alkaline acetate of potassium. Yet the fact of kino developing an intense violet colour in presence of a protosalt of iron, may most evidently be shown. by shaking it with water, and iron reduced by hydrogen. The filtered liquid is of a brilliant violet and may be evaporated at 100° without turning green; the dried residue even again forms a violet solution with water. By long keeping the violet liquid gelatinizes. It is decolorized by acids, and turns red on addition of an alkali, whether caustic or bicarbonated. Catechu, as well as crystallized catechin, show the same behaviour, but these solutions quickly turn green on exposure to air. Solutions of acids, of metallic or earthy salts, or of alkaline chromates produce copious precipitates in an aqueous solution of kino. Ferric chloride forms a dirty green precipitate, and is at the same time reduced to a ferrous salt. Dilute mineral acids or alkalies do not occasion any decided change of colour, but the former give rise to light brownishred precipitates of Kino-tannic Acid. By boiling for some time an aqueous solution of kino-tannic acid, a red precipitate, Kino-red, is separated. Kino in its general behaviour is closely allied to Pegu catechu and yields by similar treatment the same products, that is to say, it affords Pyrocatechin when submitted to dry distillation, and Protocatechuic Acid together with Phloroglucin when melted with caustic soda or potash. Yet in catechu the tannic acid is accompanied by a considerable amount of catechin, which may be removed directly by exhaustion with ether. Kino, on the other hand, yields to ether only a minute percentage of a substance, whose scaly crystals display under the microscope the character of Pyrocatechin, rather than that of catechin, which crystallizes in prisms. The crystals extracted from kino dissolve freely in cold water, which is not the case with catechin, and this solution assumes a fine green if a very dilute solution of ferric chloride is added, and turns red on addition of an alkali. This is the behaviour of catechin as well as of pyrocatechin; but the difference in solubility speaks in favour of the crystals afforded by kino being pyrocatechin rather than catechin. Pyrocatechin having been met with in the fresh leaves of the Virginian Creeper (Ampelopsis hederacea Mich.), we thought it must also occur in the mother-plant of kino, but this does not prove to be the case, no indication of its presence being perceptible either in the fresh bark or wood.1 Commercial kino yielded us 13 per cent. of ash. Commerce-The quantity of true kino collected in the Madras forests is comparatively small, probably not exceeding a ton or two annually. The drug is often shipped from Cochin. Uses-Kino is administered as an astringent. It is said to be used in the manufacture of wines, and it might be employed if cheap enough in tanning and dyeing. 1 We have to thank Mr. Broughton of the Cinchona Plantations, Ootacamund, for determining this point. In the bark almost saturated with fresh liquid kino, he utterly failed to obtain any indication of pyrocatechin by the tests which he found to render it easily evident in dry kino. Other sorts of Kino. 1. Butea Kino, Butea Gum, Bengal Kino, Palas or Pulas Kino, Gum of the Palas or Dhak Tree. This is an exudation from Butea frondosa Roxb. (Leguminosa), a tree of India well known under the name of Palas or Dhak, and conspicuous for its splendid, large, orange, papilionaceous flowers. According to Roxburgh it flows during the hot season from natural fissures or from wounds. made in the bark, as a red juice which soon hardens into a rubycoloured, brittle, astringent gum. Authentic specimens of this kino have been placed at our disposal by Mr. Moodeen Sheriff of Madras and by Dr. J. Newton of Bellary. That received from the first-named gentleman consists of flattish, angular fragments (the largest about an inch across) and small drops or tears of a very dark, ruby-coloured gum, which when held to the light is seen to be perfectly transparent. The flat pieces have been mostly dried on leaves, an impression of the veins of which, they retain on one side, while the other is smooth and shining. The substance has a pure astringent taste but no odour. It yielded us 1.8 per cent. of ash and contained 13.5 per cent. of water. Ether removes from it a small quantity of pyrocatechin. Boiling alcohol dissolves this kino to the extent of 46 per cent.; the solution which is but little coloured, produces an abundant greyish-green precipitate with perchloride of iron, and a white one with. acetate of lead. It may be hence inferred that a tannic acid, probably kino-tannic acid, constitutes about half the weight of the drug, the remainder of which is formed of a soluble mucilaginous substance which we have not isolated in a state of purity. By submitting the Butea kino of Mr. Moodeen Sheriff to dry distillation we obtained pyrocatechin. The sample from Dr. Newton is wholly in transparent drops and stalactitic pieces, considerably paler than that just described but of the same beautiful ruby tint. The fragments dissolve freely and almost completely in cold water, the solution being neutral and exhibiting the same reactions as the former sample. Butea kino, which in India is used in the place of Malabar kino, was long confounded with the latter by European pharmacologists, though the Indian names of the two substances are quite different. It is not obtained exclusively from B. frondosa Roxb., the allied B. superba Roxb. and B. parviflora Roxb. affording a similar exudation. 