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The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

P >> P. L. Simmonds >> The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom




_Madia sativa_ is a handsome annual plant, native of Chili, which has
been naturalised in Europe. It grows about two feet high, and produces
flowers in July and August, of a pale yellow color.

The whole plant is viscid and exhales a powerful odor, which is
somewhat like heated honey. It requires rather a rich soil, of a
ferruginous character. The root is fusiform, the stem cylindrical, and
furnished with sessile, three to five longitudinally-nerved leaves,
which are apposite on the lower portion of the stem, and alternate on
the upper. M. Victor Pasquier, who has written on the culture of the
plant, analysed the seed, and found 100 parts to consist of 26.5 of
testa, and 73.5 of kernel; 100 parts of the latter yielded 31.3 of
vegetable albumen, gum, and lignine, 56.0 of _fixed oil_, and 12.5 of
water. In dry seasons the oil is both more abundant and better than in
damp seasons. The produce of oil, compared with that of the poppy, is
equal; with colza, as 32 to 28; with linseed, 32 to 21; with the
olive, 32 to 16.

The leaves and stems of this plant are rejected by cattle; but the
oil-cake, which always contains a considerable portion of the oil,
forms a nutritive food, of which they are very fond. The oil expressed
without heat is transparent, of a golden yellow color, inodorous,
rather fatter than the oil of rape or olives, and of a soft,
agreeable, nutty taste. It is fit to be employed in the preparation of
food, in salads, and for all the purposes of the best and mildest
fixed oils. It burns with a brilliant, reddish-white flame, and leaves
no residue. It is little liable to become rancid, and is completely
decolorised by animal charcoal.

The oil of the seeds of this plant, now extensively cultivated in
France, will yield, according to the observations of Braconnet, a
solid soap, similar to that made from olive oil. Boussingault obtained
from the oil a solid, as well as a fluid acid. The solid one is
probably palmic acid, it fuses at exactly 140 degrees of Fahrenheit.
The fluid acid in its properties resembles the oleic acid discovered
by Chevreul, and seems to dry easily.

The following is the composition of each, as determined by his
analysis:--

Solid acid. Fluid acid.
Carbon 74.2 76.0
Hydrogen 12.0 11.0
Oxygen 13.8 13.0
------ ------
100. 100.

COCUM OIL, or butter, is obtained from the seeds of a kind of
mangosteen (_Garcinia purpurea_), and used in various parts of India
to adulterate ghee or butter. It is said to be exported to England for
the purpose of mixing with bears' grease in the manufacture of
pomatum. It is a white, or pale greenish yellow, solid oil, brittle,
or rather friable, having a faint but not unpleasant smell, melting at
about 95 degrees, and when cooled after fusion remaining liquid to 75
degrees.

An excellent solid oil, of a bright green color, is obtained from
Bombay, having a consistence intermediate between that of tallow and
wax, fusible at about 95 degrees, and easily bleached; it has a
peculiar and somewhat aromatic odor. There is some uncertainty as to
the plant from which it is obtained. It was referred to the _Salvadora
persica_, and to the _Vernonia Anthelminticea_, a plant common in
Guzerat and the Concan Ghats.

A pale yellow clear oil is obtained from the seed of _Dolichos
biflorus_(_?_). Oil is also expressed in India from the seed of the
_Argemone mexicana_, which is used for lamps and in medicine; and from
the seeds of the cashew nut (_Anacardium occidentale_), from _Sapindus
marginatus_, and the country walnut (_Aleurites triloba_.) The fruit
of the _Chirongia sapinda_, (or _Buchanania latifolia_,) yields oil.
From the seeds of the _Pongamia glabra_, or _Galidupa arborea_, a
honey brown and almost tasteless oil is procured, which is fluid at
common temperatures, but gelatinises at 55 degrees.

Other sources of oil are the _Celastrus paniculatus_ (_?_) _Balanites
Egyptictca_ and the saul tree (_Shorea Robusta_).

