Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/103

 K I N K I N 91 in West Africa. According to Moore (1733), a factor to the Royal African Company, the tree yielding the drug is known in the Mandingo language as &quot;kano.&quot; When first imported, however, it was sold in England as Gummi rubmm astringens Ganibiense. It was introduced into the Edinburgh pharmacopoeia in 1776 under the above name, and into the London pharmacopoeia in 1787 under the name of Eesina kino. Specimens of the plant sent home by Mungo Park in 1805 were recognized as identical with Pterocarpus erinaceus, Poiret. In 1811 the African drug was no longer to be met with in English commerce, its place being supplied by several other kinds. The drug which is at present recognized as the legiti mate kind is East Indian, Malabar, or Amboyna kino, and is obtained from Pterocarpus Marsupium, Roxb. (Legu- minosse). It is collected in the Government forests of the Malabar coast, the collectors being required to pay a small fee for the privilege, and to perform the tapping carefully and without injuring the timber. The mode of obtaining the kino is by making a perpendicular incision, with lateral ones leading into it, in the trunk, a vessel being placed at the foot of the incision to receive the juice. When exud ing it resembles red currant jelly, 1 but hardens in a few hours after exposure to the air and sun. When sufficiently dried ife is packed into wooden boxes for exportation. When these are opened it breaks up into angular brittle fragments of a blackish-red colour and shining surface. In cold water it is only partially dissolved, leaving a pale flocculent residue, which is soluble in boiling water, but deposited again on cooling. In spirit of wine, sp. gr. 838, it is entirely soluble, affording a solution having an acid reaction, but the liquid by long keeping assumes a gela tinous condition. It is also soluble in caustic alkalis and to a large extent in a saturated solution of sugar, but is wholly insoluble in ether. In chemical composition kino appears to be nearly allied to Pegu catechu, but differs from it in not yielding catechin when exhausted by ether, but only a minute quantity of scaly prismatic crystals of a substance which is soluble in cold water, and thus more nearly resembles pyrocatechin. Pyrocatechin is, however, not present in the fresh bark or wood of the tree. Etti (1878) states that he has obtained kinoin, C 14 HjoO,3, from Malabar kino, while Hanbury and Fluckiger failed to obtain it from that drug, but found it in Australian kino. According to Bentley, kino-tannic acid, catechin (or pro bably pyrocatechin), and kino red are the essential consti tuents of Malabar kino. The first of these is precipitated from an aqueous solution of the drug by dilute mineral acids, and the last by boiling an aqueous solution of kino-tannic acid for some time, when it separates as a red precipitate. The chemical constitution of Malabar kino is therefore only imperfectly known. The quantity of kino collected in Madras is comparatively small, and is supposed not to exceed a ton or two annually, but it is often shipped from Cochin. Bengal, Butea, or Palas kino obtained from Butea fron- dosa, Roxb. (Leguminosx), a native of India and Burmah, well known under the name of the Palas or Dhak tree, and remarkable for its large orange papilionaceous flowers also finds its way occasionally into British commerce. A portion is also obtained from Butea superba, Roxb., and Butea parviflora, Roxb. Butea kino does not stick to the teeth when chewed like ordinary kino, although like the latter it gives a red tinge to the saliva. It is usually more or less mixed with small fragments of bark. It is almost completely soluble in water, and to the extent of 46 per cent, in boiling alcohol, but different specimens vary in solubility. It is believed to contain about half its weight 1 African kino is very liquid and of an extremely pale red colour when it first flows out, but soon coagulates and becomes of a deep blood-red hue. of kino-tannic acid, the remainder consisting of a soluble mucilaginous substance, and a minute quantity of pyro catechin, which can be extracted by ether. In India Butea kino is used instead of the Malabar kino, and is called by the Hindus kueni or kuenee. Botany Bay, Australian, or Eucalyptus kino is a more or less resinous astringent exudation obtained from several species of Eucalyptus. It is found in flattened cavities in the trunks, and is mostly collected by sawyers and wood- splitters. It frequently comes into the London market, and the best variety, probably the product of E. corymbosa, Sm., is used under the name of &quot; red gum &quot; in the pre paration of astringent lozenges for sore throat. Accord ing to Wiesner of Vienna, Australian kino contains a little catechin (a statement doubted by Fluckiger) and pyro catechin, no pectinous matter, but a gum nearly allied to that of acacia. Fluckiger also obtained from it kinoin, C U H 12 6, which he regards as the methylated gallic ether of pyrocatechuic acid, viz., C 6 H 4 (OCH 3 )C 7 H 5 5. Between 1808 and 1820 a substance was met with in French commerce under the name of Jamaica kino, which is said to have been prepared by inspissating the juice of the seaside grape, Coccoloba uvifera, L. (Polygonaceee). When powdered it has a somewhat bituminous odour and an astringent slightly bitter taste. It is but little soluble in cold water or alcohol, but dissolves almost entirely in boiling water, and to the extent of about 75 per cent, in hot alcohol. In thin laminae it is only semi-transparent, the fragments usually met with in commerce being quite opaque. In 1835 an article appeared in French commerce under the name of &quot; kino de la Colombie,&quot; which is stated in His- toire des Drogues to be in all probability an extract of the bark of Rhizophora Mangle, L. A liquid kino is obtained from Pterocarpus indicus, which does not harden like that obtained from P. Marsiqnum. Although used in India it is not imported into Europe. Other varieties of kino are mentioned in the same work, but they must be regarded rather in the light of curiosities than as articles of com merce. Kino is used in medicine as an astringent, chiefly in the form of tincture ; but, owing to its tendency to gelatinize, that preparation is much less used than formerly. See D. Fothergill, Med. Obs., 1757, p. 358 ; F. Moore, Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa, 1737, p. 160, 209, 267; Histoirc dcs Drogues, 7th ed., torn. iii. p. 426-439 ; Lewis, Mater ia Medica, 1784, p. 366 ; Daniell, Pharmaceutical Journal, (1) xiv. p. 55 ; Pharmacographia, 2d ed., p. 195 ; Pereira, Mat. Med., 4th ed., vol. ii. , pt. ii., p. 325; Bentley and Trimen, Medicinal Plants, Nos. 79-81. KINROSS, a small inland county of Scotland, is situ ated between 56 8 and 56 18 N. lat,, and 3 14 and 3 35 W. long. It is of an irregular circular form, and in outline somewhat resembles a toothed wheel, lying between Perthshire on the north-west and Fife on the south-east. Its breadth from west to east is about 12 miles, and its length from north to south about 10 miles ; the area is 49,812 acres, or about 78 square miles. Next to Clackmannan it is the smallest county in Scotland. The surface consists principally of an oval and level plain, which is bounded on the N.W. by the Ochils, on the E. by Bishop Hill and the Lomonds, on the S. by Benarty Hill, and on the S.W. by the Cleish Hills. This plain opens out on the west along the Devon valley towards Stirling, on the north-east towards the valley of the Eden, and more narrowly on the south between the Cleish Hills and Benarty. Kinross ia touched by the river Devon at the Crook of Devon, not far from the Rumbling Bridge ; and the river Leven, which has its source in the loch of that name, flows for about half a mile in Kinross before entering Fife. Of the streams which flow into Lochleven the prin cipal are the Gairney, the South Queich, and the North