198 LEGUMINOS^. 



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 IS'o 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, pro- 

 duces 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 submit- 

 ting 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 ruhy 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, the allied B. siiperha iloxb. 

 and B. parvijiora Koxb. affording a similar exudation. 



2. African or Gambia Kino — Of this substance we have a specimen 

 collected by Daniell ^ in the very locality whence it was obtained by 

 Moore in 1733 (see p. 195), 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 juices exude naturally from crevices in the bark, but 

 much more plentifully by incisions ; it soon coagulates, becoming deep 

 blood-red 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 trace no difference between it and the kino of the 

 allied Pt. Marsujnuin Boxb. This kino does not now find its way to 

 England as a regular article of trade. From the statement of Wel- 

 witsch, it appears that the Portuguese of Angola employ it under the 

 name of Sangue de Drago.^ 



3. Australian, Botany Bay, or Eucalyptus Kino. — For some yeais 

 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 sub- 

 stance is mostly collected by the sawyers and wood-splitters. It is 

 found within the trunks of trees of all sizes, in flattened cavities of 



^ See his paper On the Kino Tree of West - Madeiras e JJroyasmedicinaesde Angola, 



Africa, Pharm. Journ. xiv. (1855) 55. Lisboa, 1862, 37. 



