PALM OIL.

83

called catechu in the shops. It is largely procured in Mysore, about Sirah, inthe following manner:—« Areca nuts are taken as thoy come from the tree,and boiled for some hours in an iron vessel. They are then taken out, and theremaining water is inspissated by continued boiling. This process furnishesKassu, or most astringent terra japonica, which is black, and mixed with paddyhusks and other impurities. After the nuts are dried, they are put into a freshquantity of water, boiled again, and this water being inspissated, like the for-mer, yields the best or dearest kind of catechu, called Court/. It is a yellowishbrown, has an earthy fracture, and is free from the admixture of foreign bodies,(Dr. Heyne, Tracts, Historical and Statistical, on India).

Properties of Palm Catechu. —None of the commercial extracts, calledcatechu, are distinguished by any name referring to the catechu palm ; and thedescription hitherto given of palm catechu is too slight and vague to enable usto recognise it with certainty. 1

OTHER MEDICINAIi PRODUCTS OP PALMACEiB.

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Fig. 138.

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1. Palm Oil (Oleum Palma) is imported from the western coast of Africa, principally fromGuinea, vvhere it is procured by expression fromthe fruit of the Elais guineensis (fig, 138). It hasa solid consistence, a rieh orange-yellow colour, asweetish taste, and an agreeable odour, somewhatsimilar to that of the rhizome of the Florentine or-ris. By exposure to light it is bleached. It con-sists of Oleine, Margarine, and about tvvo-thirds ofits weight of Palmitine. The last inentioned sub-stanee is a white solid fal, composed of palmitieaeid (C 35 H 33 O 4 ) and glycerine. The Africansuse palm oil as butter. It is emollient and demul-cent, like the other fixed oils, but is rarely employedin medicine. By the public it is occasionally em-ployed by way of frietion in bruises, sprains, &c.It is a constituent of the common black bougie.Its ordinary use in this country is in the manufac-ture of yellow soap. It readily becomes raneid. Itmay be bleached by the solar rays, by sulphurieaeid, or by chlorine.

2. The terra Draoon's Blood (Sanguis Draconis)is applied in commerce to certain resinous sub-stanecs which are mostly obtained from some palmsof the genus Calamus. But the term is also appliedto a produet of the Draca.ua Draco [vide Liliace*],as also to a substance obtained from the PterocarpusDraco [vide Leqdminos*]. Lieut. Wellstoad says

spontaneously from the stem of a tree, (Athenäum, May 16, 1835 ; also, Journ. of Royal Geo-graphical Society). Dragon's blood is now never used in medicine in this country. The fol-lowing are the kinds of it whieh I have inet with :

a. Dragon's blood in the reed ; Dragon's blood in sticis; Sanguis Draconis in baculis. —This oecurs in dark reddish brown sticks, of from twelve to eighteen inches long, and from aquarter to half an inch in diameter, enveloped with the leaf of the Talipat palm (Corypha um.braculifera), and bound round with slender slips of cane (probably the stem of Calamus pe.irceus). It is supposed to be obtained from a species of Calamus, perhaps C. Draco.

ß. Dragon's blood in oval masses; Dragon's blood in drops; Sanguis Draconis in lachry.mis, Martius.__This oecurs in reddish brown lumps of the size and shape of an olive, enve-loped with the leaf of Corypha umbraculifera or Corypha Licuala, which thus eonnects themtogether in a row, like the beads of a necklaee. This kind is rare in English commerce. Itis obtained, aeeording to Rumphius, by rubbing or shaking the fruit of Calamus Draco in abag. A resinous exudation is by this means separated, and is afterwards softened by heat,and made up in these masses.

Elais guineensis.i that in Socotra, Dragon's blood exudes

i For an aecount of the varieties, properties, composition, effects, and use of catechu, vide Acacia. Cate-chu, Bcutiafrondosa, and Jfauclca öambir.