THE MOHUVA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16261, 30 October 1920, Page 10

THE MOHUVA.

WONDERFUL INDIAN TREE, Does the bassia latifolia grow anywhere in our Southern States? (says, ‘‘Munsey’s Magazine.”) In India they call it the mahwa, or mohuva and it is one of the most valuable economic assets of the Indian jungle. Its seeds are used ns food for men and cattle, and soap, candles, glycerine, and many other valuable products are made from this wonderful flowering free. Professor Dickson, of Manchester University, has been investigating its properties, and announces that as a result of his researches an almost unlimited supply of cheap motor spirit may be made available for commerce. . The flowers are eaten by the natives, either raw or cooked. They are rich in sugar, and a strong spirit can be distilled from them. The dried blossoms are immersed, in water for four days, and then fermented and distilled, the resulting liquor known as daru, having n smoky odour, and being said to resemble Irish whisky. Some years ago an Italian patented a process for getting rid of the essential oil that gave rise to this rather disagreeable odour, and a specimen of tho spirit thus purified was declared by the chemical examiner in Calcutta to be similar to good foreign brandy. A now industry seemed about to bo created, but the Calcutta distillers, fearing destructive competition, petitioned the Board of Trade, and a heavy tax was imposed on mohuva brandy. About the same time tho importation of mohuva spirit into France was forbidden, on the ground that it was being used as an adulterant of French cognac. It is estimated that ahoutninety gallons of ninety-five-per-cent alcohol can be obtained from a ton of dried mohuva flowers, and that a single tree will yield as much as throe hundred pounds of blossoms in one year.. In the state of Haiderabad alone there are sufficient trees for tile production of seven hundred thousand gallons of spirit per annum, and a report prepared for the Nizam-—the native- ruler of Ha'iderahad —shows that tho total cost of preparing the flowers and transporting them to the factory is seven dollars a ton. During the war tho flowers of tho mohuva were used for the production of acetone, one of the principal ingredients of cordite powder, the yield being about ten times as much as that obtained by distilling wood. This process was discovered by a British official in -India, who went t° England and so impressed the Munitions Board that a government chemist was sent out to manufacture ■ acetone at Nasik. According to the Bulletin of the Imperial institute/’ the most profitable way of utilising tho flowers, now that the demand for .acetone is over,, is a.a source of motor spirit for use in India. It is stated that running trials with samples of tho new tuel have already proved satisfactory. Hus may be interesting news to the motoring world, for any possibility of a cheap source of power for automobiles is worth consideration, in view of tho exceedingly serious problems that may develop from the threatened shortage of gasoline. 6