k 



COCCULUS INDICUS. 31 



wliitish 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 am^re " from French Guiana. 



COCCULUS INDICUS. 



Fructus Cocculi ; Cocculus Ivdicus ; F. Coque du Levant ; 

 G. Kokkelskoi^er. 



Botanical Origin — Anamirta paniculata Colehrooke, 1822 {Menis- 

 ]?emium Cocculus L.; Anamirta Cocculus Wight et Arnott, 1834), a 

 strong climbing shrub found in the eastern pai-ts 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 bark, and make no 

 allusion to it as a production of India. Even Ibn Baytar " 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 

 Salerno. The first mention of it we have met with is by Ruellius,'* 

 who, alluding to the property possessed by the roots of Aristolochia 

 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 water stupify the fishes, so that they may be 

 captured by the hand. 



Valerius Cordus * thought the drug which he calls Cucidi de 

 Levante to be the fruit of a Solanuni growing in Egypt. 



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

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

 andria and other parts of the Levant. Gerarde,^ who gives a very good 

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

 Indicus, otherwise Cocci vel Cocculce Orientales, and that it is used for 

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

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



The use of Cocculus Indicus in medicine was advocated by Battista 

 Codronchi, a celebrated Italian physician of the 16th century, in a 

 tractate entitled De Baccis OHeiitaUhus? In the "Pinax" Caspar 

 Bauhiu (about 1660) states that Cocculce ojffici'naruvi " saepe racematim 

 pediculis hserentes, hederse corymborum modo, ex Alexandria 

 adferuntur." 



The word Cocculus is derived from the Italian coccola, signifying a 



1 Valgrisi edition, 1564. lib. ii. tract. 2. ^ Hist. Gen. Plant. 1586. 1722. 

 cap. 488. 6 Herball, Lond. 1636. 1548—49. 



2 Sontheimer's transl. ii. 460. '" The Rates of Marchandizes, Lond. 1635. 

 * De Natura Stirpium, Paris, 1538. lib. * It fomis part of his work £>e Christiana 



iii. c. 4. ac tuta medendi ratione, Ferrarise, 1591. 



* Adnotatinnes, 1549. cap. 63 (p. 509). 



