Red sandalwood

Uses

The wood of the first is the so-called “red sandalwood.” It is used for building purposes and, in medicine, as an astringent. In decoction it is used as a gargle for sore throat. The second is also an excellent building material and is used medicinally for its astringent properties. A decoction of sufficient strength to color the water a light blue is used as a mouth wash in toothache and has some reputation as a solvent of vesical calculi. All three species yield a resin known in pharmacy under the name of “kino.” The true gum kino is really produced by the P. marsupium, Roxb., but the Philippine product, especially that of the second and third species, has for a long time been exported to Europe under the name of “red astringent gum” or “kino.” This name is given to the sap of these trees dried without the aid of artificial heat. The bark is the part which produces it and the following extractive process is employed in Madras: a vertical incision is made in the trunk and lateral incisions perpendicular to it and a receptacle is placed at the foot of the tree. This soon fills and when the gum is sufficiently dried by air and sun it is packed in boxes and exported.

In respect to appearance, solubility and chemical composition, Flückiger and Hanbury were unable to discover any difference between the kino of P. marsupium, Roxb., and that of P. erinaceus, Poir. It is therefore interesting to consider a product that is identical with that described in the pharmacopœias as produced by the P. marsupium, Roxb., though the latter does not grow in the Philippines.

Kino is at present used but little in therapeutics and its action is analogous to that of tannin and catechu. It is given internally for its astringent effect in chronic diarrhœa, leucorrhœa, blenorrhœa and hemorrhages. The dose of the powder is 1–4 grams, and of the alcoholic tincture, containing 20 parts kino to 100 of alcohol, 5–10 grams. In prolapse of the rectum and anal fissure the following solution is used by enema:

[table omitted; see the source text]

For vaginal injections a solution of 20 to 250 water.

Botanical description

The “pterocarpus,” L., is a tree of the first order with odd-pinnate leaves. Leaflets alternate and coriaceous. Flowers yellow, in racemes, with caducous bracts and bractlets. Calyx turbinate, with short teeth. Petals exserted, markedly unguiculate. Standard and wings curled. Keel obtuse with its petals slightly or not at all coherent. The staminal tube, cleft above and below or above only. Stamens superior, often almost, and at times entirely, free. Anthers versatile. Ovary pedunculate, with 2 ovules. Style curved. Stigma terminal. Pod orbicular, smooth or spiny, usually containing one seed, encircled by a broad, rigid wing, the point curved downward.