the chemical composition and function of these alkaline addi- 
tives (Cruz Sanchez & Guillén, 1948; Rivier, 1981). 
Plants or plant derivatives may also be added to coca to lend 
flavor or sweetness. In northern Peru, dried leaflets of misquina 
(Abrus precatorius L.) are added as a licorice-flavoring to coca; 
in southern Peru, the foliage of pampa anis (Tagetes pusilla 
HBK.) is chewed with coca or alone against the cold (Fisher, 
1976). In the upper Amazon, tobacco paste or powder is 
frequently taken with the powdered coca characteristic of the 
region (Plowman, 1981). In the Colombian Vaupés, coca 
powder is sometimes flavored with the aromatic smoke of 
burning brea, the resin of Protium heptaphyllum March 
(Schultes, 1957). 
A related topic of interest includes the plants which are 
employed as coca substitutes. These plants are used primarily 
when coca chewers exhaust their supplies of coca leaf or coca 
powder. Although there are probably many such plants which 
remain undiscovered, about a dozen have been identified to 
date. Of these, a few are still known only by local vernacular 
names and have not been botanically identified. In the high 
Andes, the leaves of Dodonaea viscosa L. (Greenish, 1904) and 
the foliage of Werneria dactylophylla Sch. Bip. (Hemsley, 1907) 
may be chewed. The latter is chewed to resist the cold. At lower 
elevations in the Andean foothills of Peru, the Campa Indians 
chew the leaves of Cordia nodosa L., a well known 
myrmecophyte called tabaco chuncho, to replace coca 
(Schunke, pers. comm.). 
In the upper Amazon, several species are employed as 
substitutes for coca powder, including three apocynaceous trees, 
Couma macrocarpa Barb. Rodr. and two species of Lacmellea, 
and at least two wild species of Erythroxylum, E. macrophyllum 
Cav. and E. fimbriatum Peyr., both of which are recognized by 
natives as wild cocas (Plowman, 1981). Whether these or other 
coca substitutes act merely as placebo quids or have some other 
as yet undiscovered active constituents remains unknown. Both 
coca substitutes and admixtures merit intensified ethno- 
botanical and phytochemical study while it is still possible to 
investigate their use in Situ. 
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