KINO. 



19.: 



from the river Gambia in West Africa as a rare sort of Dragon's Blood 

 and was described by him in 1757' under the name of Gummi ruhrum. 

 astnngens Gamhiense. It had been noticed at least twenty years before 

 as a production of the Gambia, by Moore, factor to the Ro3-al African 

 Company, who says that the tree yielding it is called in the Mandingo 

 language Kano.^ Specimens of this tree were sent to England in 1805 

 by the celebrated traveller Mungo Park, and recognized some years 

 later as identical with the Pterocarpus erinaceiis of Poiret. 



It seems probable that African kino continued to reach Eno-land for 



that 

 liable 



GumTni ruhrum ,.^ ^„._, 



in the stock of a London druggist^ from 1776 to 1792. 

 Duncan in the Edinburgh Dispensatory of 1803, wl 

 "hno^ is brought to us from Africa " admits that some, no. ^......^.....c^.. 



"i^^^^^' 's imported from Jamaica. In a later edition of the same work 



11 i ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ African drug is no longer to be met with, and 

 alludes to its place being supplied by other kinds, as that of Jamaica, 

 tliat imported by the East India Company, and that of New South Wales 



(/5 



It will thus be seen that at the 



commencement of the present century several substances, produced in 

 ^videly distant regions, bore the name of Kino. That however which was 

 pnncipally used in the place of the old African drug, was East Indian 

 nsS i?> '^o^^ical origin of w^hich was shown by Wight and by Royle* 

 I Mi-iQ) to be Pterocarpus 3farsiqnum'Roxh.,—Si tree which, curiously 

 enough, IS closely allied to the kino tree of Tropical Africa. 



_ 1 his is the drug which is recognized as legitimate kino in all the 

 principal pharmacopoeias of Europe. It appears to have been first pre- 

 pared lor the European market in the early part of the present century, 

 «n a plantation of the East India Company called Anjarakaudy, a few 

 fii d Ih^" Tellicherry on the Malabar Coast ; but as we learn from our 



lend Dr. Cleghorn, it w-as not grown there but on the ghats a short 



distance inland. 



heat ^'^^T'^*^^" — Kino is the juice of the tree, dried without artificial 

 hard • ^^ ^^"cl^s, it has the appearance of red currant jelly, but 

 fore t^^ f ^1^ ^^^^ Jiours after exposure to the air. In the Government 

 •sion^f^ 1 Malabar Coast whence the supplies are obtained, permis- 

 thp *^,^°"'^ct the drug is granted on payment of a small fee, and on 



dam a ^^^^''^^^^^^S *^'^^ *^^® tapping is performed skilfully and without 

 inci ^^^ ^° *^® timber. The method pursued is this :— A perpendicular 

 foot^^T ^v*"^ ^'}^^T^^^ ones leading into it, is made in the trank, at the 

 iuicp ^, ^^V ^^ pl'^ced a vessel to receive the outflowing juice. This 

 and ^^^-^ ^^ickens, and w^hen sufliciently dried by exposure to the sun 

 ^ir, IS packed into wooden boxes for exportation. 



ascription — Malabar kino" consists of dark, blackish-red, angular 



{m-f)i^^^ (^^servalions and Inquiries, i. 



^FrSv '" '/^e /«Za».Z Parts of Africa , 

 2ti7. ''' -^^°°'-^. Lond. 1737. pp. IGO. 200. 



per lb ^ *^^* 166\, and in 1790-92, 21.^ 



* Phann, Jonrn. v. (1846) 493. 



^ Cleghorn, Forests and Gardens of South 

 India, 18*31. 13.— Also from information 

 communicated by him orally. 



* Our sample obtained from P/. Marsu- 

 piuiii Koxb. on the Sigur Ghat, Feb. 1868, 

 was kindly submitted to us by Mr. 

 Mclvor of Ootacamund. — We find it to 

 agree with commercial East Indian Kino. 



