High impact information on Coca

• Cocaine is prepared from the leaves of the plant Erythroxylon coca, and is available as cocaine hydrochloride (a water-soluble powder or granule which can be taken orally, intravenously or intranasally) and as "freebase" or "crack" cocaine (heat stable, melting at high temperatures, thus allowing it to be smoked) [1].
• Tropane alkaloids from the leaves and stem bark of Erythroxylon alaternifolium and Erythroxylon rotundifolium [2].
• There have been suggestions that urine samples positive for benzoylecognine, the diagnostic metabolite of cocaine, may be the result of consumption Mate de Coca, a commercially available tea made from coca (Erythroxylon coca) leaves [3].

Associations of Coca with chemical compounds

• Cocaine, derived from the leaves of the shrub Erythroxylon coca, which grows on the slopes of the Andes, remains one of the most widely abused illicit drugs (Johnson et al., 1993) [4].
• A novel 3alpha,6beta,7beta-triol tropane alkaloid esterified by two benzoyl residues was isolated from the leaves of the endemic cuban species, Erythroxylon alaternifolium [2].

References