Erythroxylum coca (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Erythroxylum coca Lamk

Protologue: Encycl. méth. Bot. 2: 393 (1786).

Synonyms

• Erythroxylum peruvianum Prescott (1847),
• Erythroxylum bolivianum Burck (1890).

Vernacular names

• Coca, Peru coca, Peruvian coca (En).

Distribution

E. coca var. coca (Bolivian or Huánoco coca) is widely cultivated in the Andean region, where it locally also occurs wild. It 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. E. coca var. ipadu (Amazonian coca) is only found as cultivated plant in Amazonian lowland rain forest areas.

Uses

E. coca is the most important commercial coca species, cultivated for the legal or illegal production of cocaine. The leaves are used as a masticatory by millions of Indians in South America.

Observations

• A shrub or small tree, with very prominent, sometimes warty lenticels on the branches.
• Leaves mainly at the end of the twigs, early caducous, broad-elliptical, 3-8 cm × 2-4 cm, base cuneate, apex acuminate or rounded with a mucronate tip.
• Flowers in clusters of 6-12, rarely more, in the axils of leaves or ramenta, pedicel 4-6 mm, calyx with a 0.2-1 mm long tube and 5 lobes, triangular-ovate, 1-2 mm long, acute, green, petals oblong, 4-4.5 cm × 2 mm, yellow or yellowish green.
• Fruit oblong-ovoid, pointed, 7-10 mm × 3-4.5 mm, red.

E. coca has heterodistylous flowers, and self-pollination or pollination between plants of the same flower type gives few seeds. In Bogor it produces abundant fruit but not much foliage.

Selected sources

• 193.Bruneton, J., 1995. Pharmacognosy, phytochemistry, medicinal plants. Technique & Documentation Lavoisier, Paris, France. 915 pp.
• 379.Duke, J.A., Aulik, D. & Plowman, T., 1975. Nutritional value of coca. Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University 24(6): 113-119.
• 432.Fravel, D.R., Stosz, S.K. & Larkin, R.P., 1996. Effect of temperature, soil type, and matric potential on proliferation and survival of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. erythroxyli from Erythroxylum coca. Phytopathology 86(3): 236-240.
• 466.Ganders, F.R., 1979. Heterostyly in Erythroxylum coca (Erythroxylaceae). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 78: 11-20.
• 549.Hänsel, R. et al. (Editors), 1992. Hagers Handbuch der Pharmazeutishe Praxis [Hagers handbook of the practice of pharmacology]. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 1209 pp.
• 555.Hardman, J.G., Limbird, L.E., Molinoff, P.B., Ruddon, R.W. & Goodman Gilman, A. (Editors), 1996. Goodman & Gilman's the pharmacological basis of therapeutics. 9th Edition. McGraw Hill, New York, United States. 1905 pp.
• 682.Johnson, E.L., 1989. Seed viability of two Erythroxylum species stored at 4°C. Planta Medica 55(7): 691.
• 683.Johnson, E.L., 1996. Alkaloid content in Erythroxylum coca tissue during reproductive development. Phytochemistry 42(1): 35-38.
• 684.Johnson, E.L. & Fox, C.D., 1996. Biomass accumulation and alkaloid content in leaves of Erythroxylum coca and Erythroxylum novogranatense var. novogranatense grown in soil with varying pH. Journal of Plant Physiology 149(3-4): 444-450.
• 880.Lydon, J., Zimmerman, R.H., Fordham, I.M. & Lusby, W.R., 1993. Tissue culture and alkaloid production of Erythroxylum coca var. coca. Journal of Herbs, Spices & Medicinal Plants 2(1): 3-14.
• 1119.Payens, J.P.D.W., 1958. Erythroxylaceae. In: van Steenis, C.G.G.J. (General editor). Flora Malesiana. Series 1, Vol. 5(4). Noordhoff Kolff N.V., Djakarta, Indonesia. pp. 543-552.
• 1145.Plowman, T., 1982. The identification of coca (Erythroxylum species): 1860-1910. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 84: 329-353.
• 1146.Plowman, T. & Rivier, L., 1983. Cocaine and cinnamoylcocaine content of Erythroxylum species. Annals of Botany 51: 641-659.
• 1147.Plowman, T., Rudenberg, L. & Greene, C.W., 1978. Chromosome numbers in neotropical Erythroxylum (Erythroxylaceae). Botanical Museum Leaflets 26(5): 203-209.
• 1167.Purseglove, J.W., 1968-1972. Tropical crops. Longman, London. United Kingdom. Dicotyledons. 2 volumes (1968), 719 pp. Monocotyledons. 2 volumes (1972), 607 pp.
• 1178.Quisumbing, E., 1978. Medicinal plants of the Philippines. Katha Publishing Co., Quezon City, the Philippines. 1262 pp.
• 1277.Samuelsson, G. (Editor), 1992. Drugs of natural origin, a textbook of pharmacognosy. Swedish Pharmaceutical Press, Stockholm, Sweden. 320 pp.
• 1278.Sands, D.C., Darlington, L., McCarthy, M.K., Pilgeram, A.L. & Ford, E.F., 1995. An effective and host specific pathogen of Erythroxylum spp. Phytopathology 85: 1118.
• 1301.Schultes, R.E. & Raffauf, R.F., 1990. The healing forest. Medicinal and toxic plants of the northwest Amazonia. Dioscorides Press, Portland, Oregon, United States. 484 pp.

Main genus page

• Erythroxylum (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• R.C.K. Chung & M. Brink