OILS.
Kyet-hsoo, . . . BERM. Minak, . . . . MALAY. Olio, . . DAN., DDT. Roghun, . . . PERS.
Huile, PR Azeite, Oleo, . Poe.
Oel GER. Masslo, . . . Rus.
Elaion, Ladion, . GR. Aceite, Tel, HIND. Olja, Sw Olio, IT Yonnai, . . . TAM.
Langa, JAY Nuna, TEL Oleum, LAT Yagh, . . . . TURK.
Oils are found in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. Their value as articles of commerce, and their numerous uses in candle and soap making, wool-dressing, food, and medicine, as well as lubricating agents, are well known. Great Britain imports annually to the value of about £3,500,000, the palm and cocoanut oils being to the value of lfr millions sterling. The oils which form the chief exports from different parts of India to Britain, France, the Mauritius, etc., are cocoanut, gingelly, ground nut, mus tard, rape, sandal-wood, grass oil, and fish oil. The value of the exports of oil from all India was in 1874-75, . Rs. 32,22,852 1880-81, Rs. 35,35,166 1875-76, . 40,42,073 1881-82, . 35,40,439 1876-77, . 35,26,002 1882-83, . 28,33,609 Linseed and rape are consigned mainly to the United Kingdom, while France takes almost the entire quantity of til or gingelly. This branch of Indian commerce in 1852-53 was only of Rs. 9,60,390.
Oils are generally divided into two primary groups, fixed' and volatile,' the former class being again subdivided into drying, greasy, and solid oils. Above one hundred fixed oils are known in India and Burma ; 105 fixed vegetable oils, including drying, greasy, and solid oils ; 10 wood oils, 1 mineral oil, and 4 animal oils. Cocoanut, castor, ground nut, gingelly and its variety, with rape, mustard, and linseed oils, form considerable articles of export trade, the first three being exported in the shape of oil, the last two as oil seed, and gingelly both as an oil and oil-seed. The prices of these products vary considerably in different parts of British India ; and lamp, ramtil, kurunj, pinnacottay, illoopoo, piney or doopada, margosa, or neem, physic nut, bruma dundoo, safflower, and poppy are consumed to a large extent. Poppy seed is being exported in yearly increasing quantities, largely to France ; in 1882-83, 571,542 cwt., value Rs. 30,26,401.
Fixed oils are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Most of them are composed of two compounds, a liquid called olein and a solid called margarin, or another called stearin. According as the solid substances abound in oils, they are liquid or solid at the ordinary temperatures of the atmosphere. Fixed oil is found in the fat or adipose tissue of animals, and amongst plants, ? principally in their seeds. In some cases, as in
the olive (olea), it is yielded by the fruit. The following table shows the relative proportions of the three elements in 100 parts of each of the following oils: Carbo. Hydro. Oxy. Carbo. Hydro. Oxy.
Olive,7711 1316 913 Whale, . 7613 12'40 11'50 7710 1118 1082 Spermaeeti,7811 1012 Linseed, 1115 1212 Hog's lard, 7919 1114 915 Nut, . 7917 101 7912 Suet, . . 7819 1110 910 Castor, . 7417 1113 1418 Butter, . 6510 1710 16'80 Oils are extensively used for candle and soap making, for burning in lamps, for diminishing friction in machinery of all kinds, in wool-dressing, in the manufacture of paints and varnishes, as articles of food, for medicinal purposes, etc. The time of burning of equal quantities of the follow ing oils is found to be Oil of poppy, . Hours, 14 Oil of Camelina sativa, Hrs., 94 13 olives, . . . 9 rape, . . 11 hemp seed, . . 8 mustard, 117 tallow, . . 107 flax seed, 10 In the seeds of Southern Asia from which varieties of oil are extracted, the proportions of oil per cent. in weight are Almond kernels, . . 53 Linseed, 38 Ground nut, . . . 52 Cocoanut kernels, 36 Sesamum 51 Hemp seed, . . . 32 Poppy seeds, . . 45 Cotton seeds, . . . 24 Olive kernels,. 44 Sunflower seeds, . . 22 Cacao whole seeds, 44 Some families of plants especially abound in oil. Thus among the Cruciferm we have mustard, rape, and colza seed-oil, with other species culti vated in Europe, India, and Japan, several of which have been exported to Britain. Several of the family of Compositor secrete oil in quantities large enough to render it desirable to cultivate them fOr this purpose alone, as some species of carthamus, or bastard saffron, also the Guizotia oleifera, gingelly oil, known in commerce by the name of hutsyelloo oil. Most of the Cucurbitacem also, as the melon, gourd, cucumber, and their numerous varieties, cultivated especially in India, contain a large proportion of oil, which is expressed in the East Indies as it formerly was in Europe. The Rosacem also store up a large proportion of oil in the kernels of their fruit, as in the almond, which is particularly valued ; so also that of the apricot, the Briancon apricot, and other species of prunus. In the Himalaya, oil is expressed from the apricot kernel, and has been made of a fine quality. From among the Cupuliferm also, nut oil is obtained from the hazel ; beech-nut oil, from Fagus sylvatica ; and walnut oil, from Juglans regia, one of the Juglandeae.