Coca
Family Erythroxylaceae
Erythroxylum coca, coca (E. coca 1), is a native shrub in tropical and subtropical South America, growing between 300 and 2000 m altitude; 1-2 m tall, with a reddish-brown bark, light green simple elliptic leaves, up to 7 cm long, and small white flowers (E. coca 2). The fruit is an ovoid drupe, reddish-orange in colour.
Use
Coca leaves contain about 1% of cocaine, an alkaloid that acts directly on the nervous system, causing psychic exaltation and permitting people to resist physical and mental fatigue for long periods. For that reason the Indians used coca for centuries. Dried leaves are chewed and formed into a quid that is held against the cheek. Added lime stimulates the release of cocaine, which acts immediately on the nervous system. Cocaine was first isolated in 1860 and has been used in medicine since 1884 as a local anaesthetic. For that purpose it has been cultivated in India, Java and Sri Lanka. At the end of the 19th century coca was used in stimulating drinks like Coca-Cola. Today it is not longer used in drinks, but it is still important as a local anaesthetic. It is also a habit-forming drug, usually in the form of cocainehydrochloride; a white powder of purified cocaine salts. This drug causes exaltation and in bigger concentrations hallucinations. It is very addictive, with the result that increasingly bigger quantities of it are needed to achieve the same effect.