History.—The kola tree grows in a somewhat limited locality, comprising that portion of western Africa between Sierra Leone and the Congo and Lower Guinea. It thrives at about or a little higher than the sea level, in hot and moist situations. When conditions of soil and climate are favorable, it grows inland from the points mentioned 500 or 600 miles. It has been found elsewhere, though undoubtedly introduced, as in Jamaica, where it was distributed by slave traders. The English and French have introduced it into many of their possessions, and the gulf and Pacific coast districts of the United States are said to possess the required climate and soil for its growth in this country. The travels of Leo Africanus (in the 16th century) referred to this tree as the Gora or Guru, and he wrote concerning its bitter nut. Clusius (1591) described and illustrated the seeds. J. Bauhin first referred to its medicinal use, noting its employment by the natives in fevers. Kola seeds have been used by the African natives from time immemorial as a necessity and a luxury. It figured as an indispensable necessity in many ceremonials—social, political, and religious. It was used as a declaration of war (red nut), and as a symbol of peace (white nut). It figured in courtship and marriage, compacts of friendship, as a mark of hospitality, and was put into the graves of the dead to nourish them on their long journey. The natives masticated kola to allay hunger, prevent thirst, promote digestion, and sustain strength. Like the so-called Indian clearing nut, it was accredited with the property of purifying and sweetening water. The natives prefer it over tea and coffee, and innumerable are the fabulous virtues ascribed to it. […] In 1883, Heckel and Schlagdenhauffen published a detailed monograph concerning it, entitled “Sur les Kolas Africains.” It now has an extensive commerce in this country. (For exhaustive and instructive matter concerning kola consult “Kola,” by Frederick Stearns & Co., and Kola Illustrated, by Johnson & Johnson; see also an interesting illustrated paper by F. B. Kilmer, on Bissy nuts, the Kola of the West Indies, in Amer. Drug., 1894, p. 356.)
Description.—Kola nuts, so-called, are the cotyledons of the seeds, deprived of their purplish, cartilaginous testa. The irregular seeds, owing to close nesting in the follicle, have a compressed, somewhat triangular and subtetragonal shape, and bear considerable resemblance to the horse-chestnut. The cotyledons, which may number from 2 to 5, are fleshy and thick, and about 1 inch in length. They have, when fresh, a bitterish, somewhat astringent taste. When dried, however, they possess a mild and faintly aromatic taste, and an odor that has been compared to that of nutmegs. There are two varieties of kola nut—the white kola, which is more nearly “a pale greenish-yellow,” and the red kola—both being yielded by the same species, and often occurring in the same pod.
Chemical History and Composition.—O. Dapper, in his description of Africa (Amsterdam, 1670), states that the kola nut, “as experience teacheth, eaten in the evening, hindereth sleep” (J. O. Schlotterbeck, in “Kola,” published by F. Stearns & Co.). That this effect was due to the presence of theine (caffeine), was ascertained, in 1864, by Dr. Daniell, a noted traveller in West Africa, who also supplied Dr. Attfield with the drug for the purpose of analysis. Beside theine (caffeine) (2.13 per cent), starch (42.5 per cent), ash (3.20 per cent), volatile oil, fat, albuminoids, gum, and sugar were found by the latter chemist (Pharm. Jour. Trans., 1864, Vol. VI, p. 450).
One sentence omitted from History: it demeans the people it describes.