ball-like fruits borne on the trunk. Fruits are nearly globular, indehiscent,hardon theexterior and pulpy inside,withmany seeds embeded in it. Shells of the fruits are used as utensils. Pulp is generally eaten by Negroes in Guiana. It is also used for preparation of beverages I.Though the plant is of economic importance, extraction and composition of the oils from the seeds have not been studiedsofar.Hencethisplant isselectedforstudyingthenature and composition of oil from the seeds. This type of work is canied out for the fmt time in Couroupita guianensis Aubl. E x p e r i m e n t a l D e s i g n Mature fruits of Couroupitaguianensis Aubl. were collected from the plant growingin theuniversitycampusofM.S.University-Baroda in Gujarat State. The seeds after removing the pulp were dried in the shade for about two weeks. The seeds were powdered with pestle in a mortar and extracted with petroleum ether (40O-60' C) in a Soxhlet apparatus. The solvent was removed in arotary evaporator at 30°-350 C and by flushing with nitrogen. The contents of moisture, oil and protein and the characteristics of the extracted oils were determined according to the Official and Tentative Methods of AOCS ' . The methyl esters of oil were prepared according to the method of Smith 'i. The methyl esters were analysed by gas liquid chromatography (GLC) using a CIC gaschromatograph fitted with flame ionization detector (F'ID). A stainless steel column (2.4 m x 3.2 mm) packed with 15% DEGS on chromosorb W, 80-100 mesh and maintained at 2000 C was used. Nitrogen was used as camer gas at a flow rate of 45 d m i n . The peak area was measured as the product of the peak height and the peak width at half-height. The peaks were identified using reference compounds.