COCOANUT OIL.
Narel ka tel, . HIND. Kalambir, . . MALAY.
Minak nur, . . MALAY. Tengai yenne, . . TAM. Minak kalapa, . „ Tenkaia nuna, . . TEL.
The kernel, having been removed from the shell and dried, is subjected to pressure in a mill, and the oil is expressed ; but when prepared in small quantities, the kernel is boiled in water for a short period ; it is then pounded in a mortar, taken out and pressed. The milk, as it is called, which exudes, is then boiled over a slow fire, when the oil floats to the top, and, being skimmed off, is afterwards boiled by itself. Two quarts of oil may be procured from fourteen or fifteen cocoa nuts. When fresh, the oil has an excellent flavour. It is used as an unguent on the bodies of the natives after bathing, and as an oil for the hair ; it is employed as a lamp oil, and is manufactured into soap, and it is said to have all the virtues of cod-liver oil. The purest oil is obtained by grating the kernel, and depositing it in sorne hollow vessel, to expose it to the heat of the sun during the day, and the oil drains away through hollow spaces left for the purpose. The Malabar method of making the oil is by dividing. the kernels into two equal parts, which are ranged on shelves made of laths of the betel-nut palm or split bamboo, spaces of half an inch wide being left between each lath. Under these a charcoal fire is lit, and kept up for two or three days, in order to dry them, after which they are exposed to the sun on mats, and when thoroughly dried are subjected to pressure in an oil-press. The remains of the cocoanut, from which the oil has been extracted (Posknakkull, HIND. ; Tenga poonak, TAm.; Tenga pindee, TEL. ; Poonnak, StNG11.), affords an excel lent material for feeding pigs, poultry, etc. The best oil exported is from Cochin, and the neig,h bouring ports on the Malabar coast. It usually
retches 20s. per ton more than the Ceylon or Coromandel coast article. In Europe it is used for the candle and soap manufacture, for lubricat ing machinery, etc. En India, for making soap, for cookery, lamps, and as medicine. This oil forms the foundation of Price's patent candles. It becomes solid at about 70° Fehr. It is one of the fixed or fatty oils, and consists of solid and fluid constituents, the latter, or oleine, being separated by pressure from the solid parts, called stearine or cocein, used ia the manufacture of the stearic candles. It is also much used by potuatum manufacturets. In Borneo, the only oil used by the women in the dressing of their hair is that freshly expressed from the cocoanut ; and this is perfumed by allowing the flowers of various plants to retnain. in it. The native oil-mill is similar in shape to the mortar and pe,stle of the druggist, the latter being worked by a shaft, to the end of which a pair of bullocks 1..e, attached. The cattle travel in a circle of about 18 feet diameter, and make three coniplete revolutions in a minute. Ilalf a hundredweight of the dried kernel is a charge for a full-sized checkoe (mortar), and a pair of stout, well-fed bullocks will get through four such charges in a day; so that twenty mills are required to get through two tons in the twenty-four hours. The man who drives has usually a boy to assist him in taking the oil, which is got out of the mortar by dipping a piece of rag into the fluid and squeezing it into an earthen vessel. The cost of the native oil-tnill, with serviceable bullocks, is rather under than over Rs. 200.-31. E. Jur. Rep. ; Col. Rev., Sept. 1861 ; Low's Sarawak, p. 145.