Ancient coca use uncovered in Europe

New research has unveiled surprising evidence that Europeans were using coca leaves centuries earlier than previously documented.

While cocaine use became prevalent in the 19th century after it was synthesized into cocaine hydrochloride salts, Europeans had been aware of the coca plant's stimulating properties since the early 15th century, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

Recent research on 17th-century remains from a crypt in Milan has uncovered traces of an active component of the coca plant in the brain tissue, indicating that Europeans may have used coca leaves earlier than previously believed. This discovery represents the earliest evidence of such drug use on the European continent.

The coca plant, belonging to the genus Erythroxylum, contains the central nervous system stimulant tropane alkaloid, commonly known as cocaine. Native to South America, indigenous peoples chewed coca leaves for their stimulating effects, which later fueled a lucrative and dangerous drug trade. Evidence of coca use in South America dates back to around 1,000 BCE, as seen in the tissue samples of Chilean mummies, although the practice is likely even older.

However, concrete evidence of when coca use began in Europe is scarcer. Spanish conquistadors, who first encountered the coca plant in the late 15th century, noted that natives would carry the leaves in their mouths without eating them, describing their effects as suppressing hunger and providing significant vigor and strength.

Despite efforts to ban its use in the Americas, the coca plant made its way to Europe by the late 16th century, and recent research reveals that Europeans quickly began using this stimulant from the "New World." A study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science analyzed brain tissue from human remains in the Ca’ Granda crypt in Milan, Italy, and found traces of active components from the coca plant. This crypt, which served as a burial site for the Ospedale Maggiore—an eminent hospital in the 17th century—was previously studied for opium use by the same researcher, Gaia Giordano from the University of Milan. The new findings suggest that cocaine use in Europe dates back nearly two centuries earlier than previously thought.

According to the study, toxicological analyses of preserved brain tissues revealed the earliest evidence of coca plant use in Europe before the 19th century. The presence of Erythroxylum spp. in the samples predates the synthesized form of cocaine by almost 200 years. The study notes that since the plant was not included in the detailed hospital pharmacopeia of the time, it may not have been used medicinally but possibly for other purposes.

Historians have generally believed that cocaine did not become widespread in Europe until the 19th century, following its synthesis into cocaine hydrochloride. However, Spanish explorers had long known about the plant's effects, and figures like Spanish doctor Nicholas Monardes were known to cultivate American plants in Spain. By the 17th century, when the individuals buried in the Milan crypt were alive, Milan—under Spanish control at the time—was a major importer of exotic plants, suggesting that cocaine could have been introduced there earlier than elsewhere in Europe. Given that the people buried in the crypt were likely not wealthy, coca leaves might have been more accessible even during the early stages of its introduction to the continent.

To the authors' knowledge, this study provides the earliest evidence of detecting compounds from Erythroxylum spp. in continental Europe. However, it is not the first instance of such findings in the Old World. A 1992 study claimed to have found cocaine in Egyptian mummies, which was unexpected given that there was no known contact between ancient Egypt and the Americas. Although these results remain contested, Giordano’s discovery does not require such speculative assumptions and suggests that coca leaf use in Europe may have occurred earlier than previously thought.

This intriguing finding raises the next question: How widespread was the influence of coca in 17th-century Europe?