Erythroxylum coca

Botanical Description

Erythroxylum coca is a shrub or small tree, with very prominent, sometimes warty lenticels on the branches[ 310 Title Plant Resources of Southeast Asia Publication Author Website http://proseanet.org/ Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description Lots of information on the uses of the plants of SE Asia. ]. It most commonly grows from 1 - 2 metres tall[ 418 Title Ecocrop Publication Author Website http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available. ]. 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[ 310 Title Plant Resources of Southeast Asia Publication Author Website http://proseanet.org/ Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description Lots of information on the uses of the plants of SE Asia. ]. 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[ 317 Title Mansfeld's Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Plants Publication Author Website http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/pls/htmldb_pgrc/f?p=185:3:4292127278597336 Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description Terse details of a huge range of useful plants. ]. 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[ 317 Title Mansfeld's Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Plants Publication Author Website http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/pls/htmldb_pgrc/f?p=185:3:4292127278597336 Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description Terse details of a huge range of useful plants. ]. 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[ 317 Title Mansfeld's Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Plants Publication Author Website http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/pls/htmldb_pgrc/f?p=185:3:4292127278597336 Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description Terse details of a huge range of useful plants. ].