Botany
Abkel is an epiphyte or pseudoepiphyte. Leaves crowded toward the ends of the branchlets, leathery, smooth, oblanceolate, averaging about 15 centimeters long and 4 centimeters wide, pointed at both ends. Flowers are fragrant, short-pedicelled, smooth, and borne in clusters on the stems. Calyx is thin and cupular. Petals are oblong. Fruit is yellow, ellipsoid, 3 to 3.5 centimeters long, and dehiscent at the apex. Seeds are shiny and black.
Distribution
- Endemic.
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Grows as an epiphyte or pseudoepiphyte on trees in mossy forests at altitudes of 900 to 2,400 meters in Bonton to the Sorsogon Provinces in Luzon, particularly in the wilderness surrounding the Mayon Volcano; and in Mindanao and Catanduanes.
Constituents
- The volatile oil of the fruit is reported to contain dihydroterpene and heptane, which is a cardiac glycoside.
- The essential oil if 8-10% of fruit weight, 40% myrcene, 38% a-pinene, n-heptane and n-nonane are minor components.
- The oil can be distilled into a very pure form of n-heptane.
Properties
- Fruit is known as petroleum nut, even the green, fresh fruit will burn brilliantly when ignited. The fresh fruit has an odor resembling that of petroleum.
- The oil from the nut contains considerable quantities of normal heptane, which has been found only once before in nature, occurring in the bigger pine of California's Pinus sabiniana. It also yields a dihydroterpene, C10H18.
- The oil is colorless with an orange-like odor and
burns with a strong, sooty flame.
- The oil is quite sticky, and in a thin layer rapidly becomes resinous. In an open dish, it burns strongly, with a sooty flame. It distills unchanged up to 165 degrees, then with decomposition yields a resin oil.
- The nut has a carbon rating of 54, much higher than Jatropha curcas which has 41.
Parts used and preparation
Fruit, oil, leaves.
Uses
Folkloric
- Curanderos use the petroleum nut as a universal medicine.
- Infusion of the fruit is used as a remedy for intestinal and stomach pains.
- The oleoresin is used as a cure for leprosy and other skin diseases; also, as a relief for muscular pains and skin diseases.
- Nut decoction used for colds.
- Crushed nuts, mixed with coconut oil, used as relief for mayalgia.
- Decoction of leaves, taken orally, used for cough.
- Sap used to treat tinea flava.
- Petroleum gas extracted from the fruit is used for stomachache and cicatrizant.
Others
Lighting: Used as torch nuts or candlenuts for illumination in the bush.
Dihydroterpene: (C10H18) is used in perfumes and medicines.
Heptane: A component of gasoline, and suggested as a possible component of paint and varnish.
Biofuel: Grown in the Kapangan and Kibungan towns of Benguet as a potential alternative source of fuel.
Additional info
• Plant was discovered as a hydrocarbon source just after 1900.
• Petroleum nut is at the top of a long list of potential oil seeds including Pongamia pinnata, Sterculia foetida, Terminalia catappa, Sindora supa, Canarium luzonicum, Calophyllum inophyllum, Jatropha curcas, Euphorbia philippensis.
• The flammable element in petroleum nut is volatile, quickly evaporating like acetone.
• The fruit contains 46% of gasoline type components (heptane, dihydroterpene, etc).
• The oil comes from the fruit, not the seed.
• Yield: (1) Planting gives an estimated yield of 45 tons of fruit or 2500 gallons of "gasoline" per acre per year. (2) A single fruit yields 0.1-3.3 ml, averaging about 1.1 ml; the bigger the fruit, the larger the seed, the greater the oil content. (3) Another reports a single tree yielding 15 kg green fruits, which yielded 80 cm3 of coil. The residue, ground and distilled, yielded 73 cm3 more. (4) Another report gave 68 g per kg fresh nuts, suggesting about 1 kg oil per tree yielding 15 kg. (5) Tree bears fruit in five years, one tree yields an average 250 to 300 kg. !5 kg of fresh fruit yields 1 liter of high flammable oil.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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