BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
7 
VoL. 17, No. 9 
ANUARY 22, 195 
Campripcr, Massacuusetts, J 
A NEW METHOD OF COCA PREPARATION 
IN THE COLOMBIAN AMAZON 
BY 
Ricuarp Evans ScHULTES 
Coca, the well-known narcotic elaborated from the leaves 
of Hrythroxylon Coca Lam., is used over a wide area in 
the Andean highlands of southern Colombia, Ecuador, 
Peru and Bolivia, in parts of the western Amazonia and 
in certain isolated regions such as the Sierra Nevada de 
Santa Marta in northernmost Colombia. The manner of 
using coca differs appreciably in each of these areas, and, 
even within a given area, coca-chewing often varies some- 
what from locality to locality. 
Curiously, the preparation and use of coca in the Am- 
azonian parts of Colombia vary very little, if at all, from 
tribe to tribe. Quite in contrast to the method of use 
common throughout the Andean highlands, where dried, 
whole leaves of the plant are chewed with alkali quids 
of diverse origins, the method throughout the forested 
northwest Amazon requires the toasting and pulveriza- 
tion of the leaves. Into the resulting fine, green powder 
is thoroughly mixed as an alkaline component the finely 
sifted ashes of the leaves of any of several species of Ce- 
cropia or of Pourouwma, usually P. cecropiaefolia Mart. 
The final powder is pale greenish, often with a slight 
greyish hue, and, when fresh, has a flavor which is not 
at all unpleasant. 
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