Coca Plant (Erythroxylum novogranatense)
 
Plant Size : 6" - 8 " Inches


Colombian coca is a small, evergreen shrub growing 1 - 3 metres tall, with minute lenticels on the branches.
The leaves are used like those from E. Coca, but this species did not become a commercial source of cocaine.
Containing the same alkaloids as the street drug cocaine, the leaves have long been used by local people as a stimulant to overcome hunger and exhaustion. It is cultivated in the lower regions of tropical South America and Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka). Although of importance as a plantation crop for the Malesian region in the past, it has since long lost its importance.


Edible Uses
A high content of methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil) in the leaves makes this species an excellent raw material of flavourings for soft drinks. So 'Trujillo coca' in Peru is used in the manufacture of Coca-Cola.
Highly regarded for its flavour and cocaine content, it has long been used for coca-flavoured beverages
 
Description
Lots of information on the uses of the plants of SE Asia.

Medicinal
The medicinal uses of this species are similar to those of Erythroxylum coca.
These are:-

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 endure better hunger, thirst and physical stress.
An infusion of the leaves serves also as remedy for altitude sickness, the feared 'soroche'.