Erythroxylum coca
Family: Erythroxylaceae
Genus: Erythroxylum
Species: coca
variety: Lamarck
specific population: 200+ species
Zone: Tropical, Sub-Tropical
Location: South America
The Erythroxylum coca plant is an evergreen shrub found in the fertile, warm valleys of the eastern Andes. The leaves are either oval or elliptical, of thin texture and between three and five centimetres long, resembling laurel or bay leaves. In the subtropical regions where it flourishes, orchids and banana trees grow, but for thousands of years coca (Erythroxylum coca) has been one of the crops most prized by the indigenous peoples of South America. Chewed with a pinch of lime, the leaf releases a mild dose of cocaine alkaloid which numbs sensory nerves, dulls hunger and pain and even provides vitamins otherwise absent in the starch-heavy diet of the highland Indian.
Bolivian coca leaves are oval in outline and vary from 3.5 to 7 centimetres in length, and from 25 to 35 millimetres in breadth. They are brownish-green in colour and are generally well preserved. The veinlets are prominent on the upper surface, and the midrib, which projects at the apex, in the form of a minute horny apiculus, is seen under the lens to lie in a depression, and to bear a distinct raised ridge on the upper surface. On the under surface of the leaf two curved lines run from base to apex on each side of the midrib. The odour is faint but characteristic, and the taste is slightly bitter, followed by a sensation of numbness. Truxillo leaves are generally rather smaller than the Bolivian variety, more broken, and pale green in colour. The ridge above the midrib and the curved lines on each side of it are less distinct, and the veinlets much less prominent on the upper surface.
The wild coca shrub often grows to a height of 3 to 5.5 m (12 to 18 feet). The cultivated plant is usually kept to 6 meters. Diameter of the stem is about 16 centimetres. The plant is very hardy and its roots can penetrate 2 to 3 m into the soil. The reddish branches are straight, alternate. The stem has a whitish bark.
The leaves are lively green, or greenish brown, and clear brown, smooth, slightly glossy, opaque, oval or elliptical, and more or less tapering at the extremities. The leaves are 1.5 to 3 cm wide, and .5 to 11 cm long. A special characteristic of the leaf is an areolate portion bounded by two longitudinal curved lines one on each side of the midrib, and more evident on the under face. The taste is bitter and faintly aromatic. Dried leaves are uncurled, deep green on the upper surface, grey-green on the lower, and have a strong tea-like odour. The flowers are succeeded by red berries. These fruits are drupaceous, oblong, measuring around 1 cm; these produce only one seed (monospermous). The main characteristic of the plant is the perennial renewal of the branches, after cutting, in a geometrical progression.
Habitat:
The wild coca shrubs develop well in tropical humid climates, preferably zones such as clearings in forests, or on the wet side of mountains. Wild species are commonly found in altitudes of 300 to 2000 m. Cultivated plants can thrive in different climatic conditions.
Distribution:
Erythroxylum coca grows throughout the tropical regions in the Eastern Peruvian Andes, mainly Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. It also grows in Colombia, Chile, and in the Brazil Amazon region, and to a lesser extent in Mexico, and the West Indies. It is cultivated in Indonesia.
Cultivated from early times for its leaves which are used as a masticatory. The leaves contain Cocaine, an alkaloid that exerts a stimulant action when chewed.The Native Americans have made significant contributions to today's medicine. The medicinal use of the coca leaf by South America Indians has been incorportated into medicines throughout history.
The history of Cocaine begins thousands of years ago with the coca plant and its use by the natives of South America. Coca belongs to the genus Erythroxylum that includes about 250 species. Its home is the montana tropical region of the eastern Andes Mountains in South America where the Native Americans have used it as a medicinal plant for centuries to treat many illnesses.
Several changes have occurred in history with the medicinal uses of coca, first with its acquisition by the Europeans and Americans, then with the discovery of its main alkaloid, Cocaine. The perceptions of this plant and its major alkaloid have fluctuated, mainly driven by the misconception that they were identical to each other in their medicinal properties.
Failing to properly distinguish coca from Cocaine caused much confusion and controversy. Research concentrated on Cocaine and not its mother plant, which led to several therapeutic uses of Cocaine.
