According to the latest reports of the American consul at Marseilles, the conversion of cocoanut oil into dietetic compounds was undertaken in that city in 1900, by Messrs. Rocca, Tassy and de Roux, who in that year turned out an average of 25 tons per month. During the year just closed (1902) their average monthly output exceeded 6,000 tons and, in addition to this, four or five other large factories were all working together to meet the world’s demand for “vegetaline,” “cocoaline,” or other products with suggestive names, belonging to this infant industry.
These articles are sold at gross price of 18 to 20 cents per kilo to thrifty Hollandish and Danish merchants, who, at the added cost of a cent or two, repack them in tins branded “Dairy Butter” and, as such, ship them to all parts of the civilized world. It was necessary to disguise the earlier products by subjecting them to trituration with milk or cream; but so perfect is the present emulsion that the plain and unadulterated fats now find as ready a market as butter. These “butters” have so far found their readiest sale in the Tropics.
The significance of these great discoveries to the cocoanut planter can not be overestimated, for to none of these purely vegetable fats do the prejudices attach that so long and seriously have handicapped those derived from animal margarin or margarin in combination with stearic acid, while the low fusion point of pure dairy butters necessarily prohibits their use in the Tropics, outside of points equipped with refrigerating plants. The field, therefore, is practically without competition, and the question will no longer be that of finding a market, but of procuring the millions of tons of copra or oil that this one industry will annually absorb in the immediate future.
Cocoanut oil was once used extensively in the manufacture of fine candles, and is still occasionally in demand for this purpose in the Philippines, in combination with the vegetable tallow of a species of Stillingia. It is largely consumed in lamps, made of a tumbler or drinking glass half filled with water, on top of which float a few spoonfuls of oil, into which the wick is plunged. In remote barrios it is still in general use as a street illuminant, and so perfect is its combustion that under a constant flicker it emits little or no smoke.
When freshly expressed, the oil is an exceptionally good cooking fat, and enters largely into the dietary of our own people. The medicinal uses of the oil are various, and in the past it has been strongly advocated for the cure of eczema, burns, as a vermifuge, and even as a substitute for cod-liver oil in phthisis. Its medicinal virtues are now generally discredited, except as a restorative agent in the loss of hair resulting from debilitating fevers. Its value in this direction may be surmised from the splendid heads of hair possessed by the Filipino women, who generally use the oil as a hair dressing.
Cocoanut oil is derived from the fleshy albumen or meat of the ripe fruit, either fresh or dried. The thoroughly dried meat is variously known as copra, coprax, and copraz. The exportation of copra is detrimental to the best interests of the planter, tending to enrich the manufacturer and impoverish the grower. The practice, however, is so firmly established that the writer can only record a probably futile protest against its continuance.
The causes which for a long time will favor the exportation of copra instead of oil in this Archipelago may be briefly stated as follows:
(1) An oil-milling plant, constructed with due regard to economy of labor and the production of the best quality of oil, would involve an outlay of capital of $2,500, gold, and upward, according to capacity. The production of copra requires the labor of the planter’s hands only.
(2) The oil packages must be well-made barrels, casks, or metallic receptacles. The initial cost of the packages is consequently great, their return from distant ports impracticable, and their sale value in the market of delivery is not sufficient to offset the capital locked up in an unproductive form. On the other hand, copra may be sold or shipped in boxes, bags, sacks, and bales, or it may even be stored in bulk in the ship’s hold.
(3) When land transportation has to be considered, the lack of good roads still further impedes the oil maker. He can not change the size and weight of his packages from day to day to meet the varying passability of the trail. On the other hand, packages of copra may be adjusted to meet all emergencies, and the planter can thus take advantage of the market conditions which may be denied to the oil maker.