2. African or Gambia Kino—Of this substance we have a specimen collected by Daniell1 in the very locality whence it was obtained by Moore in 1733 (see p. 170), and by Park at the commencement of the present century. The tree yielding it, which still bears the Mandingo name Kano, and grows to a height of 40 to 50 feet, is Pterocarpus erinaceus Poiret, a native of Tropical Western Africa from Senegambia to Angola. The juice exudes naturally from crevices in the bark, but much more plentifully by incisions; it soon coagulates, becoming deep bloodred and remarkably brittle. That in our possession is in very small, shining, angular fragments, which in a proper light appear transparent and of a deep ruby colour. In solubility and chemical characters, we can 1 See his paper On the Kino Tree of West Africa, Pharm. Journ. xiv. (1855) 55. trace no difference between it and the kino of the allied Pt. Marsupium Roxb. This kino does not now find its way to England as a regular article of trade. From the statement of Welwitsch, it appears that the Portuguese of Angola employ it under the name of Sangue de Drago.1 3. Australian, Botany Bay, or Eucalyptus Kino.-For some years past, the London drug market has been supplied with considerable quantities of kino from Australia; in fact at one period this kino was the only sort to be purchased. As it is the produce of numerous species of Eucalyptus, it is not surprising that it presents considerable diversity of appearance. The better qualities closely agree with Pterocarpus kino. They are in dark reddish brown masses or grains, which when in thin fragments are seen to be transparent, of a garnet red hue and quite amorphous. The substance is mostly collected by the sawyers and wood-splitters. It is found within the trunks of trees of all sizes, in flattened cavities of the otherwise solid wood which are often parallel to the annual rings. In such place the kino which is at first a viscid liquid, becomes inspissated and subsequently hard and brittle. It may also be obtained in a liquid state by incisions in the stems of growing trees: such liquid kino has occasionally been brought into the London market; it is a viscid treacle-like fluid, yielding by evaporation about 35 per cent. of solid kino.2 Authentic specimens of the kino of 16 species of Eucalyptus sent from Australia by F. von Müller, have been examined by Wiesner of Vienna. He found the drug to be in most cases readily soluble in water or in spirit of wine, the solution being of very astringent taste. The solution gave with sulphuric acid a pale red, flocculent precipitate of Kino-tannic Acid; with perchloride of iron (as in common kino) a dusky greenish precipitate,—except in the case of the kino of E. obliqua L'Hér. (Stringy-bark Tree), the solution of which was coloured dark violet. In Wiesner further states, that Eucalyptus kino contains 15 to 17 per cent. of water,-that it affords a mere trace of ash, and no sugar. some sorts a little Catechin was present, and in all Pyrocatechin. It contains no pectinous matter, but in some varieties a gum like that of Acacia. In one sort, the kino of E. gigantea Hook.,5 gum is so abundant that the drug is nearly insoluble in spirit of wine. From this examination, it is evident that the better varieties of Eucalyptus kino, such for instance as those derived from E. rostrata Schlecht. (Red or White Gum, or Flooded Gum of the colonists), E. corymbosa Sm. (Blood-wood) and E. citriodora Hook., possess all the useful properties of Pterocarpus kino and might with no disadvantage be substituted for it. 1 Madeiras e Drogas medicinaes de Angola, Lisbon, 1862, 37. 2 Victoria Exhibition, 1861.-Jurors' Report on Class 3. p. 59. Zeitschrift des österreich. Apotheker Vereines ix. (1871) 497; Pharm. Journ. 4 In our opinion this is doubtful. 5 Bentham unites this species to E. obliqua L'Hér (Flor. Austr., iii. 204.) LIGNUM PTEROCARPI. Lignum Santalinum rubrum, Santalum rubrum; Red Sanders Wood, Ruby Wood; F. Bois de Santal rouge; G. Rothes Sandelholz. Botanical Origin-Pterocarpus santalinus Linn. fil.—A small tree not often exceeding 3 to 4 feet in girth and 20 to 25 feet in height; it is closely related to Pt. Marsupium Roxb., from which it differs chiefly in having broader leaflets always in threes. It is a native of the southern part of the Indian Peninsula, as Canara, Mysore, Travancore and the Coromandel Coast. The districts in which the wood is at present chiefly obtained are the forests of the southern portion of the Kurnool Hills, Cuddapah and North Arcot (W. and N.W. of Madras). The tree is now being raised in regular plantations.1 The wood is a staple article of produce, and the felling of the trees is strictly controlled by the forest inspectors. The fine trunk-wood is highly valued by the natives for pillars in their temples and other buildings, as well as for turnery. The stumps and roots are exported to Europe as a dye-stuff, mostly from Madras. History-It is difficult to tell whether the appellation Red Sandalwood used