HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
CampripGre, Massacnuserts, Ocroser 31, 1975 VoL. 24, No. 6 
NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF COCA 
BY 
JAMES A. Duke’, Davip AULIK* AND 
Timoruy PLlowMan® 
Leaves of wond’rous nourishment 
Whose Juice Suce’d in, and to the Stomach tak’n 
Long Hunger and long Labour can sustain; 
From which our faint and weary Bodies find 
More Succor, more they cheer the drooping Mind, 
Than can your Bacchus and your Ceres join’d. 
—AsBrAHAM Cow ry in Mortimer’s 
History of Coca 
Abstract. Coca leaves (Erythroxvylum Coca am.) 
from Chapare, Bolivia, compared to an average of 50 
other Latin American vegetable products, are higher in 
calories (805 per 100 g compared to 279), protein (18.9 
g: 11.4 g¢), carbohydrate (46.2 g: 87.1 g), fiber (14.4 g: 
3.2 g), ash (9.0 g: 2.0 g), calcium (1540 mg: 99 mg), 
phosphorus (911 mg: 270 mg), iron (45.8 mg: 3.6 mg), 
vitamin A (11,000 IU: 185 LU), and riboflavin (1.91 
mg: 0.18 mg). Coca was lower than the average for the 
50 plant foods in oil content (5.0 g per 100 g compared 
to 9.9 g), moisture (6.5 g: 40.0 g), thiamin (0.35 mg: 
0.388 mg), niacin (1.8 mg: 2.2 mg), and ascorbic acid 
‘Chief, Plant Taxonomy Laboratory, Plant Genetics and Germ- 
plasm, Institute, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, Maryland. 
> WARE Institute, Inc., Box 2599, Madison, Wisconsin. 
3 Fy ° 7 F . 
Research Associate in Economic Botany, Botanical Museum, 
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 
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