BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS VoL. 25, No. 3 
THE IDENTIFICATION OF AN ARGENTINIAN NARCOTIC 
ELSA M. ZARDINI* 
There are few narcotic plants known to have been used by the 
Indians of Argentina, tobacco and cebil are almost the only 
examples. 
The identification of another, however, remained uncertain: 
the root of a plant called coro. It was early mentioned by Padre 
Pedro Lozano, a Jesuit who lived and worked in Argentina in the 
18th century, but whose writings were published much later. 
The plant was employed as a narcotic by the Calchaqui Indians 
as an additive to their alcoholic beverage chicha: **... mando 
echar en la chicha ciertas raices molidas que llaman coro y son 
muy eficaces para embriagar...”’ 
More recently, there are other references to the use of this 
root powdered and smoked either alone or mixed with tobacco 
among the Chaco Indians (Mocovies, Tobas and Matacos). The 
same common name was used among all these natives. 
My recent studies have disclosed that several species of the 
genus Trichocline (Compositae: Mutisieae) bear the same com- 
mon name in Argentina — coro — as wellas the ethnopharmaco- 
logically significant name contrayerba. 
The rhizome is today employed extensively alone or mixed 
with tobacco as a fumitory. This use is very widespread, occur- 
ring in almost all areas where the Argentinian species are repre- 
sented in the flora. The species most frequently utilized is 7. 
reptans (Wedd.) Rob., the commonest in the Chaco region. In 
the Andean regions, T. exscapa Griseb. and T. dealbata (Hook. 
et Arn.) Griseb. are the species employed. 
The rhizome of all the species is thick and woody. The leaves 
are borne in rosettes. The scapes have beautiful yellow inflores- 
cences. 
One use of the rhizome in folk medicine is reported to be 
smoking as an effective cure for ‘‘stomach ache’. 
Chemical studies of this genus have apparently not been car- 
*Honorary Research Fellow in Ethnobotany; Guggenheim Fellow from Museo de La 
Plata, Argentina. 
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