546  Kino  in  Species  from  Myristica.      {A ^c{^i X™' 
ON  A  NEW  KINO  IN  SPECIES  FROM  MYRISTICA.1  / 
By  Edward  Schaer. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  present  year,  Professor  Warburg,  of 
Berlin,  kindly  forwarded  to  me  a  sample  of  an  extract  or  secretion 
resembling  official  kino,  which,  with  well-known  liberality,  had  been 
put  at  his  disposal  by  the  Director  of  the  Royal  Gardens  and 
Museums  at  Kew.  The  sample  in  question,  labelled  "Kat  jadikai," 
that  is  to  say,"  Cutch-like  product  of  jadikai  "  (Tamil  name  for  Myris- 
tica) and  known  to  be  produced  by  incisions  in  the  bark  of  Myris- 
tica malabarica,  Lam.,  in  South  India,  showed  in  its  exterior  appear- 
ance more  direct  analogy  to  the  well-known  Malabar  kino  than  to 
the  "  Kats  "  of  Acacia  (Cutch),  or  of  Nauclea  (Gambier).  It  con- 
sisted, like  official  kino,  of  smaller  or  larger  angular  transparent 
pieces,  of  a  deep  garnet  color,  in  thin  fragments.  It  was  not  alto- 
gether unlike  small,  broken  dragon's  blood  in  some  respects,  and 
the  latter  name  has  been  used  sometimes  by  natives  and  merchants 
for  some  kinds  of  kino  (from  Pterocarpus  draco  and  P.  erinaceus). 
Not  having  been  acquainted  before  that  time  with  kino-like  pro- 
ducts from  the  genus  Myristica,  and  following  the  suggestion  of 
Professor  Warburg,  who  was  then  preparing  a  monograph  of  the 
Myristicacese,  I  at  once  proceeded  to  a  closer  examination  of  the 
new  substance,  availing  myself  of  the  latest  observations  concerning 
the  natural  history  of  the  different  kinds  of  kino,  especially  of  the 
drug  derived  from  Pterocarpus  marsupium  (Malabar  kino).  Not 
only  in  its  external  appearance,  but  also  in  its  behavior  to  water  and 
other  solvents,  the  "Kat  jadikai,"  or  kino  from  Myristica  malabarica 
agreed  almost  entirely  with  Pterocarpus  kino,  giving  a  reddish, 
slightly  turbid  solution  of  feebly,  but  perceptibly,  acid  reaction  to 
litmus  paper.  The  other  physical  qualities,  for  the  most  part, 
proved  to  be  the  same  as  those  described  in  Hanbury  and  Fliicki- 
ger's  "  Pharmacographia,"  second  edition  (1879),  p.  195.  The  same 
may  also  be  stated  concerning  the  more  important  and  characteristic 
chemical  reactions,  when  compared  with  the  chemical  behavior  of 
official  kino.  In  this  respect  I  do  not  intend  to  enter  into  full 
details  in  the  present  note,  the  less  so  as  an  exhaustive  examination 
of  this  new  kino  will  depend  on  a  much  larger  supply  of  the  drug. 
It  may  suffice,  therefore,  to  mention  the  most  striking  reactions 
1  Pharmaceutical  Journal,  August  8,  1896. 
