ACACIA CATECHU-CATECHU, OH MEDICINAL ACACIA. 
Class XXIII. POLYGAMIA.— Order I. M ONCE CIA. 
Natural Order, LEGUMINOSil . — T HE PEA TRIBE. 
Professor Willdenow, who established the genus to which the subject of the present article belongs, 
first separated it from the Linnean Mimosa, by the characters of the fruit. Under Mimosa, he leaves such 
species as have a lomentum , or legume, separating into single-seeded joints. Of these he defined thirty-two, 
but the list now exceeds seventy; and to many of them being sensitive, the name Mimosa is very appro- 
priate. Willdenow enumerated a hundred-and-two species of Acacia, but since his time, the discoveries of 
modern travellers have augmented the catalogue, so that upwards of three hundred now are known. They 
are all shrubby, perennial plants, with the exception of two or three species, which are herbaceous. 
The Acacia Catechu, called in the province of Bahar, coir a or caira, grows in great abundance in most 
of the mountainous districts of Hindustan. It is a large shrub or tree, fifteen or twenty feet high, covered 
with a thick, scabrous, ferruginous bark, which is very red within, remarkably astringent, and somewhat 
bitter. The branches are round, spreading irregularly, and downy when young; the older ones beset with 
numerous pairs of small recurved spines, originating in the stipules. The leaves are placed alternately on 
the younger branches, and are composed of from fifteen to thirty pair of pinnae, about two inches long, each 
having numerous linear leaflets, (often forty pair,) hardly a quarter of an inch long, covered with short hairs, 
and of a green colour. The common petiole is sometimes furnished with a few recurved prickles, and a 
small gland is placed between the bases of each pair of the pinnae. The flowers are hermaphrodite and male; 
axillary, on slender cylindrical spikes, three or four inches long, hairy, stalked, and of a pale yellow colour. 
The calyx is tubular, hairy, and 5-toothed; the corolla of one piece, whitish, divided into five segments, and 
twice the length of the calyx. The filaments are numerous, crowned with roundish anthers, and united at 
the base with the germen, which is oval, supporting a slender style, and terminated by a simple stigma. 
The fruit is a straight, smooth, pointed legume, or pod, three or four inches long, and less than one broad, 
containing six or eight roundish seeds. 
Catechu was formerly supposed to be an earth, found in Japan ; and the name Terra Japonica, by 
which it is still designated occasionally, tends to perpetuate the error. Mr. Kerr, assistant surgeon to the 
Civil Hospital in Bengal, was the first to describe the catechu tree, in Yol Y. of “Medical Observations and 
Enquiries,” which contains also a very correct figure. He says, that it is one of the most common trees 
to be met with in the uncultivated mountains of Rotas, and Pallamow, which are districts of Hindustan, in 
the province of Bahar, westward of Bengal ; and is frequent in many other parts of that country, in various 
soils. The following is the mode of preparing the Extract, as described by that gentleman : — 
“ After felling the trees, the manufacturer carefully cuts off all the exterior white part of the wood. 
The interior coloured wood is cut into chips, with which he fills a narrow-mouthed unglazed earthen pot, 
pouring water upon them until he sees it among the upper chips : when this is half evaporated by boiling, 
the decoction, without straining, is poured into a flat earthen pot, and boiled to one third part ; this is set in 
a cool place for one day, and afterwards evaporated by heat of the sun, stirring it several times in the day ; 
when it is reduced to a considerable thickness, it is spread upon a mat or cloth which has previously been 
covered with the ashes of cow dung ; this mass is divided into square or quadrangular pieces by a string, 
and completely dried by turning them frequently in the sun, until they are fit for sale. 
“ This extract is called cutt by the natives, by the English cutch, by authors terra Japonica, catechu, 
cadtchu, cashow, cachou, caitchu, caitjoe, cachore, kaath, cate, fyc. In making the extract, the pale-brown 
wood is preferred, as it produces the fine whitish extract ; the darker the wood is, the blacker the extract, 
and of less value. They are very careful in drying their pots upon the fire before they are used ; but very 
negligent in cutting their chips upon the ground, and not straining the decoction; by which, and the dirty 
ashes they use, there must be a considerable quantity of earth in the extract, besides what avarice may 
prompt them to put into it. This the learned have proved from their laborious chemical decompositions. 
The extract thus prepared, is bought from the manufacturer for twelve or fifteen shillings the eighty 
pounds weight. 1 could never learn that the terra Japonica was produced from the areca or betel- 
nut; nor is it indeed credible that it should, notwithstanding that this is the general and received opinion, 
for the betel-nut is scarce ever so low in price as the terra Japonica, and was it to be extracted from thence, 
the price would be twenty times dearer than the present sales. Where the areca nut is in great plenty, 
they may perhaps join some of the fruit in making the extract, to answer a double purpose, for the most 
frequent use of both is in chewing them together as Europeans do tobacco ; to these two substances they 
add a little shell lime, and a leaf called pauiv. Here I am obliged to have recourse to the natives, whom from 
experience I have found to be very fallacious, therefore I will not answer for their veracity. 
“ The extract is much used in dyeing and painting chintz, and other cloths ; combined with vitriolic 
salts, a black colour is produced; mixed with oil, they paint the beams and walls of houses to preserve 
them, and to defend them from the destructive white ants ; it is sometimes mixed with their wall plaister. 
