Myristica moschata, Nutmeg butter—Japhul ka tel, HIND. ; Jadipootri tylurn, TAM. ; JaikkaTTA noona, TEL. It is obtained by expression from the nut meg; it has an aromatic smell from the volatile oil it contains.
Neat's-foot oil is used as a softener of leather, etc.
Nigella sativa, Fennel-flower oil—Kulonjee, Sisk danah, HIND. ; Coruna seeragum, TAM. ; Nails gillikarra, TEL. The black aromatic seeds of the Nigella sritiva yield by expression a dark-coloured fragrant oil.
Olca (Heins, or Pootroojie oil, wild olive, obtained by expression from a handsome tree growing plentifully in Camara and Mysore.
Papaver somnifereum, Poppy oil—Khush-khush ka tel, Hum. ; Casa-casa Deena, TEL. ; Casa-casa yennai, Tam. The poppy is largely cultivated throughout Malwa and the opium districts, where the drying oil obtained from the seed is more extensively used than any other, both in lamps and as food. By exposure to the rays of the sun hi shallow vessels, this oil is rendered perfectly colourless. It is much prized by European artists.
Polanisia viscosa, viscid Cleome oil—Nahi-cadaghoo, 15 TAM. This warm and pungent little seed, when subjected to very powerful pressure, yields a mode rate percentage of a light olive-green oil, which promises to be useful for purposes requiring a very liquid oil.
Poonga or Kurung oil, or Pongamia glabra — Kurunj ka tel, HIND. ; Kanoogoo noona, TEL. ; Poonga yennai, TAM. This oil, which in some parts of the Indies is used to a large extent in adulterating lamp-oil, is expressed from the seeds of a tree common in most parts of the Madras Presidency, where it is chiefly used as a lamp-oil by the poorer classes.
Ricinus communis, Castor-oil ; small-seeded variety— Bank erundi ka tel, HIND. ; Sitt-amanaku yennai, TAM. ; Chitt-amindialoo noona, TEL. Two varieties of the Ricinus communis, one being small and the other large seeded, are produced all over India. The small-seeded variety yields the better product, and is employed in preparing the oil exported for medicinal purposes. The fresh seeds, after having been sifted and cleaned from dust, stones, and all extraneous matters, and slightly crushed between two rollers, freed by hand from husks and coloured grains, are enclosed in clean gunny. They then receive a slight pressure in an oblong mould, which gives a uniform shape and density to the packets of seed. The 'bricks,' as they are technically called,
are then placed alternately with plates of sheet iron, in the ordinary screw or hydraulic press. The oil thus procured is received in clean tin pans, and water in the proportion of a pint to a gallon of oil being added, the whole is boiled until the water has evaporated ; the mucilage will be found to have subsided and encrusted the bottom of the pan, whilst the albumen, solidified by the heat, forms a white layer between the oil and the water. Great care must be taken in removing the pan from the fire the instant the whole of the water has evapor ated (which may be known by the bubbles having ceased), for if allowed to remain longer, the oil, which has hitherto been of the temperature of boil ing water, or 212°, suddenly rises to that of oil, or nearly 600°, thereby heightening the colour and communicating an empyreumatic taste and odour. The oil is then filtered through blanket, flannel, or American drill, and put into cans for exportation. It is usually of a light straw-colour, sometimes approaching to a greenish tinge. The clean seeds yield from 47 to 50 per cent. of oil, worth in Eng land from 4d. to 5d. per lb. This oil is chiefly used as a mild purgative. Soap of good quality may be made of it, but the cost, and disagreeable smell which it communicates, preclude its general use. The qualities of clearness and limpidity do not arise from any superiority of the seed, or care in extraction, but from repeated decolorization with animal charcoal, which, in the opinion of many eminent medical men, considerably detracts from its strength and efficacy. When manufactured in the ordinary native mill, this oil is sometimes used by the richer classes in lamps. The sun's rays also are used for decolorizing.
Castor-oil, extracted hot, differs from the preceding only in the mode of preparation. The seeds are boiled for two hours in water, dried for three days in the sun, freed from the shells, pounded, and then boiled in fresh water, until the whole of the oil has risen to the surface. This is the sort gene rally used in medicine by native practitioners ; it is straw-coloured, and free from any unpleasant taste or smell.