When this active alkaloid is isolated and refined, Cocaine is produced, a drug with an unequalled power to stimulate the pleasure centres of the human brain. The illegal marketing of Cocaine has led to calls by western governments - who ignore the central role that the coca leaf has played in the daily life of the indigenous cultures of the Americas for millennia - for the total elimination of coca plantations.
The word "coca" comes from the Aymara word q'oka, which means "food for travellers and workers". There is some controversy over the plant's precise origin, but some ethnobiologists estimate that coca was first cultivated as long ago as 6000 BC. Archaeological discoveries in Ecuador from the Valdivia Period (3000 BC) certainly provide early proof of the use of coca; ceramic figurines have been found representing men whose most outstanding features are the bulges in the cheeks characteristic of the coca chewer. In Peru and Bolivia, figurative pottery vessels of the Chavin Period and wooden drinking vessels from Tiahuanaco clearly show men, probably priests, chewing coca.
Cocaine was highly regarded in the 1880s and 1890s, when many prominent public figures advocated its use. Pope Leo XII, Sigmund Freud, Jules Verne and Thomas Edison all approved of its use, while Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary supersleuth Sherlock Holmes experienced bursts of lucidity on injecting himself with the drug; the title of the story "The Seven Percent Solution" is a reference to the great detective's preferred dosage.
The United States has declared war on drugs and specifically condemned Cocaine as "a threat to (its) national security". The United States government devotes millions of dollars each year and United States military muscle in an effort to stop Cocaine production at its source - most notably in the jungles of Colombia where the 35-year civil war between the government and Marxist guerrillas is widely perceived as indivisible from the drug trade.
The lethal dose range for Cocaine is 20 mg (intravenously), to a mean of 500 mg (orally), and up to 1.4 g.
Genetic:
Erythroxylum coca haploid number: n = 12
Many alkaloids have been isolated from the coca plant, the primary alkaloids are:
Methylecgonine Cinnamate: (C19H23NO4)
Cocaine: (C17H21NO4)
Ecgonine benzoate: (C16H19NO4)
Truxilline: (C19H23NO4)
Hydroxytropacocaine: (C15H19NO3) (<.1%)
Tropacocaine: (C15H19NO2)
Ecgonine:(C9H15NO3)
Cuscohygrine: (C13H24N2O)
Dihydrocuscohygrine: (C11H20N2O)
Hygrine: (C8H15NO)
Other alkaloids include:
Cocatannic acid: ???
Cocaicine: Cocaine Hydrochloride (C17H21NO4.HCl) ???
Annamyl Cocaine: ???
Hygroline: ???
Cocaine: (C17H21NO4)
Alkaloids not yet discovered:
Ecgonine Isatropate: (C18H21NO4), Tropine Isatropate: (C17H21NO2), Hydrohygrine: (C7H13NO)
Erythroxylum argentinium
Tropacocaine: (C15H19NO2)
Erythroxylum areolatum 'Red Wood or Redheart', 'Brazilian'
Erythroxylum cataractarum 'Brazilian'
Cuscohygrine: (C13H24N2O)
Family: Rubiaceae
Juniperus brasiliensis 'Martius', 'Brazilian' (Erythroxylum catuaba)
Juniperus brasiliensis was reclassified by Lambo Seeds, because its Family and Genus does not match Erythroxylum, formerly called Erythroxylum catuaba. Juniperus brasiliensis does not belong to the family Erythroxylaceae, but instead belongs to the family Rubiaceae.
Juniperus brasiliensis is a medium-sized vigorous growing tree in the northern part of Brazil, the Amazon, Para, Pernambuco, Bahia, Maranhao, and Alagoas. It produces pretty yellow and orange flowers, and small, oval, dark yellow inedible fruit. Juniperus brasiliensis is known by three botanical names in Brazil, Juniperus brasiliensis, Trichillia catigua and 'Erythroxylum catuaba'. Juniperus brasiliensis belongs to family Rubiaceae. Juniperus brasiliensis contains none of the active Cocaine alkaloids.
