136
MATERIA MEDICA
As there are several varieties of Aqáqíyá, they may, for the sake
of convenience in describing them, be first divided into a soft and a hard
variety, and then each of the latter into two or more sub-varieties.
The drug prepared from the pods of Acacia Arabica is a very good
example of the soft variety of Aqáqíyå. When new, it is pretty soft,
could be made into pills and bolusses very easily. Though it gets
harder by keeping, yet not to such an extent as to be reduced to a fine
powder. It is dark brown in color, very astringent in taste, and
possesses a slight and peculiar odour. The only another soft variety of
Aqáqíyá, I have seen is the one which was presented to me some time
ago by a Hakeem at Madras. It bore a great resemblance to the
above variety, but differed from it distinctly in one or two points. It
was reddish instead of deep brown in color, and more demulcent than
astringent in taste. The Hakeem said that he had bought it from a
wholesale druggist at Black Town, and the latter seems to have
obtained it from Bombay. It is the dearest variety I have seen, its
price being about Rs. 5 per pound.
Two kinds of Aqáqíyá are generally met with in the bazaars of
Madras, and both of these are hard varieties and easily reduced to a fine
powder. The first or the best of them is reddish brown with a demul-
cent and slightly astringent taste, and the second possesses the same
taste, but is dusky brown in color. Their price is about Rs. 2½ and
1½ per pound, respectively. I myself obtained Aqáqiyá twice from
Bombay, and the drug was hard and pulverizable on both occasions.
It was identical with the first variety I have just described; except this
that on one occasion the medicine was full of minute particles of a dry
leaf, which were seen in every part of it. The original cost of each of
these varieties was about Rs. 2 per pound.
I have just succeeded in finding that all the hard varieties are either
impure or not at all made from the pods of any species of Acacia. For
example the first or best hard variety I have described above corre-
sponds in many respects with a watery extract prepared from the fresh
legumes of Acacia Arabica with an equal proportion of Gum-arabic;
and the second hard variety is identical in its physical and medicinal
properties with a watery extract of the fresh leaces (not pods) of the
same plant. In addition to its superiority as a drug as already
explained, the advantage of the Aqáqíya prepared from the pods is,
Acacia Arabica, over all other varieties, is its great cheapness, which is
speaking comparatively, dust cheap when prepared on a large scale.
The bark of A. Arabica is very fibrous, hard, rough, deep brown
externally, rusty or reddish brown internally, and astringent in taste.
It contains about 20 per cent. of tannin. The fresh legumes are long,
slightly tomentose, ash-colored, and. possess a very peculiar and
characteristic appearance, viz., moniliform or contracted on both sutures
between the seeds, so as to resemble a string of compressed beads.
The dry pods have the same appearance, but are dry, more or less
curved, and brown, dusky brown or ash-colored.
*Acacia Catechu, Willd. 220 and 221.
Habitat.—Found in many forests of Southern India.
Part Used.—An extract of the heart-wood.