ANi^Sefhl895m•}       Australian  Myrtaceous  Kinos.  575 
A  CONTRIBUTION  TO  THE  CHEMISTRY  OF  AUSTRA- 
LIAN MYRTACEOUS  KINOS.1 
By  J.  H.  Maiden,  F.L.S.,  and  Henry  G.  Smith. 
Read  before  the  Royal  Society  of  N.  S.  Wales,  June  5,  1895. 
In  the  investigations  that  have  been  carried  out  at  the  Techno- 
logical Museum  during  the  last  few  years,  on  the  exudations  of  the 
Australian  Myrtaceae,  it  has  been  found  that  these  substances,  known 
as  kinos,  fall  into  three  classes,  which  have  been  respectively  named 
the  ruby,  gummy  and  turbid  groups.  The  members  of  the  first  of 
these  are  soluble  both  in  alcohol  and  water,  giving  a  ruby-colored 
solution ;  those  of  the  second  are  practically  insoluble  in  alcohol ; 
and  the  third,  when  treated  with  hot  water,  and  allowed  to  cool, 
contain  a  body  or  bodies  which  render  the  liquid  turbid. 
We  now  deal  with  kinos  belonging  to  this. last  group,  the  present 
investigation  having  been  carried  out  with  the  view  to  identify  the 
substances  causing  the  turbidity  already  referred  to. 
In  the  papers  already  published2  it  was  suggested  that  this  body 
was  catechin  for  the  following  reasons:  it  was  mostly  dissolved  in 
boiling  water,  but  separated  again  on  cooling ;  it  gave  an  intense 
purple  color  with  concentrated  sulphuric  acid  (in  the  case  of  the 
precipitate  of  the  Eucalyptus  kino  tested) ;  it  gave  a  yellow  color 
with  caustic  potash.  For  these  reasons,  which  are  admittedly  incon- 
clusive, the  substance  was  at  the  time  considered  to  be  catechin. 
Work  on  these  kinos  has  been  since  proceeded  with. 
At  the  recent  meeting  (January,  1895)  °f  tne  Australasian  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  held  at  Brisbane,  Dr. 
Lauterer,  of  that  city,  read  a  paper  on  "  Queensland  Native  Astrin- 
gent Medicines."  In  this  paper,  which  has  since  been  published,3 
the  writer  seeks  to  show  that  the  substance  causing  turbidity  in 
kinos  is  ellagic  acid.  As  the  presence  of  ellagic  acid  has  not  been 
detected  by  us  in  kinos,  we  considered  that  the  time  had  arrived 
when  the  results  of  our  experiments  in  this  connection  might  be 
usefully  published.  We  announce  before  this  society  the  separation 
of  two  new  organic  substances — eudesmin  and  aromadendrin,  the 
latter  name  being  used  provisionally — to  the  presence  of  which, 
either  singly  or  in  company,  the  turbidity  of  some  kinos  is  due. 
1  Abstracted  by  J.  C.  Peacock. 
-  Proc.  Liunean  Society,  N.  S.  W.,  3,  VI.,  389  ^  1S91 ). 
3  Chemist  and  Drugg  ist  of  Australasia,  1895,  p.  108. 
