Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. It is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. The leaves contain cocaine, which acts as a mild stimulant when chewed or consumed as tea; this traditional use involves slower absorption than purified cocaine, and there is no evidence of addiction or withdrawal symptoms from such natural consumption.
The coca plant is a shrub-like bush with curved branches, oval leaves marked by distinct curved lines, and small yellowish-white flowers that develop into red berries. Genomic analysis indicates coca was domesticated two or three separate times from the wild species Erythroxylum gracilipes by different South American groups during the Holocene. Chewing coca leaves dates back at least 8,000 years in South America, as evidenced by coca leaves and calcite found in house floors in Peru's Nanchoc Valley, suggesting early communal use alongside the rise of farming. Coca use was widespread under Inca rule. The Incas deeply integrated it into their society for labor, religion, and trade, valuing it so highly that they colonized new lands for its cultivation. Spanish colonizers later attempted to suppress its use, but ultimately relied on it to sustain enslaved laborers. Traditionally, across Andean cultures, coca leaves have been used for medicinal, nutritional, religious, and social purposes—serving as a stimulant, remedy for ailments, spiritual tool, and source of sustenance, primarily through chewing and tea.
Coca thrives in hot, humid environments and can be harvested multiple times a year from carefully tended plots. It is grown as a cash crop in the Argentine Northwest, Bolivia, the Alto Rio Negro Indigenous Territory in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru, including in areas where its cultivation is unlawful. There are some reports of cultivation in southern Mexico using seeds imported from South America, as an alternative to smuggling the processed drug cocaine. The plant plays a fundamental role in many traditional Amazonian and Andean cultures, as well as among indigenous groups in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta of northern Colombia.
Coca leaves are used commercially and industrially in teas, foods, cosmetics, and beverages. Their legal commercial use has growing political and market support in countries like Bolivia and Peru, despite restrictions in others like Colombia. The international prohibition of the coca leaf, established by the 1961 United Nations Single Convention—which did not distinguish it from cocaine despite traditional Andean uses—has been widely contested. Bolivia and Peru have led ongoing efforts to reevaluate its status, including a scheduled 2025 WHO review based on cultural and scientific grounds. Outside South America, coca leaf is generally illegal or heavily restricted, often treated similarly to cocaine. Limited exceptions exist for scientific or medical use, and for specific authorized imports such as the decocainized leaf extract used for Coca-Cola flavoring in the United States.
The cocaine alkaloid content in dry Erythroxylum coca var. coca leaves ranges from 0.23% to 0.96%. Coca-Cola used coca leaf extract in its products from 1885 until about 1903, when it switched to using a decocainized leaf extract. Extracting cocaine from coca requires several solvents and a chemical process known as an acid–base extraction, which can efficiently isolate the alkaloids from the plant material.
Description The coca plant resembles a blackthorn bush, and grows to a height of . The branches are curved, and the leaves are thin, opaque, oval, and taper at the extremities. A marked characteristic of the leaf is an portion bounded by two longitudinal curved lines, one line on each side of the midrib, and more conspicuous on the under face of the leaf.
The flowers are small, and disposed in clusters on short stalks; the corolla is composed of five yellowish-white petals, the anthers are heart-shaped, and the pistil consists of three carpels united to form a three-chambered ovary. The flowers mature into red berries.
The leaves are sometimes eaten by the larvae of the moth Eloria noyesi.
Ecology Species There are two species of coca crops, each with two varieties: Erythroxylum coca Erythroxylum coca var. coca (Bolivian or Huánuco coca) – well adapted to the eastern Andes of Peru and Bolivia, an area of humid, tropical, montane forest. Erythroxylum coca var. ipadu (Amazonian coca) – cultivated in the lowland Amazon Basin in Peru and Colombia. Erythroxylum novogranatense Erythroxylum novogranatense var. novogranatense (Colombian coca) – a highland variety that is utilized in lowland areas. It is cultivated in drier regions found in Colombia. However, E. novogranatense is very adaptable to varying ecological conditions. The leaves have parallel lines on either side of the central vein. These plants are called "Hayo" or "Ayu" among certain groups in Venezuela and Colombia. Erythroxylum novogranatense var. truxillense (Trujillo coca) – grown primarily in the Cajamarca and Amazonas states in Peru, including for the Empresa Nacional de la Coca S.A. and export by Coca-Cola for beverage flavoring.
All four of the cultivated cocas were domesticated from Erythroxylum gracilipes in pre-Columbian times, with significant archaeological sites reaching from Colombia to northern Chile, including the Las Vegas Culture in Ecuador, the Huaca Prieta site in Peru, and the Nanchoc valley in Peru – where leaf fragments and slaked lime additives have been dated to over 8,000 years before present.
