Valuable Oil From Weed Seed.--The possibility of making a valuable oil from the seed of pennycress, a European weed common in middle western and western States, has been suggested. This weed, also called fan-weed, French-weed, dish mustard, treacle-wort, and bastard cress, favors grasslands, gardens, and waste places, and is a serious nuisance in grain fields. It is a major constituent of grain screenings in some areas. Its seeds yield about a third of their weight in oil; the residual oil-free meal has a protein content higher than that of undecorticated cottonseed meal obtained by mechanical expression which contains about 28 per cent protein.
The potential value of pennycress oil naturally lies in its close resemblance to oils of rape and mustard, which are valued ingredients of certain lubricants, and are employed in machinery operating under heavv loads at high temperatures such as marine and Diesel engines. Rape oil is also used in producing factice, a rubber substitute. Domestic supplies of such oils are insufficient, and the U. S. imports as much as 15,000 tons of rapeseed oil annually. [;nder irrigation, as high as 1,500 lb. of seed per acre have been obtained,' and without irrigation, up to 500 lb. per acre.
Both rape and mustard oils are used in some food products, and it is probable that with proper refinement, pennycress oil is edible. The oil is semidrying and would be excellent as a machinery lubricant and for bearing surfaces subject to the flushing action of water. The meal has a flavor of combined garlic and mustard. Thus this research suggests that a common nuisance may become a practical raw material for the production of a valuable vegetable oil, a feed material, and perhaps a condiment. Moreover, it is possible that investigation may reveal other weed seeds that also yield useful oils. R. H. O.