CUTCH 445 



containing a number of small cavities. It yields a dull brown powder 

 and has no odour, but an astringent and subsequently sweetish taste. 

 When macerated with cold water it forms a brown magma, which 

 exhibits under the microscope numerous minute crystals similar to 

 those found in gambier. Boiling water dissolves it almost entirely 

 but on cooling deposits a crystalline sediment. 



Constituents. Cutch closely resembles gambier in chemical 

 composition. It contains as principal constituents catechutannic 

 acid and acacatechin, but the former is usually present in much 

 larger quantity than the latter. Acacatechin differs from the 

 catechin of gambier in its formula, C 15 H 14 6 ,3H 2 O, and melting point. 

 The drug contains in addition catechu-red and small quantities of 

 quercetin, but is free from the fluorescent substance that is present 

 in gambier. Although the two drugs, gambier and cutch, as usually 

 found on the market have little resemblance to one another, this is 

 due solely to the manner of preparation, the syrupy liquor being in 

 the case of gambier allowed to crystallise. This method is sometimes 

 pursued in India with cutch, and the resulting drug, * katha,' then 

 closely resembles gambier, but can always be distinguished from it 

 by the absence of the fluorescent substance. 



Trimble (1888) found three samples of cutch to have the following 

 composition : 



Catechin . . . . 2 to 10 per cent. 



Catechutannic acid . . . 25 to 33 



Gum 20 to 29 



Ash 2 to 3 



Moisture . . .^ . .12 to 25 

 Colouring matter, &c. . ^ . . 21 to 25 



Good cutch contains from 10 to 12 per cent, of catechin, whereas 

 katha contains about 50 per cent. 



Uses. Cutch is employed chiefly in the dyeing and tanning 

 industries, especially in the former, the amount of colouring matter 

 it contains often rendering it more suitable for dyeing than gambier. 



Varieties. Similar extracts are also prepared from other substances 

 and called ' cutch ' ; thus mangrove cutch is obtained from the 

 bark of Ceriops candolleana, Arnold (N.O. Rhizophorece), which 

 contains 42 per cent, of tannin. 



CURARE 



Source, &c. Under the name of curare several (at least three) 

 varieties of a dark, extract-like mass appear in commerce. They 

 are all arrow poisons prepared by tribes of Indians in the valleys of 

 the Amazon and Orinoco and their tributaries. The manner in which 



