The fatty oil from its seeds very closely resembles Chaulmoogra oil, both in physical characters and in chemical composition. The acids obtained from the oil consist chiefly of Chaulmoogric acid and a lower homologue of the same series. This new acid has the formula: C 10 -H 2 2 and is designated hydnocarpic acid.
Hydnocarpic acid crystallises from alcohol in glistening leaflets, melts at 60° and has [c<]d+68° in chloroform solution. Like Chaulmoogric acid, it contains only one ethylenic linking, and, therefore, in consideration of its formula, C 10 -H 23 O 2 (C w H 2?l — 40 2 ) must possess an alicyclic grouping.
(Power and Barrowcliff, Transactions, Ch. S. Vol. LXXXVII, p. 884 et seq.
110. Taraktogenos Kurzii, King.
Syn. : — Hydnocarpus heterophillus, Kurz.
Vernacular : — Kalanzo. (Barm.) (Gamble). Kalawaso (Burm.) (Brandis).
Habitat : — Estern and Southern slopes of the Pegu Yoma, very frequent in Martaban; forests of Sylhet; Chittagong; Minbu district, Upper Burma.
An evergreen tree 40-50 ft. Shoots, young leaves and inflorescence tawny, pubescent. Leaves thinly coriaceous, entire, 7-10 in., lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate. Secondary nerves very prominent beneath, tertiary, numerous, transverse and parallel. Sepals 4. Petals 8, broadly ovate, ciliate, each with a flat, fleshy pubescent gland at the base. Stamens 24, free, filaments hairy. Fruit size of an orange, tawny, velvety. Seeds numerous, embedded in a pulp.
Use : — This is the tree which yields the Chaulmoogra seeds and oils of commerce, and not gynocardia odorata, R. Br.
The seeds of Taraktogenos kurzii (King) and not of Gyhocardia odorata yield the oil. The seeds contain a hydrolytic enzyme and also an unstable cyanogen compound, which reacts with the enzyme, when the seeds are crushed, giving rise to hydrogen cyanide. On expression, the seeds yielded 30.9 p.c. of a fatty oil, which had the following constants : m. pt., 22°-23° C ; sp. gr., 0.951 at 25° and 0.940 at 45° C ; [ap° D =+52° ; acid value, 23*9 ; saponification value, 213 ; iodine value, 103*2. On hydrolysis, the fatty oil yielded glycerol, a very small amount of phytosterol, C 25 H 43 'OH (m. pt. 132 C C.) and a mixture of fatty acids (m. pt. 44°-45°) [a]D=+52*6° in chloroform; acid value, 215 ; iodine value, 103*2), which consisted chiefly of several homologous acids belonging to a series C°H 2 ° 4 2 containing a closed ring and one ethylenic linking, no member of which has hitherto been insolated from a fatty oil. The highest of these homologues present, which was isolated in a pure con-
