162

Materia Medica.

Part II-

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impression of the vessel into which it had been received whilefluid, and in which it had hardened, was evident ; colourvery dark brown, fracture resinous, appearance homogeneous,with small air bells ; in very thin splinters, transparent, and ofa ruby red colour: crackling under the teeth when chewed,taste at first somewhat acid, but afterwards becoming consi-derably bitter and astringent, succeeded by a peculiar sweet-ness ; infusible, and friable ; powder of a reddish-brown.This is said to be the extract of the Coccoloba uvifera or sea-side grape ; and indeed by comparing it with the specimensof that extract, I have no doubt of the accuracy of my infor-mation. The kino imported by the East India Company re-sembles this in many particulars, but is in smaller fragments.

The third is in dark brown masses of various sizes, cithersmooth or rounded on the surface, or in fragments often co-vered with a reddish-brown powder, fracture resinous andvery unequal, appearance sometimes homogeneous, but morecommonly heterogeneous, mixed with bits of twigs, leaves,&c.; splinters transparent, ruby red, no smell, scarcely crack-ling under the teeth, but sometimes gritty, from the acciden-tal mixture of sand ; taste simply astringent, succeeded bysweetness, and, when long chewed, a portion adheres to theteeth; infusible and friable ; powder reddish-brown. This iscertainly obtained from the Eucalyptus resinifera, or browngum-tree of New South Wales, by allowing the juice, whicheither flows from it spontaneously, or is procured by wound-ing the tree, to harden in the sun. Some specimens of it inits fluid state have even reached this country.

The Dublin college have indicated the butea frondosa asthe source of kino, but certainly erroneously. It, however, pro-duces in large quantities a red juice, very analogous to kino,and which may unquestionably be used as a substitute for it.The production of these substances, from so many differenttrees in Africa, America, Asia, and New Holland, shew thatkino is to be considered as a genus of which these are spe-cies.

The analysis of kino, published in the first edition of thisDispensatory, has since been confirmed by Vauquelin, aswell as the conclusion drawn from it, that it consists prin-cipally of tannin, and cannot with propriety be classed amongthe resins or gum-resins. But the undoubted origin of thethird kind, and the examination of a red astringent matterwhich I picked from a cavity in a specimen of the Cassuarina,or beef-wood, prove that I was hasty in supposing that kinowas always obtained from astringent barks by decoction andevaporation.