_Tamarindus_, _Fructus Tamarindi_; _Tamarinds_; F. _Tamarins_; G.
_Tamarinden_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Tamarindus indica_ L.—The tamarind is a large
handsome tree, growing to a height of 60 to 80 feet, and having
abruptly pinnate leaves of 10 to 20 pairs of small oblong leaflets,
constituting an abundant and umbrageous foliage. Its purplish flower
buds and fragrant, red-veined, white blossoms, ultimately assuming a
yellowish tinge, contribute to its beautiful aspect and cause it to be
generally cultivated in tropical countries.
_T. indica_ appears to be truly indigenous to Tropical Africa between
12° N. and 18° S. lat. It grows not only in the Upper Nile regions
(Sennaar, Kordofan, Abyssinia), but also in some of the remotest
districts visited by Speke, Grant, Kirk, and Stanley, and as far south
as the Zambesi. According to F. von Müller,[865] it occurs in Tropical
Australia.
It is found throughout India, and as it has Sanskrit names it may even
be really wild in at least the southern parts of the peninsula. It
grows in the Indian islands, and Crawfurd[866] has adduced reasons to
show that it is probably a true native of Java. The mediæval Arabian
authors describe it as growing in Yemen, India, and Nigritia.
The tamarind has been naturalized in Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico.
Hernandez,[867] who resided in the latter country from 1571 to 1575,
speaks of it as “_nuper ... ad eas oras translata_.” It abounds in
the West Indies where it was also introduced together with ginger by
the Spaniards at an early period. The tree found in these islands
bears shorter and fewer-seeded pods than that of India, and hence was
formerly regarded as a distinct species, _Tamarindus occidentalis_
Gärtn.
[864] Hanbury in _Linn. Trans._ xxiv. 161. p. 26; _Pharm. Journ._ v.
(1864) 348; _Science Papers_, p. 318.
[865] Exposition intercoloniale,—_Notes sur la Végétation de
l’Australie_, Melb., 1866. 8.
[866] _Dict. of Indian Islands_, 1856. 425.
[867] _Nova plantarum, animalium et mineralium historia_, Romæ, 1651.
83.
=History=—The tamarind was unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans;
nor have we any evidence that the Egyptians were acquainted with
it,[868] which is the more surprising considering that the tree appears
indigenous to the Upper Nile countries, and that its fruit is held in
the greatest esteem in those regions.[869]
The earliest mention of tamarind occurs in the ancient Sanskrit
writings where it is spoken of under several names.[870] From the
Hindus, it would seem that the fruit became known to the Arabians,
who called it _Tamare-hindi_, i.e. _Indian Date_. Under this name it
was mentioned by Isaac Judæus,[871] Avicenna,[872] and the Younger
Mesue,[873] and also by Alhervi,[874] a Persian physician of the 10th
century who describes it as black, of the flavour of a Damascene plum,
and containing fibres and stones.
It was doubtless from the Arabians that a knowledge of the tamarind,
as of so many other eastern drugs, passed during the middle ages into
Europe through the famous school of Salernum. _Oxyphœnica_ (Ὀζυϕοίνικα)
and _Dactyli acetosi_ are names under which we meet with it in the
writings of Matthæus Platearius and Saladinus, the latter of whom, as
well as other authors of the period, considered tamarinds as the fruit
of a wild palm growing in India.
The abundance of tamarinds in Malabar, Coromandel, and Java was
reported to Manuel, king of Portugal, in the letter of the apothecary
Pyres[875] on the drugs of India, written in Cochin, January 27th,
1516. A correct description of the tree was given by Garcia de Orta
about fifty years later.
=Preparation=—Tamarinds undergo a certain preparation before being
brought into commerce.
In the West Indies, the tree matures its fruit in June, July and
August, and the pods are gathered when fully ripe, which is known by
the fragility of the outer shell. This latter, which easily breaks
between the finger and thumb, is then removed, and the pods deprived
of shelly fragments are placed in layers in a cask, and boiling syrup
is poured over them till the cask is filled. When cool, the cask is
closed and is then ready for sale. Sometimes layers of sugar are placed
between the fruits previous to the hot syrup being added.[876]
East Indian tamarinds are also sometimes preserved with sugar, but
usually they are exported without such addition, the outer shell being
removed and the fruits being pressed together into a mass.
[868] Sir Gardner Wilkinson (_Ancient Egyptians_, i. 1841, 78) says
that tamarind stones have been found in the tombs of Thebes; but on
consulting Dr. Birch and the collections in the British Museum we have
obtained no confirmation of the fact.
[869] Barth speaks of it as _an invaluable gift of Providence_: _Reisen
und Entdeckungen in Nord-und Centralafrica_, Gotha, 1858. i. 614; iii.
334. 400; iv. 173.—The same says Rohlfs, _Reisen durch Nordafrica_,
Gotha (1872) 23.
[870] _Susrutas Ayurvedas_, ed. Hessler, i. (1844) 141, iii. (1850) 171.
[871] _Opera Omnia_, Lugd. 1515, lib. ii. Practices, c. 41.
[872] _Opera_, Venet. 1564. ii. 339.
[873] _Opera_, Venet. 1561. 52.
[874] _Fundamenta Pharmacologiæ_, ed. Seligmann, Vindob. 1830, 49.
