Kurung- or Poondi-oil.—The seeds of Ponguenia glabra, a tree widely diffused in S. India, Pegu, Malacca, the Indian Archipelago, S. China, Australia, and Fiji, are expressed for the sake of their oil in several of these countries. The oil is thick, reddish-brown in colour, and has a tendency to deposit stearine in cold weather. It is used alone or combined for burning in lamps, and is much esteemed medicinally.
Lallemantia is a well-known plant of Syria and Persia, where it is extensively cultivated ; it attains a height of 4-21 ft., and single plants have afforded as many as 2500 seeds, which yield a very pure culinary oil. The plant has been acclimatized at Cherson, S. Russia, for industrial purposes.
so-called "laurel-oil " or "bay-oil" is obtained from the fruits of the bay laurel (Laurus nobilis), chiefly in Holland, Spain, Daly, and Switzerland. The fruits are peeled, ground to paste, boiled, and expressed ; the oil concretes on the surface of the expressed mass when cold ; it is collected, and melted in a water-bath to remove the moisture. When the fruits have been kept for some time, they are better ground and hot-pressed. The oil is used in veterinary medicine, and is found to repel flies from meat and living animals. The plaut also affords a volatile oil (see p. 1422).
(FR., Hude de .Lin ; GER., Lein61).—The flax-plant, so well known as yielding "a textile fibre (see Fibrous Substances—Linum usitatissimum, p. 964), affords a valuable oil-seed. The separation of the seed from the stems of the plant has been described on p. 967. The supplies of linseed for crushing are furnished chiefly by Russia and India. It is found that, as a general rule, the colder the olimate in which the seed is grown, the greater are the drying properties of the oil, but the worse is its colour. Iu India, preference is given to white seed, as yielding 2 per cent. more oil, affording it more freely, and giving a softer and sweeter cake, than the red seed ; the latter, moreover, always comes to market largely mixed with rape-seed, which is very difficult of separation, and greatly depreciates the market value. Oil from unripe seed is watery. The seed should always be kept for 3-4 months in a dry place, as the oil furnished after this lapse of time is much more abundant than when the expression takes place immediately after the harvest. The
seed is crushed and pressed in the manner described in a separate section (see p. 1451). The best and finest oil is that which is " cold-drawn ; " it is paler, less odorous, and less flavoured, but the yield is only 21-22 per cent. of the seed. By the aid of a temperature not exceeding 93e (200° F.), and powerful and long-continued pressure, as much as 28 per cent. of very good oil can be obtained. The cake forms a valuable cattle-food. The Italian variety is said to have a much more highly oleaginous seed than the Russian.
Some 70,000 metric quintals (of 2 cwt.) of this oil are produced annually in France, chiefly in the departments of Pas-de-Calais, Somme, Nord, Maine et Loire, Veudee, Haute-Marne, Haute Garonne, and Lot-et-Garonne ; 175,772 acres under flax in 1877 produced about 1 million bush. Belgium still continues to import linseed from Russia and India. Holland had 44,114 acres under flax in 1878, and produced 446,520 bush. of linseed. The German Empire exported 586,600 centners (of 1101 lb.) of linseed- and palm-oils in 1879; the port of Memel shipped 236,460 cwt. of linseed, value 115,000/., in 1879. Sweden, in 1878, had 33,655 acres under flax and hemp, and pro duced 197,091 cwt. of seed. Russia has a larger trade in linseed than any other country, the exports in 1878 having been 2,684,032 chetverts (of 5f bush.); Archangel shipped 67,885 quarters in 1877, and 25,761 in 1878; of the 36,801 chetverts in the latter year, 19,897 went to Great Britain, and 16,904 to Holland. Riga exported 225,810 quarters of crushing-linseed in 1877, and 90,330 in 1878; in 1879, Revel shipped 43,169 chetverts to Great Britain ; Nicolaieff, 91,818 quarters, Taganrog and Rostov, 644,204 quarters, Mariopol, 29,770; Yeisk, 83,896, Genitchesk, 214. In 1872 (the date of the latest Return), Russia had 2,247,700 acres under flax, which yielded 17,292,000 bush. of linseed. The Roumanian Danube ports shipped 4429 quarters of linseed in 1879. Kastamuni, in Asia Minor, exported 160,000 ohes (of lb.) of linseed, value 15001., In 1879. The total Indian exports of linseed were 7,198,918 cwt. in 1878, but only 3,503,795 cwt. in 1879. Algiers, in 1879, produced 734,795 kilo. of Riga linseed, and 1,384,969 kilo. of Italian. New York shipped 14,187 gal. of linseed-oil in 1879, and Philadelphia, 503 gal.