Loboang Koang — also written Lubok Koang — was a locality in the Tapa Toean sub-division of the Westkust van Atjeh, situated “vlak bij Tapa-Toean” (right by Tapa Toean), that was one of the three principal patchouli-leaf producing districts of the Tapa Toean area in the early twentieth century. Loboang Koang was the source of the first baal of patchouli leaf shipped under the 1924 quarterly programme of the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum at Amsterdam, and was the locality at which Van Vreeswijk — the manager of the Atjehsche Oliefabriek at Tapa Toean — first began his investigations into the regional variation of Atjeh patchouli-leaf quality.
The Patchouli-Leaf District
Loboang Koang is documented in the historical record principally for its patchouli (nilam) cultivation. In Van Vreeswijk’s letter of 16 August 1924 to the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum at Amsterdam — preserved in *Bericht* No. 21 of the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum (April 1925) — Loboang Koang is ranked as the second-best of the three principal Tapa Toean patchouli districts:
“‘t Blad uit Loboang Koang, d. i. vlak bij Tapa-Toean, is al beter verzorgd en geeft ook een beter rendement olie. Hiervan kon ik pas geplukt blad koopen en zelf drogen en U ontving daar inmiddels één baal van.” — The leaf from Loboang Koang, that is, right by Tapa Toean, is already better cared for and also gives a better oil yield. Of this I was able to buy freshly picked leaf and dry it myself, and you have in the meantime received one baal of it.
Loboang Koang thus stands, in Van Vreeswijk’s ranking, between Labohan-Hadji (the least valuable) and Bakongan (the best). Its leaf was “beter verzorgd” (better cared for) than the Labohan-Hadji leaf, and gave a “beter rendement olie” (better oil yield). Van Vreeswijk had been able to buy freshly picked leaf at Loboang Koang and to dry it himself, and the first baal of the 1924 quarterly programme was of Loboang Koang leaf.
The First Bali of the Quarterly Programme
The first baal of the 1924 quarterly programme — one pikol (about 61.8 kg) of patchouli leaf — was shipped from Tapa Toean in early July 1924, via Sabang, to Amsterdam. The leaf was “under European supervision selected”, so that it could be guaranteed not to be adulterated with foreign leaves, sand, stones and branches, “zooals bij de Inlandsche handelaren dikwijls het geval is” (as is often the case with the native traders). The baal was of Loboang Koang leaf, dried by Van Vreeswijk himself.
The European Verdict on Loboang Koang Leaf
The Loboang Koang leaf, when distilled by the European houses in the summer and autumn of 1924, gave the following results:
- Factory “a”: a yield of 4.16% (an extraordinarily high yield, which raised the question of the botanical identity of the leaf).
- Factory “b”: a yield of 3.38%, with normal constants (density 0.9744 at 15°, optical rotation -57°30’, refractive index 1.5099 at 20°, ester value 3.7, soluble in 1 vol. of 90% alcohol). The odour was judged, after standing, to be “much better than the previous” — a verdict that placed the Loboang Koang oil between the mediocre first distillations of 1921-1922 and the triumphant Bakongan oil of the winter of 1924-1925.
The Comparison with Bakongan
When the second baal — of Bakongan leaf — was distilled by the same European houses in the winter of 1924-1925, the results were uniformly favourable, and the Bakongan oil was judged to be of equal quality to the best Singapore-Penang product. The comparison between the Loboang Koang and the Bakongan results is the empirical basis of Van Vreeswijk’s ranking of the Tapa Toean patchouli districts.
The Loboang Koang oil had given an anomalously high yield at factory “a” (4.16%) and a normal yield at factory “b” (3.38%); the Bakongan oil gave a lower yield at both factories (2.46% at “b”, 2.97% at “a”) but a finer odour. The Handelsmuseum’s conclusion was that the Bakongan leaf was the best — but the Loboang Koang leaf remained the second-best of the Tapa Toean districts, and a respectable product in its own right.
Significance
Loboang Koang is significant for the encyclopedia of Aceh history as the second-best of the three principal Tapa Toean patchouli-leaf districts, and as the source of the first baal of the 1924 quarterly programme. Its leaf — “beter verzorgd” than the Labohan-Hadji leaf, and giving a “beter rendement olie” — was the first Atjeh patchouli leaf to be distilled in Europe under the quarterly programme, and the Loboang Koang results prepared the way for the discovery of the superior Bakongan leaf in the autumn of 1924.
See Also
- Atjeh patchouli experiments (1921-1925)
- Over patchouly-olie en patchouly-blad van Atjeh (1925)
- Tapa Toean
- Bakongan
- Laboh Hadji
- Van Vreeswijk
- Atjehsche Oliefabriek
- Afdeeling Handelsmuseum
- Nilam
- Pogostemon Cablin (patchouli plant)
- Westkust van Atjeh
- 1924
- 1925
Source
Over patchouly-olie en patchouly-blad van Atjeh (Noord-Sumatra). Berichten van de Afdeeling Handelsmuseum van de Kon. Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut, No. 21. Overgedrukt uit De Indische Mercuur van 8 en 15 Mei 1925. Amsterdam: Druk De Bussy. OCR-filename: 20260801_233856_DLP-153-Over_patchouly_olie_en_patchouly_blad_van_Atjeh_Noord_Sumatra_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 17-18 (Van Vreeswijk’s letter of 16 August 1924) and pp. 16-17 (the Loboang Koang leaf results).