How does a fish poison save lives?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
May 28, 2002
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
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Indian or fishberries (Anamirta cocculus (L.) Wight and Arnold) were known in the old herbals as Fructus cocculi meaning the fruit of Cocculus indicus. This vine is native to the Coast of Malabar and islands around India. The nut-like seeds joined the trade routes through the Middle East--one of its common names indicating both misuse and general misunderstanding of geography was Coca del Levant (cocaine of the Middle East).
Native fishermen in India first used the crushed seeds scattered on water to stupefy fish. The fish were simply harvested by wading or from a boat. This use had become common in England by the 1500s. Gerard's Herbal (1633 ed.) stated, "In England we use the fruit called Cocculus Indi in powder...to catch fish with, it being a numbing, soporiferous, or sleeping medicine, causeth the fish to turn up their bellies, as being senseless for a time."
In India, the oily ground seeds were worked through hair to kill lice and to treat cases of skin fungi. This treatment could not have been pleasant, since the application is said to cause a severe scarlet eruption of the skin. King's American Dispensatory (Felter and Lloyd, 1898) recommended the powder or an ointment "applied in barber's itch, scald-head, itch, and other unyielding diseases of the skin."
At the time King's American Dispensatory was written, the active chemical, picrotoxin, had been discovered. Doctors were coming to understand antagonistic drug reactions and picrotoxin, in minute doses, was recommended to treat cases of strychnine poisoning. Medical Botany (Lewis and Elvin-Lewis, 1977) reports, "...picrotoxin...is effective in restoring respiration depressed by barbiturates or morphine and thus finds its therapeutic use as an antidote for these drugs."
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia has a herbarium drawing of Anamirta cocculus and more information. To view the drawing click on the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamirta_cocculus
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading:
What is a jicama? Weird Plants - June 5, 2003
What is Queen Anne's lace? What's in a Name? - July 26, 2002
Why must horseradish be grated? Weird Plants - August 15, 2002
What canna is edible? Weird Plants - September 19, 2002
How does a fish poison save lives? Plants that Changed History - May 28, 2002
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Wollemi Pine
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Exclusively from National Geographic, this survivor from the age of the dinosaurs is one of the greatest living fossils discovered in the 20th century. The Wollemi pine is one of the world's oldest and rarest tree species, belonging to a 200-million-year-old plant family thought to have been extinct for more than two million years.
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Previously known only from fossil records, it was presumed extinct until a single tree was found in the Wollemi National Park, Australia, in 1994. Subsequent research discovered 100 adult trees that have survived in a single canyon in this wild and rugged area.
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