The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1904-07-16
Vegetable Butter

0AA 1AAAANAAN
posvdly from the cream obtained from
COWS or goats milk, besides having a
dangerous competitor in oleomargar-
inc is menaced anew by a substitute no
le,s formidable 10 character; this is an
exotic product-the butter, 10 fact. ex-
tract, d from the meat of The cocasnul.
This must not be %coufouoded with
cacao butter, which, though sounding
very familiar to cacao butter, Is never
the less prepared from an entirely diff
ferent nut and used for quite other
purposes.
The cocoanut tree, that most pro-
yidential growth of the tropics, pro-
duoes without cultivation, a nut With
which we are all familiar. Contained
within its ba~ir-eovered and ovoid
she'll is a most delicious milk, a cool
ing draft which quenehes the thirst of
the wayworn aud faded traveller and
refreshes the tired laborer. Science
has made the important discovery, too,
that its meet, Of which therei is always
a generous supply, when dried and
pressed furnishes a wbitlsh substance
which sOlidiies ct 20 deg. c., but
above this temperature runs into a
yellow and translucid oil.
A German chemist OF prominence,
DR.. Heuner, proposes to buy up all the
cocoanut oils and to transform them
into a succulent, savory, inodorous
froduc: which is soluble in ether and
possesses no acid reaction, to this pro-
duct he his intention OF Civ.
ing the name vegetable butter.n
Of all the vegetable oils, that ex
tracted from the ocean is the one of
which the composition approaches
more nearly to the butter made from
milk.
Like true butter, 1t contains Z per
cent Of soluble acids, which are not
found in such considerable proportion
in any other fat. These are butyric
acid, caprIc or decylic acid, which
give to our table butter its pleasant
aroma and a very pronounced taste of
the hazelnut'
Moreover, cscao batter contains
from % to 80 times less water than
true butter. 1t will keep fifteen or
twenty days without showing any acid
reaction, and from this fact seems 10
offer a real superiority over animal
butter for use in the preparations of
dry pastry, biscuits, and such like.
From the standpoint Ut hygiene it
may be we'll TO remember that butter
made from milk occupies the first rank
among substances which are most fav-
orable TO the culture of microbes and
of the worst ferments, while cacao but
ter, on the contrary, seems to be an
antiSeptic medium very improperly
qualified for the dissemination and
propagation of bacteria. In this re-
spect, comparative experiments made
Il 9on both Of these substances have
given result 5 which do not admit of
doubt as to which is the better
antiseptic.
Finally, experiments upon the arti-
fetal digestion Of this form Of butter,
carried out in the Central Hospital of
Vienna, have gwen equally gratifying
results and been confirmed later by
other experiments in the differen
hospitals of Switzerland.
While it has not yet been satlsfac-
demonstrated that oan oil
can furnish a butter capable of sup
planting the delicious product of the
diaries of Isiguy and Brittany, it is,
however, significant that the various
boards of health have not raised their
veto against the human consumption
of this new product; which. let us
hope, will not lerd itself, like oleo-
margarine, to the fraudulent adutera-
tions which defy the keen understand
ing Of the chemist. Translated from
Science, Arts, Nature.
CROITp