Ps 
ACA—ACA 
Orrrcryat. Catechu extractum. Lond, Acacie extrac- 
tum Catechu. Edin. Catechu: extractum e ligno, 
res Pharmacopeia, United States. Extract of 
* 
‘Wm. P. C. Barton’s Cabinet of Materia Medica and 
Botany, in Jefferson College—specimens No. 1 and 2. : 
Coloured figure of the plant, small series, frame No. 
3, under Synonym Mimosa Catechu. 
No. 73 is now under notice, as yielding Catechu ; de- 
rived, according to Kerr, from two Oriental words— 
cate, a tree, and chu, juice. : 
The tree which yields Catechu grows abundantly in the 
woods of Kanhana, in Hindostan; seldom exceeds 
twelve or fourteen feet in height, covered with a 
rough thick bark, and towards the top dividing into 
numerous branches, on the younger of which are 
placed from fifteen to twenty pairs of pinne, about 
two inches long, each having near forty pairs of hairy 
follicles; flowers, hermaphrodite and male ; fruit, a 
lanceolate, compressed, and smooth pod. Flowers 
in June. 
Two sorts of Catechu—Bengal and Bombay ; the first 
being the produce of Canara, the second of Behar. 
Little chemical difference, according to Davy—either 
nearly soluble in the mouth; their solution in water 
inodorous, and slightly red in tincture of litmus. From 
200 grains Bombay Catechu, Davy obtained 109 tan- 
nin, 68 extractive matter, 13 mucilage, 14 impurities; 
obtained by boiling and evaporation of the decoction 
of the brown coloured and inner part of the wood of _ 
the Acacia Catechu. Taste more or less bitter and 
astringent, with sometimes mawkish sweetness, 
Besides the true Catechu, there are sold in the bazaars — 
of Lower India, two other substances, similar in pro- — 
perties to it, and used by the native and Europa 
practitioners for the same purposes. The first is call- 
ed Cuttacamboo in Tamool—the second, Casheuttie. — 
the i are two different extracts from the nut of the 
betel-nut tree, (areka catechu,) which see. 
The term Terra Japonica, or Japan earth, formerly ap- — 
propriated to this drug, originated from the me ps : 
_tion that it was an earth from Japan. It is calle 
by the Hindostanese ; Cutch, by the English ; by dif- 
ferent authors, Chaath, Cate, Cachou, Cachoze. 
zs. Pale Catechu—in — + uare cakes, 
red, light, friable, lamellated, : ire 
taste sweetish, after taste bitterish and ast 
