The generic name has often been spelled Erythroxylon, especially in older literature[].

Common Name: Coca

General Information

Erythroxylum coca is a shrub or small tree, with very prominent, sometimes warty lenticels on the branches[]. It most commonly grows from 1 - 2 metres tall[].
Widely used as the source of the street drug cocaine, the leaves have long been used by local people as a stimulant to overcome hunger and exhaustion[]. The leaves are also used to make various preparations that are employed in modern medicine. The plant is often cultivated in South America (borderland of the Amazonian basin of Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil to 2.000 m asl), also in the tropical mountains of Africa (Usambara, Cameroon), both legally for its medicinal uses, and illegally to provide the street drug cocaine[]. The custom of chewing coca leaves in Peru is surely very old. During the Inca period it was considered to be a sacred plant and only the sovereigns (kings and clerics) were permitted to use it. Illegal cultivation was hardly punished, also the use for profane purposes. With the decline of the Inca imperium the custom passed rapidly and widely into the common people[]. The present day use of cocaine as a narcotic is a worldwide phenomenon, and there exists a considerable illegal trade. Actually restrictions of the cultivation are achieved in Peru and Bolivia, but it is very difficult to substitute this profitable crop by other useful plants[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

S. America - northern Brazil, Bolivia, Peru.

Habitat

Amazon rainforest.

Properties

Medicinal Rating
Habit	Shrub
Height	1.50 m
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Wild

Cultivation Details

A plant of moderate to higher elevations in the tropics. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 17 - 23°c, but can tolerate 14 - 27°c[]. Mature plants can be killed by temperatures of -5°c or lower, but young growth will be severely damaged at -1°c[]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 1,000 - 2,100mm, but tolerates 700 - 4,000mm[]. Widely cultivated in the Andean region of the tropics, where it locally also occurs wild, the plant is not easy to cultivate elsewhere, and it is little known in other parts of the world. In South-East Asia, it is only grown in botanical gardens, not as a crop[]. The form Erythroxylum coca ipadu is only found as a cultivated plant in Amazonian lowland rain forest areas[].
Grows best in a sunny position[]. Succeeds in most fertile, well-drained soils[]. Prefers a pH in the range 5.5 - 6.5, tolerating 4.3 - 8[].
Plants take 1 - 3 years from seed to the first harvest, and then have an economical life of around 20 years[].
Annual yields are up to 2 tonnes/ha of dried leaves[].

Edible Uses

None known

Medicinal

The leaves contain cocaine and other alkaloids. They are narcotic, cerebral-stimulant and locally anaesthetic[]. The alkaloids are extracted and used to make various pharmaceutical drugs, including a local anaesthetic[, ].
Chewed with lime or plant ashes the leaves cause a feeling of easiness and increasing energy. Therefore they are used by native peoples as a stimulant to better endure hunger, thirst and physical stress[].
An infusion of the leaves serves also as remedy for altitude sickness, the feared 'soroche'[].

Other Uses

None known

Propagation

Seed -

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