NOTE ON BIJA SAL OE 



4. Minor Products. 



When the bark is blazed a red gum exudes which hardens quickly 

 in brittle, black, shining angular pieces and is exported to Europe as 

 " Kino " where it is used in medicine as an astringent, containing as 

 much as 75 per cent, of tannic acid. The best season for collection is in 

 the dry weather when the tree is in flower. It does not, however, appear 

 to be collected to any great extent at the present time. Some notes 

 supplied from North Malabar in the " Indian Forester" for July 1899 

 describe the method of collection. A number of short slanting cuts, 

 about 1 inch wide, draining into a central vertical cut, are made in the 

 bark, and the gum, which flows from them in about twelve hours, is 

 caught in a bamboo tube. Only trees 6 feet in girth and above may be 

 tapped, and they may only be tapped on one side unless they are over 

 8 feet in girth. The gum was dried in a wooden shed in shallow tin 

 trays, about a fortnight being required in the dry weather. Artificial 

 heat or exposure to the sun was found to spoil the quality. A tree 6 feet 

 in girth was said to yield about 3 Ibs. of liquid gum or 1 Ib. of dry gum, 

 and it was estimated that the trees might be tapped on alternate sides 

 once in five years. This product is fully discussed in " Agricultural 

 Ledger" No. 11 of 1901. In this it is noted that " the genuine Malabar 

 kino is an important indigenous drug in India which has been recognized 

 many years in tlie British and other Pharmacopoeias. An unlimited supply 

 is now obtainable through the Forest Department at a price that will preclude 

 all competition of other articles of a similar nature." Its history is 

 traced from the year 1757, its first appearance in Europe having 

 apparently been in the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia as Gnmmi Kino. The 

 name Kino is probably derived from an African word Kano, the name 

 of Pterocarpus erinaceus. In the middle of the last century the gum 

 was extracted much more extensively, and Balfour, in the work above 

 quoted, notes that " Dr. Cleghorn sa,w two thousand trees along the roads 

 through the "Wynaad, notched in a V-shaped form for the extraction of 

 Kino which meets with a ready market on the coast, and is exported in 

 wooden boxes to Bombay." According to the Ledger above quoted, in 

 North Malabar alone about 2,000 Ibs. can be produced annually at a 

 cost price of not more than 4 annas per pound, but there is little demand 

 in India except from the Government Medical Store Departments. 



It is reported that the quantity available for extraction in the Quilon 



