COCCULUS INDICUS.
Fructus Cocculi; Cocculus Indicus; F. Coque du Levant; G. Kokkelskörner.
Botanical Origin—Anamirta paniculata Colebrooke, 1822 (Menispermum Cocculus L.; Anamirta Cocculus Wight et Arnott, 1834), a strong climbing shrub found in the eastern parts of the Indian peninsula 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 introduced into Europe through the Arabs, but the fact is difficult of proof; for though Avicenna[137] 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[138] 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,[139] 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[140] thought the drug which he calls Cuculi de Levante to be the fruit of a Solanum growing in Egypt.
Dalechamps[141] repeated this statement in 1586, at which period and for long afterwards, Cocculus Indicus used to reach Europe from Alexandria and other parts of the Levant. Gerarde,[142] who gives a very good figure of it, says it is well known in England (1597) as Cocculus Indicus, otherwise Cocci vel Cocculæ Orientales, and that it is used for destroying vermin and poisoning fish. In 1635 it was subject to an import duty of 2s. per lb., as Cocculus Indiæ.[143]
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 Orientalibus.[144] In the “Pinax” Caspar Bauhin (about 1660) states that Cocculæ officinarum “saepe racematim pediculis hærentes, hederæ corymborum modo, ex Alexandria adferuntur.”
The word Cocculus is derived from the Italian coccola, signifying a small, berry-like fruit.[145] Mattioli remarks that as the berries when first brought from the East to Italy had no special name, they got to be called Coccole di Levante.[146]
Description—The female flower of Anamirta has normally 5 ovaries placed on a short gynophore. The latter, as it grows, becomes raised into a stalk about ½ an inch long, articulated at the summit with shorter stalks, each supporting a drupe, which is a matured ovary. The purple drupes thus produced are 1 to 3 in number, of gibbous ovoid form, with the persistent stigma on the straight side, and in a line with the shorter stalk or carpodium. They grow in a pendulous panicle, a foot or more in length.