ERYTHROXYLON 



COCA 



Cultivation 



THE COCA PLANT 





when, owing to the discovery of the value of cocaine as an anaesthetic, the demand 

 in Europe for the Coca leaf was rapidly increased. About then the Agri. -Horti- 

 cultural Society of India distributed young plants from their Calcutta Gardens 

 to the various tea-growing districts, and in the same year the Government of 

 India addressed the Secretary of State for India, with a view to ascertain the 

 method of preparation of the leaf as pursued in South America. 



Cultiva- Cultivation. Various attempts have, however, been made to grow K. Cocn in 



tion. India. Those in the Sikkim (Cinchona plantations) were a failure, but on the slopes 



of the Nilgiris and other parts of the Madras Presidency the plants have thriven 

 much better. The slightest degree of frost appears to ba fatal, and for this reason 

 cultivation on the higher Himalaya has been abandoned, but at lower altitudes, 

 from about 100 to 2,000 feet above sea-level, more encouraging results have 

 been obtained. It is said that in Assam and Sylhet the plant has been grown 

 satisfactorily. But it is affirmed that several species, besides the one here 

 specially indicated, are employed as sources of cocaine, in addition to not a few 

 The Leaves. well-recognised varieties of the true cocaine plant. From the leaves the crystal- 



Usable drug is obtained. Some of the species contain a large quantity of the drug 

 not in a crystallisable form, and in consequence are comparatively valueless. 

 It is, therefore, essential to obtain the correct plant, and to know whether the 

 climate and soil of a proposed new plantation favour the formation of crystal- 

 Crystallisable lisable cocaine. It is usually affirmed that for that purpose a rich and light 

 Cocaine so ji j s required. In other words, the plant is grown most successfully on well- 



Soil, drained moist loams, rich in humus ; but as it exhausts the land, manuring 



Two Forms. is necessary after heavy cropping. There are said to be two chief varieties, one 



with small, the other with large leaves. These may be raised from cuttings, 

 but if cultivated to any extent, seedlings should be produced in nurseries and 

 the young plants put out into the fields when from 8 to 10 inches high, 

 writer in the Journal of the Agri.-Horticultural Society of India urges the neces- 

 sity of a liberal supply of water to aid in germination. High rainfall is essentif 

 High Bainfall ^ or * ne growth of the plant. In the Andes the only climatic variation is in deg 

 of humidity, and it rains more or less every month. The first harvest may 

 expected eighteen months after the time of planting, and once successfully 

 established, the shrubs yield for forty years. 



Collection. The leaves are ready for gathering when they become rigid and break or 



Age. bending. Two, three or even four crops may be obtained in one year fror 



strong plants in rich soil. The leaves are picked singly, but care must be taken 

 not to pluck leaves nor shoots too young. A dry day should be chosen for " 

 vesting and the picking should not be carried beyond noon, so that the leave 

 may be exposed several hours in the sun to dry. In India various methods of 

 Drying. artificial drying in tea-driers or charcoal chulas have been experimentally tried. 



Packing. The dried leaves should be put aside for a day or two, and then packed. The 



best method of packing coca is to seal it up as soon as it is perfectly dry, in air- 

 tight packages, similar to those used for tea. Shipping should take place 

 soon as possible, for the leaves keep in good condition a much longer time 

 temperate climates than in the tropics. No commercial attempt has as yet 

 Separation of been made to separate the alkaloid and its salts in India, though reports have 

 Alkaloids. appeared of the results obtained in the laboratory with Indian leaf. Hooper 



(Kept. Labor. Ind. Mus. (Indust. Sec.), 1900-1, 20-1), records, for example, the 

 results of his examination of samples from Assam and the Wynaad. It wa 

 found that the leaves rapidly deteriorate if kept for any length of time, mor 

 especially if imperfectly packed. 

 Medicine and The leaves have the property when masticated of communicating a remark- 



Chemistry, able sustaining power, due to their containing cocaine. On this account thej 



are chewed by the Peruvian Indian, and are to him what betel pan is to the Hindv 

 kava to the South Sea Islander, and tobacco to the rest of mankind. Both the 

 Alkaloids. alkaloid and its salts are stimulant and restorative. Injected hypodermicallj 



Anaesthesia. or painted externally, they produce local anaesthesia, and are much used in 



minor operations, particularly in ophthalmic and dental surgery. Its employment 

 in this form was first recommended by Dr. C. Koller of Vienna in 1884, though the 

 anaesthetic action was known twenty years previously. [Cf. Kew Bull., 1889, 

 1-13 ; 1894, 151-3 ; Pharmacog. Ind., 1893, iii., 131-4, app. ; Garsed, Brit, 

 and Colon. Druggist, 1901, xl., 413 ; Lenton, Pharmaceut. Journ., 1903, Ixx., 

 390-1, 420-1 ; Garsed, Pharmaceut. Journ., 1903, Ixxi., 784-91 ; Hooper. 

 Coca and Cocaine Habit, Lecture in " Statesman," Feb. 19, 1904 ; Picket, Veg. 

 Alkaloids, 1904, 232-7 ; White and Humphrey, Pharmacop., 1904, 136-40.] 



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