Abstract:Chironji kernel (
Buchanania lanzan) is very important dry fruit. It is used as a substitute of olive and almond oils, and used for indigenous medicines. At present, it is growing under forest condition as an under exploited commodity and it is an income generating produce for the forest dependent tribal communities. Chhattisgarh is the major chironji nut producing state in India. The purpose of present work was to generate data of various varieties of Chironji of Chhattisgarh and study their dependency on moisture content which will be helpful to promote development of machinery for decortication. As such, three samples were collected from the three different forest of Chhattisgarh. Sample A, B and C of chironji nut were collected from village Vishrampuri, Keshkal, and Geedam respectively of the Bastar, Kondagaon and Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.
The engineering properties were investigated for moisture content in the range 7.21% (db) to 20.09% (db). The average value of sphericity were found to be 0.72 to 0.877, porosity values were in the range 64 to 72.6%, the average value of angle of repose values ranged from 16.64 0C to 28.53 0C, the terminal velocity was obtained with values ranging from 11.15 m/s to 20.67 m/s and The average value of Specific heat ranged from 0.2080 cal/g/0C to 0.57 cal/g/0C, coefficient of internal friction was found to be in the range 0.463 – 0.584 and coefficient of external friction was found to be 0.436 – 0.577.