CHAPTER IX.BOTANICAL SOURCE AND DESCRIPTION.
Erythroxylon Coca, Lam. Syn.Khoka, Aymara;Cuca, Peruvian;Coca, Spanish;Ypadú or Ipadú, Tupin (Brazilian).
Erythroxylon Coca, Lam. Syn.Khoka, Aymara;Cuca, Peruvian;Coca, Spanish;Ypadú or Ipadú, Tupin (Brazilian).
By recent botanical authorities, the genus Erythroxylon is classed in the natural orderLinacæ, tribeErythroxyleæ. The genus contains a number of tropical plants growing principally in South America, the West India Islands, Madagascar, Mauritius, and some in India and Ceylon. The folding of the leaf in its vernation, which causes the peculiar marked line on each side of the midrib, is characteristic of many of the species. One has large leaves eight or nine inches long. Lindley thus describes the Coca plant and genus:—
ERYTHROXYLON.“Calyx 5-parted, 5-angled at the base. Styles 3, distinct from the very base, not consolidated. Cultivated on the Andes of Peru from 2,000 to 9,000 feet above the sea.”“Erythroxylon du Pérou,Erythroxylon Coca.Erythroxylon foliis ovatis acutis subtrilincatis, ramulis crebre tuberculosis.‘Encyclopèdie Méthodique Botanique,’ tome ii. Lamarck. Paris: 1786, 393.”“Leaves alternate, 1½ to 2 inches long, membranous, flat, opaque, acute at both ends, the apex almost mucronate; quite entire, dark green above, pale beneath, 3-nerved in the middle, with fine connecting veins. Petiole 2-4 lines long, with a pair of intra-petiolary ovate-lanceolate brown acute stipules, upon the back of the outside of which, indeed, the petiole is articulated, and from which the leaf readily falls away, leaving the branches scaly with the persistent stipules. Flowers numerous, in fascicles from the branches where the leaves have fallen away, bracteated. Peduncles about as long as the flower, sharply angled. Calyx 5-cleft; segments acute. Petals alternate with the calycine segments, oblong, concave, wavy, with a lacerated and much plaited membrane arising from within and above the base. Stamens 10; filaments longer than the pistil, combined below into a rather short cylindrical tube. Ovary oval. Styles 3, about as long as the ovary. Stigmas thickened. Fruit a 1-seeded, oblong drupe, in a dry state obscurely furrowed. Nut of the same shape and furrowed. A powerful stimulant of the nervous system, affecting it in a manner analogous to opium. Less violent in its effects than that drug, but more permanent in its action.”
ERYTHROXYLON.
“Calyx 5-parted, 5-angled at the base. Styles 3, distinct from the very base, not consolidated. Cultivated on the Andes of Peru from 2,000 to 9,000 feet above the sea.”
“Erythroxylon du Pérou,Erythroxylon Coca.Erythroxylon foliis ovatis acutis subtrilincatis, ramulis crebre tuberculosis.‘Encyclopèdie Méthodique Botanique,’ tome ii. Lamarck. Paris: 1786, 393.”
“Leaves alternate, 1½ to 2 inches long, membranous, flat, opaque, acute at both ends, the apex almost mucronate; quite entire, dark green above, pale beneath, 3-nerved in the middle, with fine connecting veins. Petiole 2-4 lines long, with a pair of intra-petiolary ovate-lanceolate brown acute stipules, upon the back of the outside of which, indeed, the petiole is articulated, and from which the leaf readily falls away, leaving the branches scaly with the persistent stipules. Flowers numerous, in fascicles from the branches where the leaves have fallen away, bracteated. Peduncles about as long as the flower, sharply angled. Calyx 5-cleft; segments acute. Petals alternate with the calycine segments, oblong, concave, wavy, with a lacerated and much plaited membrane arising from within and above the base. Stamens 10; filaments longer than the pistil, combined below into a rather short cylindrical tube. Ovary oval. Styles 3, about as long as the ovary. Stigmas thickened. Fruit a 1-seeded, oblong drupe, in a dry state obscurely furrowed. Nut of the same shape and furrowed. A powerful stimulant of the nervous system, affecting it in a manner analogous to opium. Less violent in its effects than that drug, but more permanent in its action.”
