Use of tree Oils. Varnish and Berenice

> The word "varnish" comes from Latin vernix meaning odorous resin, which etymology comes from Greek Berenice, ancient name of modern Benghazi in Libya, credited with the first use of varnishes and where resins from the trees of now-vanished forests were sold. Berenice comes from the Greek words phero (to bring) + nike (victory).

Berenice II (267 or 266 BC - 221 BC), was the daughter of Magas of Cyrene and Queen Apama, and the wife of Ptolemy III Euergetes I, the third ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt.

During her husband's absence on an expedition to Syria, she dedicated her hair to Aphrodite for his safe return, and placed it in the temple of the goddess at Zephyrium. The hair having by some unknown means disappeared, Conon of Samos, explained the phenomenon in courtly phrase, by saying that it had been carried to the heavens and placed among the stars. This story is parodied in Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock.

The predecessor of the modern city Benghazi was refounded by her and received her name: Berenice.

After the marriage of Ptolemy III to Berenice, daughter of the Cyrenean Governor Magas, around the middle of the third century, many Cyrenaican cities were renamed to mark the occasion. Euesperides became Berenice and the change of name also involved a relocation. Its desertion was probably due to the silting up of the lagoons; Berenice, the place they moved to, lies underneath Benghazi's modern city centre. The Greek colony had lasted from the sixth to the mid-third centuries BC.

The asteroid 653 Berenike, discovered in 1907, is also named after Queen Berenice.

The name Coma Berenices or Berenice's hair, applied to a constellation, commemorates this incident. Callimachus celebrated the transformation in a poem, of which only a few lines remain, but there is a fine translation of it by Catullus. Soon after her husband's death (221 BC) she was murdered at the instigation of her son Ptolemy IV, with whom she was probably associated in the government.

The Candlenut (Aleurites moluccanus), is a flowering tree in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, also known as Candleberry, Indian walnut, Kemiri, Varnish tree or Kukui nut tree.

Its native range is impossible to establish precisely because of early spread by humans, and the tree is now distributed throughout the New and Old World tropics. It grows to a height of 15–25 metres (49–82 ft), with wide spreading or pendulous branches. The leaves are pale green, simple and ovate, or trilobed or rarely 5-lobed, with an acute apex, 10–20 centimetres (3.9–7.9 in) long. The nut is round, 4–6 centimetres (1.6–2.4 in) in diameter; the seed inside has a very hard seed coat and a high oil content, which allows its use as a candle (see below), hence its name.

Koelreuteria paniculata (Goldenrain tree, Pride of India or China tree) is a species of Koelreuteria native to eastern Asia, in China and Korea.

It is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree growing to 17 m tall, with a broad, dome-shaped crown.

The leaves are pinnate, 15-40 cm (rarely to 50 cm) long, with 7-15 leaflets 3-8 cm long, with a deeply serrated margin; the larger leaflets at the mid-point of the leaf are sometimes themselves pinnate but the leaves are not consistently fully bipinnate as in the related Koelreuteria bipinnata.

The flowers are yellow, with four petals, growing in large terminal panicles 20-40 cm long. The fruit is a three-parted inflated bladderlike pod 3-6 cm long and 2-4 cm broad, green ripening orange to pink in autumn, containing several dark brown to black seeds 5-8 mm diameter.

Walnuts (genus Juglans) are plants in the family Juglandaceae. They are deciduous trees, 10–40 meters tall (about 30–130 ft), with pinnate leaves 200–900 millimetres long (7–35 in), with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts (Pterocarya) but not the hickories (Carya) in the same family.

The 21 species in the genus range across the north temperate Old World from southeast Europe east to Japan, and more widely in the New World from southeast Canada west to California and south to Argentina. The Latin name, Juglans, derives from Jovis glans, "Jupiter's acorn": figuratively, a nut fit for a god.

The word walnut derives from Old English wealhhnutu, literally "foreign nut", wealh meaning "foreign" The walnut was so called because it was introduced from Gaul and Italy. The previous Latin name for the walnut was nux Gallica, "Gallic nut".

In some countries immature nuts in their husks are preserved in vinegar. In England these are called "pickled walnuts" and this is one of the major uses for fresh nuts from the small scale plantings. In Armenian cuisine, walnuts are preserved in sugar syrup and eaten whole. In Italy, liqueurs called Nocino and Nocello are flavoured with walnuts, while Salsa di Noci ("Walnut Sauce") is a pasta sauce originating from Liguria. In Georgia, walnuts are ground along with other ingredients to make walnut sauce.

The nuts of all the species are edible, but the walnuts commonly available in shops are from the common walnut, the only species which has a large nut and thin shell. A horticultural form selected for thin nut shells and hardiness in temperate zones is sometimes known as the 'Carpathian' walnut. The nuts are rich in oil, and are widely eaten both fresh and in cookery. Walnut oil is expensive and consequently is used sparingly; most often in salad dressing. Walnuts are also an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, and have been shown as helpful in lowering cholesterol. They need to be kept dry and refrigerated to store well; in warm conditions they become rancid in a few weeks, particularly after shelling. Oil paint often employs walnut oil as an effective binding medium, known for its clear, glossy consistency and non-toxicity.

Walnuts are heavily used in India. In Jammu, India it is used widely as a prasad (offering or gracious gift) to Mother Goddess Vaisnav Devi and, generally, as a dry food in the season of festivals such as Diwali.

Cleansing and polishing: Walnut shells are mostly used to clean soft metals, fiberglass, plastics, wood and stone. This environmentally friendly and recyclable soft grit abrasive is well suited for air blasting, de-burring, de-scaling, and polishing operations because of its elasticity and resilience. Uses include cleaning automobile and jet engines, electronic circuit boards, and paint and graffiti removal. For example: In the early days of jet transportation, crushed walnut shells were used to scour the compressor airfoils clean, but when engines with air cooled vanes and blades in the turbine started being manufactured this practice was stopped. The problem being that the crushed shells tended to plug up the cooling passages to the turbine, resulting in turbine failures due to overheating.

* Oil well drilling: The shell is used widely in oil well drilling for lost circulation material in making and maintaining seals in fracture zones and unconsolidated formations.

* Flour made from walnut shells is widely used in the plastics industry.

* Paint thickener: Walnut shells are added to paint to give it a thicker consistency for "plaster effect" ranges.

* Explosives: Used as a filler in dynamite.

* Cosmetic cleaner: Occasionally used in soap and exfoliating cleansers

Walnut husks are often used to create a rich yellow-brown to dark brown dye that is used for dyeing fabric and for other purposes. When picking walnuts, the husks should be handled wearing rubber gloves, to avoid dyeing one's fingers, as the dye does not require a mordant.

Walnut as wildlife food plants

Walnuts are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species.

* Brown-tail (Euproctis chrysorrhoea)

* the Coleophora case-bearers C. laticornella (recorded on J. nigra)

and C. pruniella.

* Common Emerald (Hemithea aestivaria)

* Emperor Moth (Pavonia pavonia)

* The Engrailed (Ectropis crepuscularia)

* Walnut Sphinx (Amorpha juglandis)

In addition, the nuts are a popular snack among woodland creatures, specifically mice and squirrels.