_Catechu pallidum_, _Extractum Uncariæ_;
_Gambier_, _Pale Catechu_,
_Gambier Catechu_, _Terra Japonica_;
F. _Gambir_, _Cachou jaune_; G.
_Gambir_.
=Botanical Origin=—1. _Uncaria Gambier_ Roxb. (_Nauclea Gambir_ Hunter)
a stout climbing shrub, supporting itself by means of its flower-stalks
which are developed into strong recurved hooks.[1275] It is a native of
the countries bordering the Straits of Malacca, and especially of the
numerous islands at their eastern end; but according to Crawfurd[1276]
it does not seem indigenous to any of the islands of the volcanic band.
It also grows in Ceylon, where however no use is made of it.
2. _U. acida_ Roxb.,[1277] probably a mere variety of the preceding,
and growing in the Malayan islands, appears to be used in exactly the
same manner.
=History=—Gambier is one of the substances to which the name of
_Catechu_ or _Terra Japonica_ is often applied; the other is
_Cutch_, which has been already described (p. 243). By druggists and
pharmaceutists the two articles are frequently confounded, but in the
great world of commerce they are reckoned as quite distinct. In many
price-currents and trade-lists, _Catechu_ is not found under that name,
but only appears under the terms _Cutch_ and _Gambier_.
Crawfurd asserts that gambier has been exported from time immemorial
to Java from the Malacca Straits. This statement appears highly
questionable. Rumphius, who resided in Amboyna during the second half
of the 17th century, was a merchant, consul and naturalist; and in
these capacities became thoroughly conversant with the products of the
Malay Archipelago and adjacent regions, as the six folio volumes of his
_Herbarium Amboinense_, illustrated by 587 plates, amply prove.
Among other plants, he figures[1278] _Uncaria Gambier_, which he terms
_Funis uncatus_, and states to exist under two varieties, the one with
broad, and the other with narrow leaves. The first form, he says, is
called in Malay _Daun Gatta Gambir_, on account of the bitter taste
of its leaves, which is perceptible in the lozenges (_trochisci_)
called _Gatta Gambir_, so much so that one might suppose they were made
from these leaves, which however is not the case. He further asserts
that the leaves have a detergent, drying quality by reason of their
bitterness, which is nevertheless not intense but quite bearable in
the mouth: that they are masticated instead of _Pinang_ [Betel-nut]
with _Siri_ [leaf of _Piper Betle_] and lime: that the people of Java
and Bali plant the first variety near their houses for the sake of its
fragrant flowers; but though they chew its leaves instead of _Pinang_,
it must not be supposed that it is this plant from which the lozenges
_Gatta_ are compounded, for that indeed is quite different.
[1275] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_, part 7 (1876).
[1276] _Dictionary of the Indian Islands_, 1865. 142.
[1277] Beautifully figured in Berg und Schmidt, _Offizinelle Gewächse_,
xxx. c. 1863.
[1278] _Herb. Amb._ v. 63. tab. 34.
Thus, if we may credit Rumphius, it would seem that the important
manufacture of gambier had no existence at the commencement of the last
century. As to “_Gatta Gambir_,” his statements are scarcely in accord
with those of more recent writers. We may however remark that that name
is very like the Tamil _Katta Kāmbu_, signifying _Catechu_, which drug
is sometimes made into little round cakes, and was certainly a large
export from India to Malacca and China as early as the 16th century (p.
241).
That gambier was unknown to Europeans long after the time of Rumphius,
is evident from other facts. Stevens, a merchant of Bombay, in his
_Compleat Guide to the East India Trade_, published in 1766, quotes the
prices of goods at Malacca, but makes no allusion to gambier. Nor is
there any reference to it in Savary’s _Dictionnaire de Commerce_ (ed.
of 1750), in which Malacca is mentioned as the great entrepôt of the
trade of India with that of China and Japan.
The first account of gambier known to us, was communicated to the
Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences in 1780, by a Dutch trader named
Couperus. This person narrates[1279] how the plant was introduced into
Malacca from Pontjan in 1758, and how gambier is made from its leaves;
and names several sorts of the drug and their prices.
In 1807, a description of “the drug called _Gutta Gambeer_,” and of
the tree from which it is made, was presented to the Linnean Society
of London.[1280] The writer, William Hunter, well known for scientific
observations in connection with India, states that the substance is
made chiefly at Malacca, Siak and Rhio, that it is in the form of small
squares, or little round cakes almost perfectly white, and that the
finer sorts are used for chewing with betel leaf in the same manner as
catechu, while the coarser are shipped to Batavia and China for use in
tanning and dyeing.
=Manufacture=—The gambier plant is cultivated in plantations. These
were commenced in 1819 in Singapore, where there were at one time
800 plantations; but owing to scarcity of fuel, without an abundant
supply of which the manufacture is impossible, and dearness of labour,
gambier-planting was in 1866 fast disappearing from the island.[1281]
The official Blue Book, printed at Singapore in 1872, reports it as
“_much increased_.” It is largely pursued on the mainland (Johore),
and in the islands of the Rhio-Lingga Archipelago, lying south-east of
Singapore. On the island of Bintang, the most northerly of the group,
there were about 1,250 gambier-plantations in 1854.
The plantations are often formed in clearings of the jungle, where
they last for a few years and are then abandoned,[1282] owing to
the impoverishment of the soil and the irrepressible growth of the
_lalang_ grass (_Imperata Königii_ P. de B.), which is more difficult
to eradicate than even primæval jungle. It has been found profitable to
combine with the cultivation of gambier that of pepper, for which the
boiled leaves of the gambier form an excellent manure.