The chromo-lithographFrontispieceis from a water-colour, by Mr. J. Allen, of the plant in flower at Kew.
1. Sprig of Erythroxylon Coca.
2. Back of Leaf (full size).
3. Flower (enlarged).
4. Fruit.
The leaves vary much in shape on the same plant even, the upper and lower are different, and, probably owing to much cultivation and numerous varieties, the dried leaves in commerce are very variable in size and appearance, shape and colour, as well as state of preservation. They are usually one to two inches long, but large varieties are often four or five inches long. Theyare oval oblong, but some are ovate, while others are obovate, entire on the margin, sometimes acuminate, but usually blunt and emarginate, and often with an apiculus in the notch at the apex; rather thin, smooth, with a prominent midrib, and on each side a curved line running from the base to the apex. The fresh leaves are paler in colour beneath, and a bloom on the surface gives them a dichroic appearance; in one direction the upper surface appears yellowish green, whilst if looked at direct it is dark green. The dried leaves have a slight odour of tea, and a somewhat grass-like, bitter, aromatic taste; in colour they vary from a pale bright green, changing to a yellowish green (North Peruvian or Truxillo and Huanuco varieties)—this is smaller, thinner, and much broken—to a dull brownish olive (Bolivian variety), this is larger, broader, and a thicker leaf, not broken, paler in colour beneath; the inner curved lines from base to apex are very marked on this, but only faintly on the Truxillo variety, in some leaves hardly discernible. These two varieties shade off into each other. The Truxillo variety is imported principally from Salaverry, and, according to Hesse, is the product ofErythroxylon Coca, var.Novo-granatense, Dyer. The variety from Southern Peru is, he says, exportedviâLima, that from Bolivia from Arica and Mollendo. Huanuco and Cusca cocas are known in the markets as coming from provinces adjacent to these towns, where commercial houses have their headquarters. Some of the Coca finds its way to Europe through Para, the port at the mouth of the Amazon.
Hesse says he obtains from these South American Cocas, 0·7 to 0·9 per cent. of alkaloids, of which the greater part consists of crystallizable cocaine in thebroad-leaved variety, and about one-half in the narrow-leaved or Truxiilo Coca.—P.J. 1891, 1109.
In selecting them, care should be taken that they have not fermented or become fusty—they may appear of a good green colour, yet have a mouldy taste. The leaves are also collected from wild plants which have strayed from cultivation. The original habitat of the Coca plant is not known; it has been acclimatised in Java, Ceylon, and some parts of India.
Burck attributes the plant cultivated in British India to a new species—Erythroxylon Bolivianum, Burck—and that cultivated in Java to a distinct variety,E. Coca, var.Spruceanum. The Cocas from these sources, as well as from Ceylon, have not proved satisfactory in their yield of cocaine. According to Hesse, the alkaloids accompanying it considerably preponderate, the base frequently consisting principally of cinnamyl-ecgonine methyl ester.—P.J. 1891, 760, 1109.
The uses of the Coca leaf in Bolivia and Peru have been described by many travellers, who have seen it chewed, as has been before mentioned. From two to eight or twelve drachms or more is used daily, in conjunction with the ashes of the quinoa plant or with lime, as a remedy for, or preventive against, the effects of extraordinary physical exertion, to relieve the difficulty of respiration in ascending mountains, and to appease hunger, thirst, and fatigue. The leaves contain the crystalline alkaloid, Cocaine (See page 54). They are said to be most active when freshly dried, and are much used by the native Indians, miners, travellers, and others. The benumbing effect on the tongue—dulling its sensibility—I find is much greater on chewing a fresh living leaf than that produced by a number of dried leaves. “The averageduration,” says Markham,[27]“of Coca in a sound state on the coast is about five months, after which time it is said to lose flavour, and is rejected by the Indians as worthless.” It cannot be kept in stock for any length of time without suffering deterioration, unless it be either stored in air-tight cases in a cool and perfectly dry place, or kept in its original compressed packages; like hops detached from the “pocket,” it is said to lose its aroma. “The Peruvians,”[28]says Pöppig, “are of opinion that too much heat deprives even the best Coca of the active principle, that a warm climate will spoil the ‘Coca del Dia’ (that dried in one day) in ten months, whilst it continues good for a year and a half in the cold and dry districts of the Andes.”