CAT'ECHIT, a substance employed both as a coloring matter and medicinally as an astringent. The C. of commerce is obtained chiefly from East Indian trees, such as the C. tree (acacia catechu), betel-nut, etc.; but the greater part of that which is exported from India is made from the C. tree. It is known in India by the name ktitt; and C. is said to be a name compounded of two words signifying the juice of a tree (cede, a tree, and chu, juice). Cutch is another form of one or other of these names, and is a common commercial name. The heart-wood alone of the tree yields C., which is obtained by cutting it into small chips, and boiling it in water, straining the liquid from time to time, and adding fresh supplies of chips, till the extract is of sufficient con sistence to be poured into clay molds, which are usually of a square shape; or when of the thickness of tar, it is allowed to harden for two days, so that it will not run. and is formed into balls about the size of oranges, which are placed on husks of rice or on leaves, and appear in commerce enveloped in them. The C. manufacturers in Northern India move to different parts of the country at different seasons, and erect tem porary huts in the jungles, where they carry on their operations. The C. tree abounds chiefly in the Bombay and Bengal presidencies; it is a small, erect, thorny tree, with a roundish head of (generally) prickly branches. Its sapwood is yellow, the heart-wood dark red. C. is brittle, and can readily be broken into fragments; is soluble in water,
and pdssesses an astringent taste, but no odor. It is a very permanent color, and is employed in the dyeing of blacks, browns, fawns, drabs, and greens. It contains much tannin, and an acid called catechuic acid, which can be isolated in white silky crystals. It is often adulterated with earthy substances, but its ready solubility in water and alco hol, should at once show the presence of such, by leaving them behind in an insoluble state.—The C. of the betel-nut is obtained by boiling first the tuts, and then the extract to a proper consistency. A first boiling of the nuts for some hours is said to yield a black kind of C., called kassu; and a second boiling, after the nuts are dried, a yellowish brown kind, called eoury, which is considered the best, and is sold for the highest price. The former appears in commerce under the name of colombo C. or Ceylon C. (or cutch) in the form of circular fiat cakes, covered ou one side with husks of rice. The latter does not seem to reach Europe.--Gambir (q.v.) may be regarded as a kind of catechu. Kino (q.v.) is sometimes confounded with catechu. Terra Japonica, or Japan earth, is an old name for C., not quite disused, which was given to it on the supposition of its being an earthy substance brought from Japan.