COCCULUS IISDICUS. 31 



•whitish bark. Internally it is marked by numerous regular concentric 

 zones, is of a bright yellow ,colour and of a bitter taste. It contains 

 berberine. The same drug, apparently, was exhibited in the Paris 

 exposition of 1878 as " Liane araerc " from French Guiana. 



i^erm 



COCCULUS INDICUS. 



Fructus Cueculi; Cocculus Indicus ; F. Coque du Levant ; 



G. KoJtkelskdrner. 



Botanical Origin — Anamirtapanicaltda Colehrookc, 1822 {Men'is- 



strong climbing shrub found in the eastern parts of the Indian penin- 

 sula from Concan and Orissa to Malabar and Ceylon, in Eastern Bengal, 

 Khasia and Assam, and in the Malayan Islands. 



History — It is commonly asserted that Cocculus Indicus was intro- 

 duced into Europe through the Arabs, but the fact is difficult of proof; 

 for though Avicenna^ and other early writers mention a drug having 

 the power of poisoning fish, they describe it as a hark, and make no 

 allusion to it as a production of India. Even Ibn Bay tar ^ in the 13th 

 century professed his inability to discover what substance the older 

 Arabian authors had in view. 



Cocculus Indicus is not named by the writers of the School of 

 J^alerno. The first mention of it we have met with is by Kuellius,* 

 \vno, alluding to the property possessed by the roots of A ristol ochi a. 

 and Cyclamen of attracting fishes, states that the same power exists in 

 the little berries found in the shops under the name of Cocci Orientis, 

 which when scattered on w^ater stupify the fishes, so that they ma\' be 

 capturedby the hand. 



Valerius Cordus * thought the drug which he calls Cuculi de 

 ^evante to be the fruit of a Soktnum growing in Egypt. 



Dalechamps* repeated this statement in 1586, at which period and 

 or long afterwards, Cocculus Indicus used to reach Europe from Alex- 

 aHuria and other parts of the Levant. Gerardc,^ who gives a very good 

 ngure of it, says it is well known in England (1597) as Cocculus 

 y(ai<3u«, otherwise Cocci vel Cocculoe Orientales, and that it is used for 

 aestioymg vermin and poisoning fish. In 1635 it was subject to an 

 irapm duty of 2s. per lb., as Cocculus IndiceJ 



Ine use of Cocculus Indicus in medicine was advocated by Battista 

 ^odronchi, a celebrated Italian physician of the 16th century, in a 

 tr-actate entitled De Baccls OrientaUhus? In the "Pinax" Caspar 



liauhi 



ifficinarvm "saepe 



[ /^iculis hasrentes, hederae coiTmborum mudo, ex Alexaiid 

 adferuntur " 



Ital 



1 ^- 



cap JQ^"^' etlition, -1.504. lib. li. tract. 2. » Jlist. Gen. Plant. 1586. 1722. 



asonfv. • . '^ JJerball, Lond. IG.Srj. l.'>48— 40. 



» neX^T'"'' "^ *'"^°8l. ii. 460. r Th e Rates of Marcha ndU s, Lou J. 1 035. 



iii. c. 4 "'"'■" '^itrpium, Paris, lo-S"^. lib. « It forms part of his work Be Chrl^tkum 



4 ,1,7" ... ac tuta medendi ratione, Ferrariae, 1591. 

 ■""^'"'"■""'^ lo40. cap. 6.3 (p. 509). 