Boliviana negra, also known as supercoca or la millionaria, is a form of coca that is resistant to glyphosate, a herbicide. The emergence of this variety has been attributed to the coca eradication campaign undertaken by the government of Colombia known as Plan Colombia, whereby the aerial spraying of glyphosate onto fields of coca plants led to the discovery of resistant individuals that were spread between coca farmers. There is no evidence of genetic modification similar to glyphosate-resistant soybean plants produced by Monsanto.
Evolution An initial theory of the origin and evolution of the cocas by PlowmanPlowman T. 1979. "Botanical Perspectives on Coca". Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 11(1-2): 103-117. DOI: 10.1080/02791072.1979.10472095 and Bohm suggested that Erythroxylum coca var. coca is ancestral, while Erythroxylum novogranatense var. truxillense is derived from it to be drought tolerant, and Erythroxylum novogranatense var. novogranatense was further derived from Erythroxylum novogranatense var. truxillense in a linear series. In addition, E. coca var. ipadu was separately derived from E. coca var. coca when plants were taken into the Amazon basin.
Genetic evidence (Johnson et al. in 2005, Emche et al. in 2011, and Islam 2011Islam M. Tracing the Evolutionary History of Coca (Erythroxylum) [PhD thesis]. Boulder: University of Colorado, Boulder; 2011) does not support this linear evolution. None of the four coca varieties are found in the wild, despite prior speculation by Plowman that wild populations of E. coca var. coca occur in the Huánuco and San Martín provinces of Peru. Recent phylogenetic evidence shows the closest wild relatives of the coca crops are Erythroxylum gracilipes and Erythroxylum cataractarum, and dense sampling of these species along with the coca crops from throughout their geographic ranges supports independent origins of domestication of Erythroxylum novogranatense and Erythroxylum coca from ancestor Erythroxylum gracilipes. It is possible that Amazonian coca was produced by yet a third independent domestication event from Erythroxylum gracilipes.
Thus, different early-Holocene peoples in different areas of South America independently transformed Erythroxylum gracilipes plants into quotidian stimulant and medicinal crops now collectively called coca.
Cultivation
The seeds are sown from December to January in small plots () sheltered from the sun, and the young plants when at in height are placed in final planting holes (), or if the ground is level, in furrows () in carefully weeded soil. The plants thrive best in hot, damp and humid locations, such as the clearings of forests; but the leaves most preferred are obtained in drier areas, on the hillsides. The leaves are gathered from plants varying in age from one and a half to upwards of forty years, but only the new fresh growth is harvested. They are considered ready for plucking when they break on being bent. The first and most abundant harvest is in March after the rainy season, the second is at the end of June, and the third in October or November. The green leaves (matu) are spread in thin layers on coarse woollen cloths and dried in the sun; they are then packed in sacks, which must be kept dry in order to preserve the quality of the leaves.
Distribution According to a 2006 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), coca plants grow best in the humid, tropical climates and specific altitudes found in the Andean regions of South America, particularly in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru, which together account for the vast majority of global coca cultivation—and produce 99% of all cocaine worldwide.
As of 2023, coca cultivation has also rapidly expanded into northern Central America, in the highland areas of Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize.
While regions like Taiwan and Java were prominent centers of coca leaf cultivation in Asia before World War II, their climates and soils remain highly suitable for large-scale coca production today. This historical precedent suggests that, if demand or policy ever shifted, these areas could once again support thriving coca plantations. These examples highlight that, despite their current historical status, such regions retain the biophysical capacity for renewed coca production on a significant scale.
Africa Records indicate that coca has been grown in the African countries of Ghana, Ivory Coast, and West Cameroon. But there is no evidence that coca became a significant or economically important crop in these countries.
Asia Taiwan (then known as Formosa) became the second-largest producer of coca leaves in Asia before World War II, surpassed only by Java, and played a crucial role in making Japan the world's leading exporter of cocaine.
Coca has been grown in Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) (De Witt, 1967).
Java (today part of Indonesia) became the world's leading exporter of coca leaf in the early 20th century, surpassing Peru by 1912 and maintaining this position until the late 1920s, except during World War I. The success of coca cultivation in Java demonstrates that the island's climate and soils were highly suitable for the coca plant, as evidenced by the thriving plantations and high yields recorded during this period.
Central America In 2014, coca plantations were discovered in Mexico,The discovery of Mexico's first coca plantation Vice and in 2020 in Honduras,"in La Prensa 17 August 2020" which could have major implications for the illegal cultivation of the plant.