CASTOR-OIL.
Zeit ul khurws, . ARAB. Linga jarak, . . . Jay. Ky et taut sill, . Bum!. Miniak jarak, . MALAY.
Pi-ma CHIN. Rogban bed-anjir, PERS.
Huila du Ricin, FR. Ricinsoel, . . . . SP.
Rizinus ohl, . GER. Chittamanak yennai, TAM.
Arrandi-ka-tel, HIND. Chitta amudam, . TEL.
Olio di Ricino, IT.
Castor-oil is obtained by expression from the seeds of the Ricinus communis or Palma Christi, which grows in all the warmer countries of the world. It is often described as cold-drawn castor-oil,' which is understood to express that the oil has been obtained without the aid of heat ; and hot-drawn castor-oil, when the seed is sub jected to slight dry heat, and then pressed ; but it may be doubted if any of the castor-oils of coin merce are ever expressed from the seeds without prior dry, or subsequent water, heating. There are, however, two varieties of the castor-oil plant grown in India, the large and the small, and tho mode of obtaining their respective oils may per haps vary in different districts. One mode of obtaining the oil is to separate the seeds from the husks by children throwing them against a wall, then to bruise them by tying them up and beating them in a grass mat. In this state they are put into a boiler and boiled until all the oil is separated, which floats at the top, and the refuse sinks to the bottom ; it is then skimmed off, and put away for use. The purest oil is said to bo obtained by crushing the seeds in horse-hair bags by the action of heavy iron beaters ; as the oil oozes out, it is caught in troughs, and conveyed to receivers, whence it is bottled for use. Castor-oil is used
medicinally, also for lamps in the East Indies ; and the Chinese are said to have some mode of depriv ing it of its medicinal properties, so as to render it suitable for culinary purposes. The plant is very extensively propagated by the Karens, to obtain the seeds to mix with their dyes, and fix their colours. The oil obtained from the large seeded variety is sometimes drawn cold, and its straw-coloured specimens are scarcely distinguish able in quality from the oil of the small-seeded variety. It is, however, more usually extracted by beat, and forms the common lamp-oil of the bazar. The roasting process gives it a deeper red colour and an empyreumatic odour. The price of this oil varies in different parts of the country from Rs. 1.10.0 to Rs. 3.13.6 per maund of 25 lbs. As with other coloured substances, filtering and light soon decolorize the coloured castor oil. The best filtering material is animal charcoal, and the sun's rays finally remove all shade of colour.
Castor-oil seeds, Pi-ma-tsz, CRINESE, crushed, are applied externally in Chinese medicine in a great multitude of diseases.—Rohde, MSS.; Cal. Cat. Ex. 1862.