THE CANDLE-TREE or PALO BE VELAS, (_Parmentiera cereifera_,
Seemann.)--This tree, in the valley of the Chagres, South America,
forms entire forests. In entering them a person might almost fancy
himself transported into a chandler's shop. From all the stems and
lower branches hang long cylindrical fruits, of a yellow wax color, so
much resembling a candle as to have given rise to the popular
appellation. The fruit is generally from two to three, but not
unfrequently four feet long, and an inch in diameter. The tree itself
is about 24 feet high, with, opposite trifoliated leaves, and large
white blossoms, which appear throughout the year, but are in greatest
abundance during the rainy season. The _Palo de Velas_ belongs to the
natural order _Crescentiaceae_, and is a _Parmentiera_, of which genus
hitherto only one species, the _P. edulis_, of De Candolle, was known
to exist. The fruit of the latter, called _Quauhscilote_, is eaten by
the Mexicans, while that of the former serves for food to numerous
herds of cattle. Bullocks especially, if fed with the fruit of this
tree, guinea-grass, and _Batatilla_ (_Ipomoea brachypoda_, Benth.),
soon get fat. It is generally admitted, however, that the meat
partakes in some degree of the peculiar apple-like smell of the fruit,
but this is by no means disagreeable, and easily prevented, if, for a
few days previous to killing the animal, the food is changed. The tree
produces its principal harvest during the dry season, when all the
herbaceous vegetation is burned up, and on that account its
cultivation in tropical countries is especially to be recommended; a
few acres of it would effectually prevent that want of fodder which is
always most severely felt after the periodical rains have
ceased.--("Hooker's Journal of Botany.")

CINNAMON SUET is extracted by boiling the fruit of the cinnamon. An
oily fluid floats on the surface, which on cooling subsides to the
bottom of the vessel, and hardens into a substance like mutton suet.
The Singhalese make a kind of candles with it, and use it for culinary
purposes. It emits a very pleasant aroma while burning. According to
the analysis of Dr. Christison, it contains eight per cent, of a fluid
not unlike olive oil; the remainder is a waxy principle.

CROTON OIL is obtained by expression from the seeds or nuts of _Croton
Tiglium_, an evergreen tree, 15 to 20 feet in height, belonging to the
same order as the castor oil plant, producing whitish green flowers,
and seeds resembling a tick in appearance, whence its generic name. It
is a native of the East Indies. 100 parts of seeds afford about 64 of
kernel. 50 quarters of croton nuts for expressing oil were imported
into Liverpool from the Cape Verd Islands, in 1849.

The _Croton Tiglium_ grows plentifully in Ceylon, and the oil, if
properly expressed, might be made an article of trade. The best mode
of preparing it is by grinding the seeds, placing the powder in bags,
and pressing between plates of iron; allow the oil to stand for
fifteen days, then filter. The residue of the expression is triturated
with twice its weight of alcohol, and heated on the sand-bath from 120
to 140 degs. Fahrenheit, and the mixture pressed again. In this step
the utmost caution is necessary in avoiding the acrid fumes. One seer
of seed furnishes by this process rather more than eleven fluid ounces
of oil, six by the first step, and five by alcohol.

The oil acts as an irritant purgative in the dose of one drop. In
large doses it is a dangerous poison. When applied externally it
produces pustules.

In 1845, eight cases of croton oil and six cases of the seed were
exported from Ceylon.

Other species of Croton, as _C. Pavana_, a native of Ava and the
north-eastern parts of Bengal, and _C. Roxburghii_, yield a purgative
oil. The bark of _C. Eleuteria_, _C. Cascarilla_, and other species is
aromatic, and acts as a tonic and stimulant. It forms the cascarilla
bark of commerce already spoken of. When bruised, it gives out a musky
odor and is often used in pastilles.

The oil obtained from the seeds of _Jatropha curcas_, a native of
South America and Asia, is purgative and emetic, and analagous in its
properties to croton oil. It is said to be a valuable external
application in itch. In India it is used for lamps.

