Fatty Oils and Fats

Commerce.

In the table the principal countries of origin of the sources (seeds, etc.) of the fats are given. In a great many cases the oils are not extracted in their country of origin ; the raw materials are shipped to European countries and America; thus Marseilles becomes the centre of the coconut oil trade, Liverpool and Hull centres of oil-seed expression, etc. Recent development of industry in tropical countries, together with the war-time need for economy in freightage, has led, however, to increased production of oils and fats in the native countries ; thus we find exports of copra from the Philippines decreasing, while the exports of oil increase. Statistics for the production of fats are very scanty estimations based on available import and ex port returns take no account of the consumption in the countries of origin, which may be considerable, e.g., coco-nut oil in the Philippines, palm oil in W. Africa. For the available data, the reader is referred to the trade returns (U.K., U.S.A., etc.) and to the publications of the International Institute of Agriculture, Rome—Oleaginous Products and Vegetable Oils and the Year Book of Agricultural Statistics.

Production.—The production of oils is liable to considerable fluctuation, but the following estimates may be taken as repre sentative. On the whole the production and consumption of oils and fats has steadily augmented since the War, the increase being especially marked in the case of soya-bean, coco-nut, palm kernel and groundnut (peanut) oils.

*From "Oleaginous Products and Vegetable Oils." 'From "Review of the Oilseed and Oil Markets for 1927," issued by Frank Fehr & Co.

tFrom Dr. Reginald Child, director, Ceylon Coco-nut Research Scheme.

The

waxes consist chiefly of the fatty acid esters of the higher monohydric alcohols, with which are frequently associated free alcohols as also free fatty acids. Important among the acids found are palmitic acid, occurring in beeswax and spermaceti (q.v.), cerotic acid, in beeswax, wool-wax and other

waxes, and melissic acid, of beeswax.

The hydroxylated lanopalmic, and lano ceric,C291157(OH)2COOH, acids also occur in wool-wax. The alcohols cetyl alcohol, ("ethal" of the older writers) of spermaceti, and myricyl (melissyl) alcohol, of beeswax and carnailba wax are the most important, while the cyclic sterols, cholesterol and isocholesterol, occur in considerable amounts in wool-wax.

Spermaceti consists practically of cetyl palmitate, Chinese wax of ceryl palmitate. The other waxes, especially wool-wax, are of more complex composition.

The waxes can be simply classified, similarly to the fats, as follows :— The table enumerates the most important waxes (see also sep arate articles, SPERMACETI, etc.).

The occurrence and physiological importance of the waxes have been discussed above. In their physical properties the natural waxes resemble the fats. They behave similarly towards solvents. and in the liquid condition leave a grease-spot on paper.

An important property is easy formation of emulsions with water, of which large quantities can be incorporated (lanolin [q.v.]).

Only a few vegetable waxes are found in sufficiently large quantities to be of commercial importance ; so far carnailba and sugar-cane waxes are practically the only plant waxes of im portance in the world's markets. The most important animal wax is beeswax (q.v.), collected in almost all parts of the world. An exceptional position is occupied by wool-wax, the main con stituent of the natural wool fat that covers the hair of sheep, which is obtained as a by-product in scouring raw wool. Wool-fat is purified on a large scale and brought into commerce, under the name lanolin, as an ointment, which is valued for its property of easy assimilation by the skin.