Fun Facts
Castor Oil
- Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, is said to have used castor oil to brighten her eyes.
- The Egyptians used castor oil for their lamps and ingested it with beer as a purgative, a use that has prevailed to modern times, but without the beer.
- Castor Oil works as a good mole repellant because it doesn't kill the pests but rather encourages them to move elsewhere quickly.
- Castor oil was the preferred lubricant for rotary engine warplanes during WWI.
Tung Oil
- During WWI, tung oil was used as a water resistant varnish on airplane fabrics and in the paint used on ships.
- During WWII, all ammunition was coated with tung oil.
- Marco Polo introduced tung oil to Europe.
- The words tung oil appear in the writings of Confucius around 400 BC.
- In the 14th century, Chinese merchants used tung oil to waterproof their wooden ships.
- Tung oil was mixed in the mortar that made the Great Wall of China.
Coconut Oil
- The Coconut Palm tree is a prehistoric plant originating in the South Pacific in what is now New Guinea.
- Sailors aboard Vasco da Gama's ships gave the coconut its name, calling it Coco, after the Portuguese word for grimacing face or hobgoblin. The word nut was added when it first came to England.
- Coconut water has been used as a plasma extender when plasma blood solutions were scarce.
Vegetable Oil
- Float a few tablespoons of vegetable oil on the surface of a bird bath to keep mosquitoes from using the water.
- "Vegetable oil" is the name usually given to any oil product derived from a plant of any description, be it fruit or vegetable.
- Some vegetable oils are derived from the fruits of the plant, some from the seeds, and others from the leaves or roots.
Sunflower Oil
- The Netherlands grew the tallest sunflower in 1986. It grew to 25′5.5" tall.
- Sunflowers originated in the US, but there are now 60 different kinds of sunflowers growing in multiple countries around the world today.
- Experiments with using sunflower oil as a salad dressing exist as early as 1768.
Palm Oil
- Traces of palm oil have been found in a 500 year old Egyptian tomb in the city of Abydos.
- The palm tree was first introduced into Malaysia in 1875 but was only commercially planted there in Selangor in 1917.
Soybean Oil
- Elevators in the Statue of Liberty use a soybean based hydraulic fluid.
- In 1935, Henry Ford used parts of soybeans to make gearshift knobs, window trim, door handles and accelerator parts in his vehicles.
- Soybean oil accounts for 65% of all vegetable oil used for human consumption in the US.
- During the Civil War, soybeans were used in place of coffee when real coffee was scarce.
- Soybeans were first cultivated in China and didn’t arrive in the USA until 1804, with the first crop being grown in 1829.
Peanut Oil
- U.S. astronaut Allen B. Sheppard brought a peanut with him to the moon.
- Tom Miller pushed a peanut to the top of Pikes Peak (14,100 feet) using his nose. It took 4 days 23 hours 47 minutes and 3 seconds.
- As early as 1500 BC, the Incans of Peru used peanuts as sacrificial offerings and entombed them with their mummies to aid in the spirit life.
- Adrian Finch of Australia holds the Guinness World Record for peanut throwing, launching a legume 111 feet 10 inches in 1999.
Canola Oil
- Canola was developed in the 1970's to remove the Eruric acid from rapeseed oil and make the oil fit for human consumption.
- Canola is derived from "Can" (Canada) and "ola" (low acid).
Corn Oil
- Corn was domesticated 10,000 years ago in Mexico.
- The first corn oil was extracted in the U.S. in 1898 and was called mazoil.
Safflower Oil
- Safflower is one of oldest known crops, with traces of the seed having been found in King Tut's tomb.
- Safflower is grown in more than 60 countries worldwide.