OIL OF BEN, known as Sohrinja in Bengal, and Muringo in Malabar is
obtained from the seeds or nuts of the horseradish tree, _Moringa
pterygosperma_, Burmann; the _Hyperanthera Moringa_, of Linnaeus. This
clear limpid oil having no perceptible smell, is much esteemed by
watchmakers and perfumers; it is expensive and not often to be
procured pure, consequently the oil would be a very profitable export.
It grows rapidly and luxuriantly everywhere in Jamaica, particularly
on the north side of the island--as well as Trinidad and other
quarters of the West. It is easily propagated either by cuttings from
the tree (the branches) or by seeds, and bears the second year. The
produce of each tree may be estimated at from one to two gallons. From
the flowers a very pleasant perfume might be easily distilled.

The following account I derive from my friend Dr. Hamilton--

"It is a small tree, of about twenty feet in height, of most rapid
growth, coming into flower within a few months after it has been
sown, and continuing to produce seeds and blossoms afterwards
throughout the year. The tree is now naturalised in the West Indies.
The timber is said to dye a fine blue, and the gum, which, exudes
from wounds in the bark, bears a strong resemblance to that obtained
from the _Astragalus tragacantha_, for which it might, no doubt, be
substituted.

The numerous racemes of white blossoms with which the tree is
constantly loaded, are succeeded by long triangular pods, somewhat
tourlose at the ends, and about two feet in length, when arrived at
the full growth. These pods, while yet young and tender, are not
unfrequently cooked and served up at the planter's tables like
asparagus, for which they are not a bad substitute. The pods, when
full grown, contain about fifteen seeds; each considerably larger
than a pea, with a membraneous covering expanding into three wings,
whence the specific name of _pterygosperma_. On removing the winged
envelope the seeds appear somewhat like pith balls; but upon
dividing them with the nail, they are found to abound in a clear,
colorless, tasteless, scentless oil, of which the proportion is so
large that it may be expressed from good fresh seeds by the simple
pressure of the nail. Geoffry informs us, that he obtained 301/2
ounces of oil from eight pounds of the decorticated seeds, being at
the rate of very nearly 24 lbs. of oil from 100 lbs. of seed.

Notwithstanding the great value of its oil, and the facility with
which it can be obtained in the West Indies, the moringa has been
hitherto valued merely as an ornamental shrub, and cultivated for
the sake of its young pods or the horseradish of its roots, as
luxuries for the table.

The oil is peculiarly valuable for the formation of ointments, from
its capability of being kept for almost any length of time without
entering into combination with oxygen. This property, together with
the total absence of color, smell, and taste, peculiarly adapts it
to the purposes of the perfumer, who is able to make it the medium
for arresting the flight of those highly volatile particles of
essential oil, which constitute the aroma of many of the most
odoriferous flowers, and cannot be obtained by any other means, in a
concentrated and permanent form. To effect this, the petals of the
flowers, whose odor it is desired to obtain, are thinly spread over
flakes of cotton wool saturated with this oil, and the whole
enclosed in air tight tin cases, where they are suffered to remain
till they begin to wither, when they are replaced by fresh ones, and
the process thus continued till the oil has absorbed as much as was
desired of the aroma; it is then separated from the wool by
pressure, and preserved under the name of _essence_, in well stopped
bottles.

By digesting the oil thus impregnated in alcohol, which does not
take up the fixed oil, a solution of the aroma is effected in the
spirit, and many odoriferous tinctures or waters, as they are
somewhat inaccurately termed, prepared. By this process most
delicious perfumes might be obtained from the flowers of the _Acacia
tortuosa_, _Pancratium carribeum_, _Plumeria alba_, _Plumeria
rubra_, and innumerable other flowers, of the most exquisite
fragrance, which abound within the tropics, blooming unregarded, and
wasting their odors on the barren air."


THE OIL PALM.

There are several species of this genus of beautiful palms of the
tribe _Cococinae_, but that chiefly turned to account is _Elais
guineensis_, a native of the Coast of Guinea to the south of Fernando
Po, which furnishes the best oil.

There are three other varieties--_E. melanococca_, a native of New
Granada, _E. Pernambucana_, common on the coast of Brazil, and _J.
occidentalis_, indigenous to Jamaica. All the species grow well in a
sandy loam and may be increased by suckers.

The value of the oil of this palm, as an article of commerce, is
exemplified by the large annual imports, averaging more than 516,000
cwt. for many years past.

