Sarcoca dodecandra, basionym

Basionym

Basionym is a term used in botany, regulated by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature...

 Phytolacca dodecandra, commonly known as endod, Gopo Berry, or African soapberry, is a trailing shrub or climber native to Tropical Africa

Tropical Africa

Although tropical Africa is most familiar in the West as depicted by its rain forests, this region of Africa is far more diverse. While the tropics are thought of as regions with warm to hot moist climates caused by latitude and the tropical rain belt, the geology of areas, particularly mountain...

, Southern Africa

Southern Africa

Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...

, and Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

.

Endod (as it is known in Amharic) has been selected and cultivated by Africans for centuries, particularly in Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. It is used as a soap and shampoo as well as a poison to stun fish. Endod is lethal to snails - a fact discovered by Ethiopian scientists - and may be effective controlling schistosomiasis

Schistosomiasis

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by several species of trematodes , a parasitic worm of the genus Schistosoma. Snails often act as an intermediary agent for the infectious diseases until a new human host is found...

. After Aklilu Lemma

Aklilu Lemma

Aklilu Lemma was an Ethiopian physician. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1989, jointly with Legesse Wolde-Yohannes, for their work and discoveries on how to prevent the parasitic disease bilharzia.-References:...

, an Ethiopian scientist, demonstrated endod's potency to American scientists, they took out a patent, hoping to sell endod as a biological control for the Zebra mussel

Zebra mussel

The zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha, is a small freshwater mussel. This species was originally native to the lakes of southeast Russia being first described in 1769 by a German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in the Ural, Volga and Dnieper rivers. They are still found nearby, as Pontic and Caspian...

, a pest in the Great Lakes of the US and Canada
.