The constituents found in Juniperus brasiliensis include a bitter substance, alkaloids, tannins, aromatic oils and fatty resins, phytosterols, cyclolignans and a chemical Brazilian scientists named, Ioimbina.
Yohimbine: (C21H26N2O3)
Ioimbina is identified as Yohimbine: (C21H26N2O3);(16a,17a-17-Hydroxyyohimban-16-carboxylic acid methyl ester).
Erythroxylum cumanense
Trimethoxybenzoyl esters: (C10H11O5-R).
(cumanense roots)
Erythroxylum cuneatum 'Asian'
Leaves very variable in size and shape, even on the same twig, mostly obovate, elliptic or oblong, c. (3-)5-11(-18) by 2-3(-7) cm; dark green to greenish brown often shining above, dull light green beneath, shortly acuminate or rounded with a more or less emarginate, mostly mucronate tip, base attenuate or cuneate; midrib nearly always sunken above, very prominent beneath; nerves on both sides equally distinct, often almost horizontal and close together giving a dense nervation, venation delicate; areolation often distinct; petiole 2-7(-9) mm.
3,6-Dicinnamoyloxytropane: (C26H27NO4)
6-Acetoxytropanyl-3-cinnamate: (C19H23NO4)
6-Hydroxytropanol-3-cinnamate: (C17H21NO3)
6-Phenylacetoxytropan-3-ol: (C16H21NO3)
Alkaloids not yet discovered:
6-Hydroxytropanol-3-phenylacetate: (C16H21NO3)
Erythroxylum dekindtii
2-Furoic Acid: (C5H4O3)
Erythroxylum ecarinatum 'Australian'
Erythroxylum hypericifolium
Location: Mauritius, Reunion
Zone: Volcanic Tropical
Alkaloids in the hypericifolium species roots include:
3-Hydroxyphenylacetoxy-6-acetoxytropane: (C18H23NO5)
3-Hydroxyphenylacetoxy-6,7-dihydroxytropanol: (C16H21NO5)
3-Hydroxyphenylacetoxy-6-hydroxytropanol: (C16H21NO4)
6-Hydroxytropanylcinnamate: (C17H21NO3)
3-Hydroxyphenylacetoxytropane: (C16H21NO3)
Phenylacetoxytropane: (C16H21NO2)
Phenylacetoxynortropane: (C15H19NO2)
Hygrine: (C8H15NO)
Erythroxylum kunthianum 'Brazilian'
Classified rare and endangered.
Erythroxylum lucidum
2,1'-Dehydrohygrine: (C8H13NO)
Erythroxylum macrocarpum
6-Dihydroxytropacocaine: (C15H19NO4), Tropacocaine: (C15H19NO2)
Erythroxylum mamacoca
Nortropacocaine: (C14H17NO2), Tropacocaine: (C15H19NO2)
Erythroxylum novogranatense 'Brazilian'
Leaves abundant along the twigs, not soon falling, obovate-oblong, bright green above, paler and glaucous beneath, c. (2-)3-6(-7) by 1-3 cm; rounded or sometimes emarginate, always with a mucronate tip or notch, attenuate at the base; midrib rather prominent beneath, specially at the base, nerves numerous, on both surfaces equally distinct, venation delicately anastomosing, central part included between the areolation lines slightly concave and of a paler colour on both surfaces; petiole thin, c. 3-7 mm.