Our supplies of palm oil are almost wholly derived from the West Coast
of Africa, of which it is the staple article of export.

Palm oil has the greatest specific gravity of any of the fixed
vegetable oils. It is used principally in this country for making
yellow soap. But the inhabitants of the Guinea coast employ it for the
same purposes that we do butter.

The trade in palm oil has almost driven out the slave trade from the
Bight of Benin, which was a few years ago one of its principal seats.
The old slave traders at Whydah have generally gone into the palm oil
trade, and are carrying it on to a very great extent. In August 1849,
no less than twelve vessels were lying at that port taking in oil;
whilst, only three years before, it was rare to see three vessels
there at once, and of those in all probability two would be slavers.

This palm is called Maba by the natives about the Congo river. It is
moneocious, which indeed Jacquin, by whom the genus was established,
concluded it to be, although first described as dioecious by Gaertner,
whose account has been adopted, probably without examination, by
Schroder, Willdenow, and Persoon.

The average imports of this oil into Liverpool alone, have now been
for some years upwards of 18,000 tons, worth nearly L800,000 sterling,
and giving employment to upwards of 30,000 tons of shipping; thus
proving that the natives who formerly exported their brethren as a
matter of traffic, now find, at least, an equally profitable trade in
the exportation of the vegetable products of their native soil.

Palm oil is produced by the nut of the tree, which grows in the
greatest abundance throughout Western Africa. The demand for it, both
in Europe and America, is daily increasing, and there is no doubt it
will, ere long, become the most important article of African trade.

IMPORTS INTO LIVERPOOL.
casks. tons.
1835 28,500 9,500
1836 33,500 11,000
1837 26,000 9,900
1838 27,520 10,320
1839 36,500 14,300
1852 about -- 23,500

In the colony of Liberia, I notice the manufacture of a new article of
African production, which is called "Herring's Palm Kernel Oil or
African Lard." It is thus spoken of in the newspapers of that Republic
:--

We had been for a long time impressed with an idea that the oil
contained in the kernel of the palm nut, was superior both in
quality and appearance to that of palm oil, which is obtained from
the exterior part.

On making an effort to extract the oil from the kernel (which was by
means of a little machine, of our own invention and contrivance), we
found that our thoughts upon the matter were correct, that the oil
possessed admirable beauty in its appearance, with a taste, when
used for cooking purposes, unexcelled by that of the best lard.

After being made and set by, it assumes a consistence like that of
hard butter, and has to be cut out with a knife or spoon; its
appearance in this state is very beautiful, presenting such
richness, clearness, and adaptedness to table purposes, that one
would not suppose that this oil is obtained from the same tree from
which palm oil is, for there is as much disparity both in their
appearance and taste as there is between lard and butter.

The exquisite transparency which the kernel oil bears in a liquid
state, especially when undergoing the purifying process, is a cause
of admiration. On showing some of it to several foreigners, I was
asked in two instances which was the oil and which the water, or
whether it was oil or water; thus you may have an idea of its
clearness. We make two qualities of this oil, differing however in
taste only, the one being for table uses and the other for
exportation and for whatever use they may choose to put it to
abroad.

There have been many conjectures in respect to the uses to which
this oil might he put in foreign countries; but that it will be a
useful article, and especially in our trade, when made more
extensively, there can be no doubt, for the quantity in which it
might be had would undoubtedly introduce it to a respectable rank
among the other commodities of our productive country so eagerly
sought after.

There is nothing, to my knowledge, that can be turned to as good
account and at the same time so abundant and easily obtained, as the
palm kernel, for they are as common as the pebbles of stony land,
especially in this section of the country, where we have palm
orchards of spontaneous growth for miles together, and interspersing
the surrounding country in almost innumerable numbers.

According to statistical ascertainment, there is on an average
exported from this port, thirty thousand gallons of palm oil
annually, from which fact we ascertain demonstratively that the palm
kernels which are thrown away here (leaving out the whole leeward
coast of our possessions) are sufficient to make thirty thousand
gallons of oil, more or less. This is not at all a problematical
speculation of ours, but we feel authorised to advance this
assertion from the fact that one bushel of kernels, completely
worked up, will make two gallons of oil. But to work them up is the
thing, plentiful as they are; we however, hesitate not to say, that
it can be done and probably will be.

