_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 2_s._ 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.”
[137] Valgrisi edition, 1564. lib. ii. tract. 2. cap. 488.
[138] Sontheimer’s transl. ii. 460.
[139] _De Natura Stirpium_, Paris, 1536. lib. iii. c. 4.
[140] _Adnotationes_, 1549. cap. 63 (p. 509).
[141] _Hist. Gen. Plant._ 1586. 1722.
[142] _Herball_, Lond. 1636. 1548-49.
[143] _The Rates of Marchandizes_, Lond. 1635.
[144] It forms part of his work _De Christiana ac tuta medendi
ratione_, Ferrariæ, 1591.
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.
These fruits removed from their stalks and dried have the aspect of
little round berries, and constitute the Cocculus Indicus of commerce.
As met with in the market they are shortly ovoid or subreniform,
⁴/₁₀ to ⁵/₁₀ of an inch long, with a blackish, wrinkled surface, and
an obscure ridge running round the back. The shorter stalk, when
present, supports the fruit very obliquely. The pericarp, consisting
of a wrinkled skin covering a thin woody endocarp, encloses a single
reniform seed, into which the endocarp deeply intrudes. In transverse
section the seed has a horseshoe form; it consists chiefly of albumen,
enclosing a pair of large, diverging lanceolate cotyledons, with a
short terete radicle.[147]
The seed is bitter and oily, the pericarp tasteless. The drug is
preferred when of dark colour, free from stalks, and fresh, with the
seeds well-preserved.
=Microscopic Structure=—The woody endocarp is built up of a peculiar
sclerenchymatous tissue, consisting of branched, somewhat elongated
cells. They are densely packed, and run in various directions,
showing but small cavities. The parenchyme of the seed is loaded with
crystallized fatty matter.
=Chemical Composition=—_Picrotoxin_, a crystallizable substance
occurring in the seed to the extent of ⅖ to 1 per cent., was observed
by Boullay, as early as 1812, and is the source of the poisonous
property of the drug. Picrotoxin does not neutralize acids. It
dissolves in water and in alkalis; the solution in the latter reduces
cupric or bismutic oxide like the sugars, but to a much smaller extent
than glucose. The alcoholic solutions deviate the ray of polarized
light to the left. The aqueous solution of picrotoxin is not altered
by any metallic salt, or by tannin, iodic acid, iodohydrargyrate or
bichromate of potassium—in fact by none of the reagents which affect
the alkaloids. It may thus be easily distinguished from the bitter
poisonous alkaloids, although in its behaviour with concentrated
sulphuric acid and bichromate of potassium it somewhat resembles
strychnine, as shown in 1867 by Köhler.
[145] Frutto d’alcuni alberi, e d’alcune piante, o erbe salvatiche,
come cipresso, ginepro, alloro, pugnitopo, e lentischio, e simili.—Lat.
_bacca_; Gr. ἀκρόδρνα.—_Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca._
[146] Quoted by J. J. von Tschudi, _Die Kokkelskörner und das
Pikrotoxin_, St. Gallen, 1847.
[147] The fruit should be macerated in order to examine its structure.
Picrotoxin melts at 200° C.; its composition, C₉H₁₀O₄, as ascertained
in 1877 by Paternò and Oglialoro, is the same as that of everninic,
hydrocoffeïc, umbellic and veratric (or dimethyl-protocatechuic
acid—see Semen Sabadillæ) acids.
Pelletier and Couerbe (1833) obtained from the pericarp of Cocculus
Indicus two crystallizable, tasteless, non-poisonous substances,
having the same composition, and termed respectively _Menispermine_
and _Paramenispermine_. These bodies, as well as the very doubtful
amorphous _Hypopicrotoxic Acid_ of the same chemists, require
re-examination.
The fat of the seed, which amounts to about half its weight, is used in
India for industrial purposes. Its acid constituent, formerly regarded
as a peculiar substance under the name of _Stearophanic_ or _Anamirtic
Acid_, was found by Heintz to be identical with stearic acid.
=Commerce=—Cocculus Indicus is imported from Bombay and Madras, but
we have no statistics showing to what extent. The stock in the dock
warehouses of London on 1st of December, 1873, was 1168 packages,
against 2010 packages on the same day of the previous year. The drug is
mostly shipped to the Continent, the consumption in Great Britain being
very small.
=Uses=—In British medicine Cocculus Indicus is only employed as an
ingredient of an ointment for the destruction of _pediculi_. It has
been discarded from the _British Pharmacopœia_, but has a place in that
of India.