Tung nut

Gastrointestinal Direct stomach irritation -nausea, vomiting and diarrhea California buckthorn (sacred bark), tung nut, horse chestnut, pokeweed Emodin and esculine (toxins) oil from seeds, nuts some medical uses Children are most often affected... 

The sohds remaining after fat removal are generally rich in protein and find a ready market in animal feeds. Some oilseed solids, especially soybean, go into human foods as flours, concentrates, textured particles, or protein isolates. Some oilseed sohds contain toxins or allergens that make them unfit for animal feeds tung nut and castor bean, for example. Unless treated, these solid residues go into fertilizers. Various processes have been developed to remove or chemically destroy undesirable compounds (10). One process developed at Texas A M University for UNIDO (11, 12) uses a chemical additive and extrusion to detoxify and deallergenate castor meal making it suitable for animal feed. 

Tung nut, tung tree candle nut Aleurites spp 1,3 Euphorbiaceae... 

Synonyms Chinawood oil Chinese tung oil Tung nut oil Wood oil... 

The seeds of Aleurites fordii, the tung nut (Euphorbiaceae), formerly cultivated in the south central United States, and presently cultivated in Argentina and China produce toxic proteins. There are many references to human poisoning by this plant, as the seed is large and, to many, appears edible. Press cake from the manufacture of tung oil also is toxic and difficult to detoxify. Cocarcinogenic diterpenes have been recently reported from this plant and are undoubtedly responsible for part of the toxic activity (Beutler et al., 1989). Plants of Jatropha curcas and J. mul-tifida, also from the Euphorbiaceae, contain toxic proteins, sometimes called curcin. Both species are planted widely in the tropics. 

Some of these unusual fatty acids, such as those of seed oils of castor bean, rape seed, coconut and palm kernel or tung nut have been exploited as raw materials for the chemical industry for some considerable time. They represent a stable and variable, albeit relatively minor fraction, of the world vegetable oil market. The quest for new oil seed crops which possess unusual fatty acids and are able to yield sufficient quantities of them on an economic scale have been prompted by diversification of industrial applications, changes in agricultural practices and production and, more recently, unreliable supplies of mineral oils which serve as the raw materials of the petrochemical industry. 

TABLE 10.1 Leading Global Producers of Tung Nuts and Estimated Annual Oil Yields for 2013... 

From httpy/faostat3.fao.org/Q/QC/E (Production Crops Tung Nut). Tung oil production estimated based on 20% yield from dried pressed nuts. 

United States Tariff Commission, October 1960. Tung Oil and Tung Nuts Report to the President of Investigation No. 22-23, Under section 22 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, as amended. Washington, DC. 31 p. 

---