Having now so far conquered the difficulties attending the
manufacture of this oil, as that we can safely vouch a reasonable
supply for home consumption, we most cheerfully recommend it to the
citizens of this Republic, whose demands for it, for eating
purposes, we doubt not can be supplied, and on very reasonable
terms.

We will assure our customers that there will not be an ounce of dirt
or sediment in a hundred pounds of our oil.

The recent abolition of the soap duty, by stimulating the demand for
palm oil, will have an instant effect on the trade and commerce of
Western Africa, by confirming the suppression of the slave trade, and
giving an additional impetus to negro improvement. It will also
increase the production for England of ground nuts, whence the oil so
largely used in making continental soaps is expressed. "When (observes
a recent writer) the Portuguese first treated with that coast, they
found palm oil and ground nuts articles of native food, and so they
remained down to a period within living memory. So used, they neither
required any cultivation nor gave rise to any notions of property.
Though whole tracts of country are crowded by the oil-palm tree,
little care was taken of what was, in fact, superabundant; and as for
ground nuts, they were simply dug up as prudence or necessity
dictated. Some thirty years ago a cask or two of palm oil was sent
home from the Gold Coast; it met so ready a sale that it was further
inquired after, and the total amount now imported into England ranges
from 25,000 to 30,000 tons annually. The exportation of ground nuts is
even larger; but, owing to our excise on soap, they had heretofore
gone principally to France---to Marseilles especially.

"Of these two articles, it is to be observed, the Western Coast of
Africa appears to have a monopoly; and with respect to palm oil, it is
further to be remarked, that it is exactly behind those ports and up
those rivers, which were formerly the great nests of the slave trade,
that its production is largest; and just as the slave trade there has
been crushed, a commerce in palm oil has sprung up and replaced it.
There are men alive who recollect the slave trade flourishing on the
Gold Coast; it has long been extinct there, and palm oil is now
largely exported. It is but a very few years ago since that traffic
appeared to be irrepressible at the mouths of the Niger: it is now
expelled, and thence Liverpool obtains, instead, its supplies of palm
oil. So also, later still, at Whydah, and the other ports of the
kingdom of Dahomy, and along the Lagoon, which connects Dahomy with
the Benin River, there the Spanish slave dealers are themselves
inaugurating a commerce in palm oil. Already the trade in that quarter
is considerable, and it would have extended much more rapidly than it
has done, were it not that disorder and warfare in the interior have
been promoted and prolonged by the indiscreet zeal of some of our own
naval officers and by the desire of some of our missionaries to rule
at Abeeokutu, at Lagos, and at Badagray. When, however, order and
tranquillity are restored, a most important trade will undoubtedly
arise there. A generation ago, when palm oil was merely an article of
food, there was, we have said, no property in palm trees. Since,
however, a large foreign demand has arisen for this oil, the
plantations, as already they are called, begin to be cared for; and
lately the title to some of them has been disputed in our courts on
the Gold Coast: a contention which constitutes the first evidence we
have received of the value of land, not actually under their own
cultivation, being recognised by the natives. Thus the feeling of
property and the desire for accumulation are springing up out of the
palm oil trade; and they are everywhere the germs of nascent
civilisation. It is no light question, therefore, thus involved in an
increased demand for this article; it may produce African consequences
of incalculable importance to the whole human race. It is in France
hitherto that the great consumption of ground nut oil has occurred. It
is there used in the manufacture of soaps, which, though preferred
abroad, are little used in England--very much because of the Excise
laws. The specific gravity of the soap made out of ground nut oil is
higher than those laws permitted; in consequence we could neither make
it for our own use nor for foreign exportation; and thus France has
substantially the soap trade of the world. By the repeal of the duty,
England will be enabled to compete--in this, as in all other
trades--with France abroad."

The price, in Liverpool, for palm oil, in October, 1853, was L38 10s.
to L39 per ton.

We export annually nearly four million gallons of oil made from
linseed, hemp seed, and rape seed.

