Aj^uaryPi8f6.riJ"}   Observations  Regarding  Kola  Nuts.  5- 
SOME  OBSERVATIONS  REGARDING  KOLA  NUTS.  ~" 
By  Alfred  R.  L.  Dohme  and  Hermann  Engei,hardt. 
The  kola  nut  (Cola  Acuminata)  originally  was  obtained  exclu- 
sively from  Africa,  principally  from  the  country  south  of  Abyssinia, 
where,  too,  another  caffeine-yielding  plant,  the  well-known  coffee 
bean  (Coffea  Arabica)  is  indigenous.  As  this  drug  has  become  so 
well  known  and  popular  recently,  and  as  its  properties  and  a  de- 
scription of  its  bocany,  chemistry,  pharmacognosy  and  pharmacology 
have  become  generally  known  among  pharmacists,  a  repetition  of 
these  will  be  unnecessary  here.  From  most  parts  of  Northern  Africa 
considerable  quantities  are  shipped,  principally  from  Sierra  Leoner 
Gambia,  Kano  and  Timbuctoo.  The  most  highly  prized  varieties  are 
those  raised  in  Kong  and  the  Mandingo  lands,  although  it  has  been 
customary  to  assume  that  the  kola  nuts  from  Jamaica  are  the  most 
desirable.  The  Jamaica  nuts  are  unquestionably  larger  and  hand- 
somer in  appearance,  but  it  has  often  been  shown  that  the  hand- 
somest and  boldest  varieties  or  parts  of  the  plant  are  not  the  most 
valuable  medicinally.  We  know  that  the  virtue  of  a  drug  depends 
upon  one  or  more  ingredients,  and  the  criterion,  hence,  for  a  medicin- 
ally active  and  desirable  drug,  is  the  amount  of  active  ingredient 
that  it  contains,  as  determined  by  assay.  It  is,  of  course,  desirable 
and  expedient  that  the  U.  S.  P.  should  give  processes  of  assay  for 
all  drugs  that  contain  active  principles,  and  then  establish  a  certain 
percentage  of  active  principle  as  a  standard  for  each  drug.  This,  it 
appears  to  the  writers,  is  one  of  the  foremost  problems  that  should 
confront  and  occupy  the  attention  of  the  Committee  on  Revision  of 
the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia.  The  problem,  which  is  the  most  desirable 
variety  of  kola  nut,  in  so  far  as  it  contains  the  most  caffeine,  has 
several  times  presented  itself  to  the  writer,  and  it  was  a  question  if 
West  India  kola  nuts  were  actually  worth  25  per  cent,  more  than 
African  nuts.  It  has  been  pretty  well  established  that  all  that 
possesses  any  value  in  kola  nut  is  the  caffeine,  for  the  analysis  of 
Schlotterbeck  and  Knox1  brings  to  light  nothing  else  that  might  be 
considered  of  value  medicinally,  for  3  per  cent,  of  tannic  acid,  4  of 
sugar  and  35  of  starch,  can  hardly  be  given  any  medicinal  value. 
Attfield2  found  that  kola  nuts  contain  2  per  cent,  caffeine,  whereas 
1Proc.  Amer.  Phar.  Asso.,  1895. 
2Amer.  Jour.  Pharm.,  1865,  p.  205,  and  Jahresbericht  der  Pharmaciey 
1865,  p.  157. 
