54 
TAMARINDUS INDICA. 
hard, flat, and clean ; the strings tough, and entire ; and a clean 
knife thrust into them does not receive any coating of copper: they 
should be preserved in jars closely covered. 
Sensible and Chemical Properties. Tamarinds are 
inodorous ; in their fresh state they are austerely acid, (producing 
an effect on the teeth similar to that produced by the mineral acids 
when not sufficiently diluted), but as we receive them they have an 
agreeable, acid, sweetish taste. According to Vauquelin the pulp 
contains, independent of the sugar with which it is mixed, super- 
tartrate of potass, gum, jelly, citric acid, tartaric acid, malic acid, 
and a feculent matter. The acid taste depends chiefly on the citric 
acid, the quantity being greater than that of the others: sixteen 
ounces of the prepared pulp, containing one ounce and a half of 
citric, but only two drachms of tartaric acid ; half a drachm of malic, 
and half an ounce of supertartrate of potash. Tournefort relates 
that an essential salt may be obtained from tamarinds by dissolving 
the pulp in water, and setting the filtered solution, with some oil 
upon the surface, in a cellar for several months ; that the salt is of a 
sourish taste, and not easily soluble in water and that a like salt is 
sometimes found naturally concreted on the branches of the tree. 
Beaum6 observes that this salt may be more expeditiously obtained 
by clarifying a decoction of the tamarinds with white of eggs, then 
filtering, and evaporating it to a proper consistence, and setting it to 
cool ; the salt shoots into crystals of a brown colour, and has a very 
acid taste, but on dissolving and crystallising them again, or barely 
washing them with water, they lose almost all their acidity, the acid 
principle of the tamarinds seeming not to be truly crystallizable. 
Medical Properties and Uses. This fruit, the use of 
which was first learned of the Arabians, contains a larger proportion 
of acid, with the saccharine matter, than is usually found in the 
fructus acido dukes:* it is therefore not only employed as a 
laxative, but also for abating thirst and heats in various inflammatory 
complaints, and for correcting putrid disorders, especially those of a 
bilious kind, in which the cathartic, antiseptic, and refrigerant 
qualities of this fruit have been found equally useful. The simple 
infusion of the pulp in warm water, or a whey made by boiling ^ii. 
* Dr. Cnlien thinks, that as the principal medicinal purpose of tamarinds depends 
on their acidity, which is counteracted by the admixture of sugar in preserving them, 
it would be of more ntiU^ if they were always imported in the pods. It is doubtful, 
however, whether they eo*ld be long pres«rved in this way. 