Methylecgonine Cinnamate: (C19H23NO4), Cocaine: (C17H21NO4), 1-Hydroxytropacocaine: (C15H19NO3) (0.3-.07%), Dihydrocuscohygrine: (C11H20N2O), Cuscohygrine: (C13H24N2O)
Erythroxylum previllei
(0.2% alkaloids)
Erythroxylum sideroxyloides
6-Dihydroxytropacocaine: (C15H19NO4), 6-Hydroxytropacocaine: (C15H19NO3), Tropacocaine: (C15H19NO2), Nortropacocaine: (C14H17NO2)
Erythroxylum truxillense 'Brazilian'
Methylecgonine Cinnamate: (C19H23NO4), Cocaine: (C17H21NO4), Hydroxytropacocaine: (C15H19NO3) (0.3-.07%), Dihydrocuscohygrine: (C11H20N2O), Cuscohygrine: (C13H24N2O)
Erythroxylum ulei
Tropacocaine: (C15H19NO2)
Erythroxylum vacciniifolium
Pyrrole-2-carboxylate: (C5H5NO)
Erythroxylum zambesiacum
7b-Acetoxy-6b-benzoyloxy-3a-(3,4,5-trimethoxycinnamoyloxy)tropane: (C29H33NO9)
6b-Benzoyloxy-3a-(3,4,5-trimethoxycinnamoyl)-tropan-7b-ol: (C27H31NO8)
Tropine 3,4,5-Trimethoxybenzoate: (C18H25NO5)
6'-Benzoyloxytropanone: (C16H19NO3)
6b-Benzoyloxytropan-3a,7b-diol: (C15H19NO4)
6b-Benzoyloxytropanol: (C15H19NO3)
6-Isovaleryloxytropanol: (C13H23NO3)
6-Hydroxytropanylisovalerate: (C13H23NO3)
Alkaloids not yet discovered:
6,7-Dihydroxytropanol-2-methylbutyrate: (C13H23NO4)
6-Hydroxytropanylisovalerate: (C13H23NO3)
Australian Erythroxylum Shrub
Family: Erythroxylaceae
Genus: Erythroxylum
Species: australe
Erythroxylum australe 'Australian'
A shrub that grows up to 4.5 meters tall with leaves from 1 cm to 3.5 cm long. Erythroxylum australe has round to ovate ~6mm red drupe (red berry) containing a single seed. The ripe fruit is up to 1 cm long, red and contains one seed. The flowers are solitary or paired with white petals. Its habitat ranges fromstony/rocky hillside slopes to open sclerophyll forest, from NT through Queensland to northern NSW.
Branchlets reddish-brown with numerous lenttcels. Prominent stipules enclosing terminal buds, soon shed, their scars encircling the twigs. Leaves small, hairless, thin, 1.5-3 cm long, elliptic to obovate, blunt or rounded at the apex, dull green above, paler below with prominent lateral veins; margins thickened and bent under. Fruit a red drupe, to 7 mm long. Some alkaloid bases found present besides Meteloidine, Dihydroxy or Trihydroxy Tropanes.
History: Erythroxylum australe doesn't have much history of usage but E. coca is used in Peru. It is used to combat fatigue and cocaine is made from the leaves. All Erythroxylaceae species are declared prohibited plants in NSW.
How a native species to Australia can be 'declared prohibited' is a mystery to botanical scientists, an analogy would be declaring a tree prohibited from a forest, or water prohibited from a lake.
Active Constituents: The leaves contain 0.8% Meteloidine: (C13H21NO4) (6,7-Dihydroxytigloidine), a Tigloidine: (C13H21NO2) based alkaloid.
There are several other Erythroxylum species native to Australia, but only one other has been tested for alkaloids. Erythroxylum australe is known to contain 0.05% Hygrine: (C8H15NO), which is also found in Erythroxylum coca. Alkaloids discovered in the australe species are:
2-Hydroxytropinephenylpropionate: (C17H23NO3)
6-Oxy-7-hydroxytigloidine: (C13H19NO4) (6-Oxy-7-hydroxynortropine Tiglate)
Desoxymeteloidine: (C13H19NO3)
6-Oxytigloidine: (C13H19NO3) (6-Oxytropanol Tiglate)
7-Hydroxy-6-tigloyloxynortropanyl: (C12H19NO3)
Tigloyloxynortropine: (C12H17NO3)
Dihydroxynortropine: (C7H13NO3)
Littorine: (unknown)
The roots of Erythroxylum australe are known to contain:
Dihydroxytropacocaine: (C15H19NO4) (Dihydroxytropan benzoate), Methylecgonidine: (C10H15NO2) as its principle alkaloid.
Note: All these substances are legal to posess in the United States, and are not listed on any schedules or Federal or State Laws.
Alkaloids not yet discovered:
Tigloidine: (C13H21NO2)
Erythroxylum australe is legal to cultivate in the United States.
Erythroxylum australe seeds are legal to posess in the United States.
