Anamirta cocculus (L.) Wight & Arn. - Menispermaceae - fishberry, Levantnut, **Indische Scheinmyrte**, Kokkelskörnerstrauch, Kokkelspflanze

Evergreen climber, native to India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.

"A large, woody vine with corky, gray bark and white wood. The stems are sometimes 10cm thick with stout, smooth branches. Leaves are heart-shaped, 10 to 20 cm long with pointed or tapering apex. Flowers are small, yellowish white, sweet-scented, 6 to 7 mm across, crowded on 3 to 4 ½ cm long pendulous panicles. Ligtang fruit is a drupe, round, smooth and hard about 1 cm in diameter when dry." [[http://erdb.denr.gov.ph/publications/rise/r_v12n2.pdf]]

The dried berries of A.cocculus (Cocculus indicus) contain oxidized sesquiterpenes like the GABA-A channel blocker [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picrotoxin|picrotoxin]] (mixture of picrotin and picrotoxinin), methyl picrotoxate, dihydroxypicrotoxinin and picrotoxic acid. \\
[Two picrotoxin derivatives from Anamirta cocculus. Agarwal, S. K., Singh, S. S., Verma, S., & Kumar, S., Phytochemistry, Vol.50(8), 1999, 1365-1368]

Picrotoxin was proven an efficient part of conservative therapy of Ménière's disease with less adverse effects. [Picrotoxin als Therapeutikum bei M. Menière?, S Weikert, M Hoelzl, H Scherer, HNO-Informationen (Kongressabstracts), 2005, 84 - 353]

{{:anamirta_cocculus.jpg?500}}\\
Hamilton, E., Flora homoeopathica, vol.1 t.22 (1852) \\
[[http://plantgenera.org/species.php?id_species=57065]]