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Erythroxylum novogranatense
Colombian coca is a shrub or small tree native to the northern Andes and nearby tropical South America, cultivated for thousands of years for its leaves. It is grown as a tropical shrub in warm, humid conditions and is only known from cultivation.
Erythroxylum novogranatense, also known as Colombian Coca, is a species of shrub or small tree in the family Erythroxylaceae native to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Trinidad-Tobago, and Venezuela. It is used medicinally and as a narcotic. Erythroxylum novogranatense is one of the primary species of cultivated Coca, despite being less widely cultivated than Erythroxylum coca.
The cocaine content in leaves of E. novogranatense var. novogranatense is 0.55-0.93%, with an average of 0.77% and in E. novogranatense var. truxillense the cocaine content is 0.42-1.02%, with a mean of 0.72%. The foliage also contains cinnamoylcocaine. The plants also contain methyl salicylate.
Erythroxylum novogranatense is native to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Trinidad-Tobago, and Venezuela. It is only known from cultivation and Erythroxylum novogranatense would not persist in
As one of the oldest cultivated plants in the Americas, Erythroxylum novogranatense has been cultivated as a source of cocaine for thousands of years, but its role in the production of cocaine is relatively small. Erythroxylum novogranatense var. novogranatense represents about 20% of the coca crop grown in Colombia. Erythroxylum novogranatense var. truxillense is used as a flavouring agent of Coca-Cola, which uses decocainised extracts of this variety. The cocaine produced by the process of decocanisation is sold for legal use in modern surgery for pain management. Dried leaves of Erythroxylum novogranatense var. novogranatense are used in the preparation of coca tea by the indigenous Nasa tribe of Colombia. The leaves of Erythroxylum novogranatense are also used to produce Coca flour. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant throughout tropical countries.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Erythroxylum novogranatense by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