Erythroxylum australe is exempt from DEA schedule II because it does not contain Cocaine or Ecgonine.
Erythroxylum australe does not contain Cocaine or Ecgonine.
Erythroxylum ecarinatum
Classified rare and endangered.
Erythroxylum ecarinatum grows up to 15 meters tall!, with slender trunk. The leaves are bright green from 5 to 10 cm long by 1 to 4 cm across. Its white flowers occur in groups of 3 to 7, are bell shaped and are about 2 mm across. Erythroxylum ecarinatum contains Tropacocaine. With .11% alkaloids with Tropacocaine as its principal alkaloid in specimens from the Atherton Tableland.
Erythroxylum ecarinatum 'Australian Leaves'
Erythroxylum ecarinatum has a long ovate ~12mm red drupe (berry) turning brown to black on maturity containing a single seed. The fruit is red when ripe, up to 1.5 cm long and is ripe during February/March. Its habitat is in the rainforests of the Atherton Tableland, Queensland, in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and on the Indonesia islands of Sulawesi and the Moluccas.
Erythroxylum ecarinatum is legal to cultivate in the United States.
Erythroxylum ecarinatum seeds are legal to posess in the United States.
Erythroxylum ecarinatum is exempt from DEA schedule II because it does not contain Cocaine or Ecgonine.
Erythroxylum ellipticum
Erythroxylum ellipticum is a Queensland tree growing to a height of 10 meters to 35 ft!. The leaves are from 3 to 6 cm long by 1 to 2 cm across. Its white flowers occur in groups of 3 to 6, are bell shaped and are about 4 mm across. The fruit is reddish, up to .8 cm long. Its habitat is in woodlands, from the Kimberly region of WA, across the top of NT and into Queensland in the Gulf of Capricorn and Cape York regions. It is sometimes known as Kerosene Wood or Turpentine Tree as its wood burns green. Extraction of stem bark, collected from a tree growing in Eucalyptus forest near Laura, has afforded .32% of crude alkaloids. The major component of the alkaloids is Tropine 3,4,5-Trimethoxycinnamate, the identification of which has been confirmed by comparison with synthetic prepared from Tropine and 3,4,5-Trimethoxycinnamoyl chloride. Chromatography indicates that a second component, Tropacocaine (Tropine benzoate, Benzoyltropine), is also present.
Erythroxylum ellipticum is legal to cultivate in the United States.
Erythroxylum ellipticum seeds are legal to posess in the United States.
Erythroxylum ellipticum is exempt from DEA schedule II because it does not contain Cocaine or Ecgonine.
Tropacocaine is a local anaesthetic with properties similar to Cocaine, but acts more rapidly than Cocaine. It also has about only half of the toxicity as Cocaine. It is also known to have a anticholinolytic action similar to Scopolamine and Atropine. Tropacocaine (Benzoyltropine), has an anticholinolytic action similar to Atropine, but about only 1/100 the activity of Atropine. None of the alkaloids found in Erythroxylum ellipticum have been used entheogenically, so its unknown how dangerous or what effects they will induce.
Other related active alkaloids that are not yet entheogenically discovered are Methyl-Ecgonine 3,4,5-Trimethoxycinnamate (C22H29NO7) (Australian Cocaine), Tropine Tiglate: (C12H19NO2), Methyl-Ecgonine Tiglate (C15H23NO4).
All these alkaloids are legal to posess in the United States, and are not listed on any schedules or Federal or State laws.
DEA Schedule II
'Erythroxylum coca...'
Coca leaves and any salt, compound, derivative or preparation of coca leaves (including cocaine and ecgonine and their salts, isomers, derivatives and salts of isomers and derivatives), and any salt, compound, derivative, or preparation thereof which is chemically equivalent or identical with any of these substances, except that the substances shall not include decocainized coca leaves or extraction of coca leaves, which extractions do not contain Cocaine or Ecgonine.
NOTE: The decocanized coca leaves are legal in the United States.
All Erythroxylum species are legal to cultivate in the United States except Erythroxylum coca.
All Erythroxylum species seeds are legal to posess in the United States.