PALM OIL RETAINED FOR HOME CONSUMPTION
cwts.
1835 242,733
1836 234,357
1837 211,919
1838 272,991
1839 262,910
1840 314,881
1841 300,770
1842 353,672
1843 377,765
1844 363,335
1848 510,218
1849 493,331
1850 448,589
1851 493,598
1852 408,577

The quantity of the four principal vegetable oils annually imported
into Great Britain, is shown by the following figures:--

Palm oil. Coco-nut oil. Castor oil. Olive oil.
cwts. cwts. cwts. tuns.
1848 510,218 85,463 4,588 10,086
1849 493,331 64,452 9,681 16,964
1850 448,589 98,040 -- 20,738
1851 608,550 55,995 -- 11,503
1852 623,231 101,863 -- 8,898

THE OLIVE-TREE (_Olea Europea_).--There are several varieties of this
plant, two of which have been long distinguished--the wild and the
cultivated. The former is an evergreen shrub or low tree, with spiny
branches and round twigs; the latter is a taller tree, without
spines, and with four-angled twigs. The fruit is a drupe about the
size and color of a damson. Its fleshy pericarp yields by expression
olive oil, of which the finest comes from Provence and Florence.
Spanish or Castile soap is made by mixing olive oil and soda, while
soft soap is made by mixing the oil with potash.

Copyright (c) 2007. bestextbooks.com. All rights reserved.

E. C. Gardner - "The House that Jill Built"

Various - "Continental Monthly, Vol. I, No. V, May, 1862"

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Various - "The Aldine, Vol. 5, No. 1., January, 1872"

Audio slideshow: Robert Shaw discusses his production of Sylvia Plath's only play
Articles published by guardian.co.uk Books

Stephen King fan publishes Shining's Jack Torrance's novel
Three Women was first heard as a radio drama and then published as a poem. Robert Shaw explains his desire to stage the piece as it was intended

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A Stephen King fan has published an 80-page version of the book which novelist Jack Torrance obsessively writes during King's The Shining, where his descent into madness is revealed when his wife discovers that his work consists of just one phrase, endlessly repeated.

Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson in terrifying form in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film, is a frustrated writer who goes with his wife and son to spend the winter in the isolated Overlook Hotel in an attempt to get the novel he has always wanted to write started. But the hotel's grisly past and unquiet ghosts have their way with him, and his wife Wendy eventually finds that the manuscript he has been working on actually only contains the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", typed over and over again.

Now New York artist Phil Buehler, who describes himself as "a big fan of Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King", has self-published a book credited to Torrance, repeating the phrase throughout but formatting each page differently, using the words to create different shapes from zigzags to spirals.

"The idea has probably been marinating for years, because I loved the movie and the Stephen King book," said Buehler. "I'd just finished my own obsessive art project [and] it was an idea I had over the Christmas holidays."

He said he decided to stick to type and formatting that could have been created on a typewriter, with the first ten pages duplicating shots of Torrance's work from the film. "I thought 'if he continues to get crazier, what would those pages look like?'" he said. "I hit writer's block about 60 pages in, and I had to get to 80 - that went on for about a week." His fiancée, who had neither read the book nor seen the film, became a little concerned about his actions. "I finally showed her the movie, and she realised I wasn't really losing it," said Buehler.

He's included a spoof review from the blog OverThinkingIt.com on the book's back jacket, which compares it to "the best of Beckett" in its "lack of forward momentum", and considers the struggles of the author, "heroically pitting himself against the Sisyphusean sentence". "It's that metatextual struggle of Man vs. Typewriter that gives this book its spellbinding power," the review says. "Some will dismiss it as simplistic; that's like dismissing a Pollack canvas as mere splatters of paint."

So far, Buehler says that around 1,000 people have viewed the book, for sale on Blurb.com for $8.95 in paperback, or $22.95 in hardback, and he's sold "a few" copies, with sales now starting to pick up steam. "A few people have asked me to sign it - they're looking it as a piece of art rather than a funny thing to give to a Kubrick fan," he said. "If you're not a Kubrick or King fan, you might not even get it."

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