Japanese name: コカ Scientific name:Erythroxylum coca
[Overview]
A much-branched evergreen shrub 1–3 m tall.
The leaves are simple and alternate, oblong to obovate, 4–9 cm long, with entire margins.
On the underside of the leaf, two longitudinal lines run along both sides of the midrib.
The leaf stalk is 5–7 mm long, and broadly triangular stipules are attached.
One to five flowers grow in clusters in the leaf axils of the previous year's branches.
The flowers are yellowish green-white with 5 petals; the petals are 4 mm long and have a tongue-shaped appendage on the inside.
The fruit is an ovate-elliptic drupe that ripens red and contains one seed.
[Uses]
The leaves contain cocaine and serve as a raw material for anesthetics and narcotics.
In South America, especially Peru and Bolivia, coca leaves are drunk daily as coca tea.
They have also been used traditionally for recovery from fatigue and as a remedy for altitude sickness.
In Japan, cultivation, importation and distribution of all parts including the leaves are strictly regulated under the Narcotics and Psychotropics Control Act.
[History]
In the Andes, it is said that people have had the custom of chewing coca leaves sprinkled with lime for more than 2,000 years, and in the Inca Empire it was indispensable to religious rituals.