Erythroxylum australe is exempt from DEA schedule II because it does not contain Cocaine or Ecgonine.
definition: (e) (i) "Controlled substance" means a drug or substance included in Schedules I, II, III, IV, or V of Section 58-37-4, and also includes a drug or substance included in Schedules I, II, III, IV, or V of the Federal Controlled Substances Act, Title II, P.L. 91-513, or any controlled substance analog.
NOTE: Of more than 200 species of hallucinogenic plants only five plants and one mushroom are legally prohibited from alkaloid extraction in the United and States by Federal Law. Erythroxylum coca 'Lamarck', Tabernanthe Iboga, Papaver somniferum 'Linnaeus', Cannabis sativa/indica 'viable', Lophophora williamsii 'Lemaire', Psilocybe cubensis 'native'
Australia is a signatory to the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic In Narcotic Drugs And Psychotropic Substances.
Australian Treaty Series 1993 No 4
Department Of Foreign Affairs And Trade - Canberra
Article 1 - Definitions:
(c) "Coca bush" means the plant of any species of the genus Erythroxylon
(r) "Psychotropic substance" means any substance, natural or synthetic, or any natural material in Schedules I, II, III and IV of the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, 1971.
Article 3 - Definitions:
(ii) The cultivation of opium poppy, coca bush or cannabis plant for the purpose of the production of narcotic drugs contrary to the provisions of the 1961 Convention and the 1961 Convention as amended.
Erythroxylon acuminatum
Erythroxylon anguifugum
Erythroxylum areolatum 'Brazilian'
Erythroxylum argentinum 'Madagascarian'
Erythroxylum australe 'Australian'
Erythroxylum cataractarum 'Brazilian'
Erythroxylum coca 'Peruvian'
Erythroxylum cumanense 'Madagascarian'
Erythroxylum cuneatum 'Asian', 'Madagascarian'
Erythroxylum dekindtii
Erythroxylum delagoense 'African'
Erythroxylum ecarinatum 'Australian', endangered
Erythroxylum ellipticarum, ellipticum 'Australian'
Erythroxylum glaucum 'Madagascarian'
Erythroxylum hypericifolium 'Mauritius', 'Reunion'
Erythroxylum kunthianum 'Brazilian', endangered
Erythroxylum lanceolatum
Erythroxylum leandrianum 'Madagascarian'
Erythroxylum lucidum
Erythroxylum macrocarpum 'Mauritius'
Erythroxylum mamacoca 'Madagascarian'
Erythroxylum monogynum
Erythroxylum moonii
Erythroxylum neocaledonicum
Erythroxylum novogranatense 'Brazilian'
Erythroxylum obtusifolium
Erythroxylum retusum
Erythroxylum truxillense 'Brazilian'
Erythroxylum vacciniifolium 'Martius'
Reclassified:
Juniperus brasiliensis 'Martius', 'Brazilian' (Erythroxylum catuaba)
STATUS: Erythroxylum coca plants are Illegal/banished in the United States and Australia. ALL other Erythroxylum species are legal to cultivate and posess in the United States.
NOTE: Seeds only viable 4 weeks and are highly seasonal.
Erythroxylum coca SEEDS are legal to posess everywhere in the United States.
Exportation of Erythroxylum coca seeds from Colombia is prohibited.
Exportation of Erythroxylum coca seeds from India is prohibited.
Exportation of Erythroxylum coca seeds from Peru is prohibited.
Exportation of Erythroxylum coca seeds from Brazil is prohibited.
Exportation of Erythroxylum species plants or seeds from Brasil is strictly prohibited by the Brazilian authority.
Brasil is a protectorate of its genetic diversity.
Erythroxylum coca seeds are available for import at:
Exportation of this product from India is prohibited.
Shivalik Seeds will not negotiate export of Erythroxylum coca seeds. (in India Only).
Due to logistical and seed viability limitations, Lambo Seeds no longer sells or distributes Erythroxylaceae seeds.
Lambo Seeds has been unable to locate a reliable source for any Erythroxylaceae seeds.
'Erythroxylum coca' seeds
'Erythroxylum ecarinatum', 'Erythroxylum australe' seeds