in connexion with Yellow and White Sandal-wood by some of the earlier writers on drugs, was intended to indicate the inodorous dyewood under notice or the aromatic wood of a species of Santalum. Yet when Marco Polo' alludes to the sandal-wood imported into China, and to the red sandal ("Cendal vermeil") which grows in the island of Necuveran (Nicobar), it is impossible to doubt that he intended by this latter name some such substance as that under notice. Garcia d'Orta who wrote at Goa in the middle of the 16th century, clearly distinguished the fragrant sandal of Timor from the red inodorous wood of Tenasserim and the Coromandel Coast. It is remarkable that the wood of Pt. santalinus is distinguished to the present day in all the languages of India by names signifying red-coloured sandal-wood, though it has none whatever of the peculiarities of the odorous wood of Santalum. Red Sanders Wood was formerly supposed to possess medicinal powers: these are now disregarded, and it is retained in use only as a colouring agent. During the middle ages, it was used as well as alkanet for culinary purposes, such as the colouring of sauces and other articles of food. The price in England between 1326 and 1399 was very variable, but on an average exceeded 3s. per tb.3 Many entries for the purchase of Red Sanders along with spices and groceries, occur in the accounts of the Monastery of Durham, A.D. 1530-34.4 Description-The wood found in English commerce is mostly that of the lower parts of the stem and that of the thickest roots. It appears in the market in ponderous, irregular logs, rarely exceeding the 1 [Beddome], Report of the Conservator of Forests, for 1869-70, Madras, 1870, pp. 3. 39. 123; for figure of the tree, see Flora Sylvatica of Southern India of the same author, tab. xxii. 2 Pauthier, Livre de Marco Polo, 580Pt. indicus Willd. grows in the adjacent Andaman Islands. 3 Rogers, Agriculture and Prices in England, 1866, i. 631, ii. 545, &c.-The average price of a sheep during the same period was about 1s. 6d. 4 Durham Household Book, Surtees Society, 1844, 215; also Pegge, Form of Cury, Lond. 1780, p. xv. thickness of a man's thigh and commonly much smaller, 3, 4 or 5 feet in length; they are without bark or sapwood, and are externally of a dark colour. The internal wood is of a deep, rich, blood-red, exhibiting in transverse section, zones of a lighter tint, and taking a fine polish. At the present day, druggists generally buy the wood rasped into small chips, which are of a deep reddish-brown hue, tasteless and nearly without odour. Microscopic Structure-The wood is built up for the greater part of long pointed cells, having thick walls (libriform). Through this ligneous tissue, there are scattered small groups of very large vessels. In a direction parallel to the circumference of the stem, there are less coloured small parenchymatous layers, running from one vascular bundle to another. The whole tissue is finally traversed by very narrow medullary rays, which are scarcely perceptible to the unaided eye. The parenchymatous cells are each loaded with one crystal of oxalate of calcium, which are so large that, in a piece of the wood broken longitudinally, they may be distinguished without a lens. The colouring matter is contained especially in the walls of the vessels and the ligneous cells. Chemical Composition-Cold water or fatty oil (almond or olive) abstracts scarcely anything from the wood, and hot water but very little. On the other hand, ether, spirit of wine, alkaline solutions, or concentrated acetic acid, readily dissolves out the colouring matter. Essential oils of bitter almond or clove take up a good deal of the red substance; that of turpentine none at all. This resinoid substance termed Santalic Acid or Santalin,1 is said to form microscopic prismatic crystals of a fine ruby colour, devoid of odour and taste, fusing at 104° C., insoluble in water but neutralizing alkalis and forming with them uncrystallizable salts. Weidel (1870) exhausted the wood with boiling water, containing a little potash, and obtained by means of hydrochloric acid a red precipitate, which was redissolved in boiling alcohol and then furnished colourless crystals of Santal, CH6O3. They are devoid of odour or taste, not soluble in water, benzol, chloroform, bisulphide of carbon, and but sparingly in ether. Santal yields with potash a faintly yellow solution which soon turns red and green. The wood afforded Weidel not more than 3 per mille of santal. By exhausting the wood with ether, a red powder having a green hue in reflected light, is obtained, which, when melted with potash, produces Resorcin (see art. Galbanum) and Pyrocatechin (p. 172). Red Sanders Wood yielded us of ash only 0.8 per cent. Commerce-In the official year 1869-70, Red Sanders Wood produced to the Madras Government a revenue of 26,015 rupees (£2,601). The quantity taken from the forests was reported as 1,161,799 Hb. Uses-Red Sanders Wood is scarcely employed in pharmacy except for colouring the Compound Tincture of Lavender; but it has numerous uses in the arts. 1 Gmelin, Chemistry, xvi. (1864) 259; the formula assigned to santalic acid (C5H1405) appears to be doubtful. Weidel in proposing the formula C14H1204 points out that it may be allied to alizarin, C1HSO4. |