 55 per cent, of viscous, green, bitter oil.

Some samples of kernels from Bengal contained 3.3 per cent, of moisture and 71.4 per cent, of oil having the Sp. gr. at 15° C. O.950 ; acid value 45.9 ; Saponification value, 193-203 ; iodine value, 97.7.

The oil is excellent for soap making. The residual cake is bitter and therefore suitable for use as a manure.

Bulletin Imperial Institute 1913.

Syn. : — C. decipiens, Wight; C. Spurium, Chois.

Vern. :— Kalpun, kutt-ponne bobbi, (Kan).; Cheru pinnay, pútengi (Tam.); Tsirou-panna (Mal.); Cherupiani, sarapuna (Bomb.) ; Irai (Mar.)

Habitat .-—Western ghats, from the Konkan to Travancore.

A middle-sized evergreen tree, almost entirely glabrous. "Bark yellow, very characteristic. Wood hard, red. Pores large and moderate-sized, uniformly distributed. Medullary rays very fine, not very distinct. Numerous, interrupted wavy and anastomosing connective bands of soft tissue (Gamble). Young shoots 4-gonal, often pruinose. Leaves rigidly coriaceous, obovate, obtuse or oblong-cuneate ; 2-4 by l¼-2in. ; veins most prominent on the undersurface ; petiole 1/6in. Racemes from the axils of all the leaves and scars of fallen ones, several-flowered, shorter than the leaves. Peduncles and pedicels slender. The Racemes are shorter than the leaves. Flowers ¼-½in. diam. Sepals 4, very thin, strongly-veined. Petals (or 4 small ones