Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/479

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N.O. MORINGACEÆ.
399


and 60 per cent, of kernels. The oil gave 60 per cent, of liquid oil and 40 per cent, of white solid fat. Seeds from Northern Nigeria contained 33.4 per cent, of oil. Meggitt (1907) obtained 25.65 per cent, of oil in the sweet variety and 22-62 per cent, in the bitter variety.

Lewkowitsch expressed the seed in two stages and obtained a cold pressed and a hot pressed oil. The examination of these two oils gave the following numbers : Specific gravity at 40°, 0.9018, 0.8984 ; acid value, 49.71, 100.5 ; saponification value, 179.5, 178.7 ; unsaponifiable matter, 1.67, 2.69 per cent. ; iodine value, 100.3, 88 ; titer test of fatty acids, 32°, 38.2°.

Ben oil is said to consist of the glycerides of oleic, palmitic and stearic acids and of a solid acid of high melting point, probably arachidic acid. (Agricultural Ledger for 1911-12 No. 5 p. 136).

337. M. Concanensis, Nimmo. h.f.b.i., ii. 45.

This may possibly be the red-flowered species, alluded to by Roxburgh (II 308), as occurring near Maldah (Fl. Br. Ind.).

Vern. : — Mooah (Sind.) ; Sainjnah (Raj. ; Con.).

Habitat : — Rajputana, on dry hills, Sindh and the Concan.

A tree, glabrous except the young parts and the inflorescence. Bark thick, soft, corky. Wood white, soft, Pores large, often sub-divided, enclosed in white rings, scanty. Medullary rays fine, numerous, the distance between them less than the diameter of the pores (Gamble;. Leaves generally bipinnate, very rarely tripinnate, reaching 1½ ft. long. Primary pairs 5-6, distant, 4-8in. long, the primary rhachis thickened at the base as well as the secondary articulation, with a gland at each articulation. Leaflets 4-6 pair, with an odd one, broadly elliptic or sub-orbicular, obtuse at both ends, often refuse at the apex, of variable size, 5/6-1⅓ by ½-1 in., pale beneath, articulated, with a slender petiole 1/12-⅓ in. long ; nerves 4-8 pair, slender, distinct. Flowers in lax divaricate, thinly pubescent panicles, reaching 1½ ft. long, pedicels ⅓-½ in. long, articulated with the flower ; bracts minute, caducous. Flowering time. October to December. Calyx thinly tomentose, about ⅓-½ in. long ; segments white, oblong, reflexed. Petals yellow, veined with red, oblong, or oblong-spathulate, the lower about 5/8 in. long. Stamens 5-fertile and 4-5 stammodes ; filaments hairy at base. Capsule straight, acutely triquetrous, slightly constricted between the seeds 1-1½ ft. long ; valves hard, ½-⅔ in. broad.