Kino

Kino, the West African name of an astringent drug introduced into European medicine in 1757 by John Fothergill. When described by him it was believed to have been brought from the river Gambia in West Africa, and when first imported it was sold in England as Gummi rubrum astringens gambiense. It was obtained from Pterocarpus erinaceus. The drug now recognized as the legitimate kind is East Indian, Malabar or Amboyna kino, which is the evaporated juice obtained from incisions in the trunk of Pterocarpus Marsupium (Leguminosae), though Botany Bay or eucalyptus kino is used in Australia. When exuding from the tree it resembles red-currant jelly, but hardens in a few hours after exposure to the air and sun. When sufficiently dried it 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. It is soluble in alcohol and caustic alkalis, but not in ether.

The chief constituent of the drug is kino-tannic acid, which is present to the extent of about 75 %; it is only very slightly soluble in cold water. It is not absorbed at all from the stomach and only very slowly from the intestine. Other constituents are gum, pyrocatechin, and kinoin, a crystalline neutral principle. Kino-red is also present in small quantity, being an oxidation product of kino-tannic acid. The useful preparations of this drug are the tincture (dose ½-1 drachm), and the pulvis kino compositus (dose 5-20 gr.) which contains one part of opium in twenty. The drug is frequently used in diarrhoea, its value being due to the relative insolubility of kino-tannic acid, which enables it to affect the lower part of the intestine. In this respect it is parallel with catechu. It is not now used as a gargle, antiseptics being recognized as the rational treatment for sore-throat.