[1279] _Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap_, ii. (derde
druk) 217-234.
[1280] _Linn. Trans._ ix. (1808) 218-224.
[1281] Collingwood, _Journ. of Linn. Soc._, Bot., x. (1869) 52.
[1282] This abuse of land has been repressed in Singapore.
The gambier plants are allowed to grow 8 to 10 feet high, and as their
foliage is always in season, each plant is stripped 3 or 4 times in
the year. The apparatus and all that belongs to the manufacture of
the extract are of the most primitive description.[1283] A shallow
cast-iron pan about 3 feet across is built into an earthen fireplace.
Water is poured into the pan, a fire is kindled, and the leaves and
young shoots, freshly plucked, are scattered in, and boiled for about
an hour. At the end of this time they are thrown on to a capacious
sloping trough, the lower end of which projects into the pan, and
squeezed with the hand so that the absorbed liquor may run back into
the boiler. The decoction is then evaporated to the consistence of
a thin syrup, and baled out into buckets. When sufficiently cool it
is subjected to a curious treatment:—instead of simply stirring it
round, the workman pushes a stick of soft wood in a sloping direction
into each bucket; and placing two such buckets before him, he works a
stick up and down in each. The liquid thickens round the stick, and
the thickened portion being constantly rubbed off, while at the same
the whole is in motion, it gradually sets into a mass, a result which
the workman affirms would never be produced by simple stirring round.
Though we are not prepared to concur in the workman’s opinion, it is
reasonable to suppose that his manner of treating the liquor favours
the crystallization of the catechin in a more concrete form than it
might otherwise assume. The thickened mass, which is said by another
writer to resemble soft yellowish clay, is now placed in shallow square
boxes, and when somewhat hardened is cut into cubes and dried in the
shade. The leaves are boiled a second time, and finally washed in
water, which water is saved for another operation.
From informations obtained in 1878 it would appear that now the
prevailing part of gambier is made by means of pressure into blocks.
A plantation with five labourers contains on an average 70,000 to
80,000 shrubs, and yields 40 to 50 catties (1 catty = 1⅓ lb. = 604·8
grammes) of gambier daily.
=Description=—Gambier is an earthy-looking substance of light brown
hue, consisting of cubes about an inch each side, more or less
agglutinated, or it is in the form of entirely compact masses. The
cubes are externally of a reddish-brown and compact, internally of a
pale cinnamon hue, dry, porous, friable, devoid of odour, but with a
bitterish astringent taste, becoming subsequently sweetish. Under the
microscope, the cubes of gambier are seen to consist of very small
acicular crystals.
=Chemical Composition=—In a chemical point of view, gambier agrees with
cutch, especially with the pale variety made in Northern India (p.
242). Both substances consist mainly of _Catechin_,[1284] which may
be obtained in the hydrated state as slender colourless needles, by
exhausting gambier with cold water, and crystallizing the residue from
3 or 4 parts of hot water, which on cooling deposits nearly all the
catechin. Ferric chloride strikes with the solution of catechin, even
when much diluted, a green tint. If it is shaken with ferrous sulphate
and an extremely small quantity of bicarbonate of sodium, a violet
colour makes its appearance. The same reactions are produced by various
substances of the tannic class.
[1283] We borrow the following account, which is the best we have met
with, from Jagor’s _Singapore, Malacca, und Java_, Berlin, 1866. 64.
[1284] Gautier (1877) suggests that it is not identical with catechin
from Acacia Catechin (p. 244).
The yellowish colouring matter of gambier was determined by Hlasiwetz
(1867) and Löwe (1873) to be _Quercetin_, which is also a constituent
of cutch. Quercetin is but very sparingly soluble in water, yet it is
nevertheless found, in small quantity, in the aqueous extract of cutch,
from which it may be removed by means of ether. As many species of
_Nauclea_ contain, according to De Vry,[1285] _Quinovic Acid_, it is
probable that that substance may be detected in gambier.
Some fine gambier in regular cubes which we incinerated left 2·6 per
cent. of ash, consisting mainly of carbonates of calcium and magnesium.
=Commerce=—Singapore, which is the great emporium for gambier, exported
in 1871 no less than 34,248 tons, of which quantity 19,550 tons had
been imported into the colony chiefly from Rhio and the Malayan
Peninsula.[1286] In 1876 the export had increased to more than 50,000
tons of pressed block gambier and 2,700 tons of cubes. In 1877 it
diminished to 39,117 tons, owing to difficulties which had arisen
between the Chinese dealers, who supplied the drug in a rather wet
state, and the European exporters. Of the above quantity 21,607 tons
were shipped for London, 7,572 for Liverpool, 2,345 for Marseilles.
Gambier usually fetches a lower price[1287] in the London market than
cutch.
The quantity imported into the United Kingdom in 1872 was 21,155 tons,
value £451,737, almost the whole being from the Straits Settlements.
=Uses=—Gambier, under the name of _Catechu_, is used medicinally as an
astringent, but the quantity thus consumed is as nothing in comparison
with that employed for tanning and dyeing.
[1285] _Pharm. Journ._ vi. (1865) 18.
[1286] _Blue Book of the Colony of the Straits Settlements for 1871._
[1287] 17_s._ per cwt., March 1879; see Catechu, page 242, note 3.