[875] _Journ. de Soc. Pharm. Lusit._ ii. (1838) 36.—See also Appendix.
[876] Lunan, _Hortus Jamaicensis_, ii. (1814) 224; Macfadyen, _Flora of
Jamaica_, 1837. 335.
In the Upper Nile regions (Darfur, Kordofan, Sennaar) and in Arabia,
the softer part of tamarinds is, for the sake of greater permanence
and convenience of transport, kneaded into flattened round cakes, 4 to
8 inches in diameter and an inch or two thick, which are dried in the
sun. They are of firm consistence and quite black, externally strewn
with hair, sand, seeds and other impurities; they are largely consumed
in Egypt and Central Africa, and sometimes find their way to the south
of Europe as _Egyptian Tamarinds_.
=Description=—The fruit is an oblong, or linear-oblong, strictly
compressed, curved or nearly straight, pendulous legume, of the
thickness of the finger and 3 to 6 inches in length, supported by a
woody stalk. It has a thin but hard and brittle outer shell or epicarp,
which does not split into valves or exhibit any very evident sutures.
Within the epicarp is a firm, juicy pulp, on the surface of which and
starting from the stalk are strong woody ramifying nerves; one of these
extends along the dorsal (or concave) edge, two others on either side
of the ventral (or convex) edge, while between these two there are
usually 2, 3, or 4 less regular and more slender nerves,—all running
towards the apex and throwing out branching filaments. The brownish or
reddish pulp has usually an acid taste, though there are also sweetish
varieties.
The seeds, 4 to 12 in number, are each of them enclosed in a tough,
membraneous cell (endocarp), surrounded by the pulp (sarcocarp). They
are flattened and of irregular outline, being roundish, ovate, or
obtusely four-sided, about ⁶/₁₀ of an inch long by ³/₁₀ thick, with the
edge broadly keeled or more often slightly furrowed. The testa is of
a rich brown, marked on the flat sides of the seed by a large scar or
oreole, of rather duller polish than the surrounding portion which is
somewhat radially striated. The seed is exalbuminous, with thick hard
cotyledons, a short straight included radicle, and a plumule in which
the pinnation of the leaves is easily perceptible.
Tamarinds are usually distinguished in trade as _West Indian_ and _East
Indian_, the former being preserved with sugar, the latter without.
1. _West Indian Tamarinds_, _Brown or Red Tamarinds._—A bright
reddish-brown, moist, saccharine mass consisting of the pulpy internal
part of the fruit, usually unbroken, mixed with more or less of syrup.
It has a very agreeable and refreshing taste, the natural acidity of
the pulp being tempered by the sugar. It is this form of tamarinds that
is usually found in the shops.
2. _East Indian Tamarinds_, _Black Tamarinds._—These differ from the
last described in that they are preserved without the use of sugar.
They are found in the market in the form of a firm, clammy, black mass,
consisting of the pulp mixed with the seeds, stringy fibres, and some
remains of the outer shell. The pulp has a strong acid taste.
Notwithstanding the rather uninviting appearance of East Indian
tamarinds, they afford a good pulp, which may be satisfactorily used
in making the _Confectio Sennæ_ of pharmacy. In fact, on the continent
this sort of tamarind alone is employed for medicinal purposes.
=Microscopic Structure=—The soft part of tamarind consists of a tissue
of thin-walled cells of considerable size, which is traversed by long
fibro-vascular bundles. In the former a few very small starch granules
are met with, and more numerous crystals, which are probably bitartrate
of potassium.
=Chemical Composition=—Water extracts from unsweetened tamarinds,
sugar together with acetic, tartaric and citric acids, the acids
being combined for the most part with potash. The neutralized
solution reduces alkaline cupric tartrate after a while without heat,
and therefore probably contains grape sugar. On evaporation, cream
of tartar and sugar crystallize out. The volatile acids of the fatty
series, the presence of which in the pulp has been pointed out by
Gorup-Besanez, have not been met with by other chemists. Tannin is
absent as well as oxalic acid. We have ascertained that in East Indian
tamarinds, citric acid is present in but small quantity. No peculiar
principle to which the laxative action of tamarinds can be attributed
is known.
The fruit-pulp diffused in water forms a thick, tremulous, somewhat
glutinous and turbid liquid. It was examined as early as the year 1790
by Vauquelin under the name of “_vegetable jelly_,”—the first described
among the pectic class of bodies.
The hard _seeds_ have a testa which abounds in tannin, and after long
boiling is easily separated, leaving the cotyledons soft. These latter
have a bland mucilaginous taste, and are consumed in India as food
during times of scarcity.
=Commerce=—Tamarinds are shipped in comparatively small quantities from
several of the West Indian islands, and also from Guayaquil.
The export from the Bombay Presidency in the year 1871-72 was 6286
cwt., which quantity was shipped chiefly to the Persian Gulf, Sind, and
ports of the Red Sea.[877] 128,144 centners were re-exported in 1877
from Trieste.
=Uses=—In medicine, tamarinds are considered to be a mild laxative;
they are sometimes used to make a refrigerant drink in fever. In hot
countries, especially the interior of Africa, they are regarded as of
the highest value for the preparation of refreshing beverages. The
_Black Tamarinds_ are said to be used in the manufacture of tobacco.
[877] _Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the Presidency of
Bombay_, 1871-72, pt. ii. 65.