166 
Some  African  Kolas. 
[Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
{      March,  1884. 
SOME  AFRICAN  KOLAS, 
in  their  botanical,  chemical  and  therapeutical  aspects.1 
By  E.  Heckel  and  F.  Schdagdenhatjffen. 
Among  the  vegetable  products  of  the  African  soil,  there  is  perhaps  none 
more  interesting  and  valuable  than  those  which  under  the  various  names 
of  "  kola,"  "  gourou,"  "  ombeney  "  nangoue,"  and  "  kokkorokou,"  are  used 
as  articles  of  consumption  throughout  tropical  and  equatorial  Africa,  as 
equivalent  to  tea,  coffee,  mate"  and  cacao.  Used  under  the  form  of  seeds, 
probably  from  time  immemorial,  by  the  native  tribes,  these  products  are  of 
varying  botanic  origin,  and  their  history  has  been  up  to  the  present  time 
imperfectly  known  ;  but  the  authors  have  been  able  to  avail  themselves  of 
the  observations  of  some  recent  travelers  to  clear  up  some  obscure  points. 
The  products  which  are  included  by  the  authors  under  the  name  "kola " 
(the  various  synonyms  quoted  being  special  to  particular  countries)  consist 
of  seeds,  yielded  by  two  families  of  plants  and  differing  very  much  in  ap- 
pearance. The  kind  most  widely  distributed,  the  "  true  kola,"  which  by 
some  of  the  natives  is  called  the  "female  kola,"  comes  from  the  Sterculi- 
acese  ;  another  variety,  called  by  the  author  "  false  kola,"  is  known  among 
the  negroes  as  simply  "  kola,"  or  "  male  kola."  Before  the  authors'  re- 
searches only  the  "true  "  or  "  female"  kola  was  known,  and  it  had  been 
ascertained  to  be  yielded  by  the  Sterculia  acuminata,  P.  de  Beauv.  {Cola 
acuminata,  R.  Br.).  To  this  Messrs.  Heckel  and  Schlagdenhauffen  are  able 
now  to  add  information  concerning  the  "  male  "  kola,  hitherto  unknown, 
and  to  give  reasons  for  believing  that  various  other  species  of  Sterculia,  be- 
sides S.  acuminata,  yield  kola  seeds. 
Dealing  first  with  "  female  "  kola,  the  authors  describe  at  length  Sterculia 
acuminata  from  specimens,  the  description  agreeing  with  Oliver's  descrip- 
tion of  var.  a  (Fl.  Trop.  Af.,  i.,  220.)  According  to  the  best  information, 
the  tree — which  is  from  30  to  60  feet  high,  and  in  general  aspect  resembles 
the  chestnut — grows  wild  upon  the  western  coast  of  Africa  comprised 
between  Sierra  Leone  and  the  Congo  or  Lower  Guinea,  reaching  into  the 
interior  about  five  or  six  hundred  miles,  where  it  appears  to  follow  the 
limits  of  the  palm.  Upon  the  eastern  coast  it  appears  to  be  unknown  in 
places  where  it  has  not  been  introduced  by  the  English.  Dr.  tSchweinfurth, 
speaking  of  the  country  of  the  NTyams-Nyams,  near  lake  Nyanza,  says  that 
among  the  imposing  forms  of  vegetation  a  Sterculia  of  the  kola  kind  pre- 
dominates and  is  called  locally  "kokkorokou."  In  the  country  of  the 
Momboutous  (24°  E.  long.,  3°  N.  lat.),  too,  upon  asking  for  kolahe  was  sup- 
plied with  the  fruit  in  its  rose-colored  envelope  ;  but  the  only  information 
he  could  obtain  there  concerning  it  was  that  the  nuts  were  found  in  the 
country  in  the  wild  state  and  were  called  "  nangoue  "  by  the  natives,  who 
chewed  slices  of  it  whilst  smoking.    Karsten,  in  his  "Flore  de  Colombie," 
1  Abstract  of  a  lengthy  memoir  read  before  the  Union  Scientifique  des 
Pharmaciens  de  France  {Journ.  Pharm.  et  de  Chimie,  [5],  vii,  p.  553;  viii, 
p.  81,  177. 
