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The plant extracts the cocaine from the coca plants and sells it to Mallinckrodt for medicinal purposes. [ 19 ] As of 1988 [update] , Mallinckrodt is the only company in the U.S. that is allowed to receive cocaine , which is sold as a prescription drug for use in hospitals as a local anesthetic by eye and ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctors.
August Bier (1861–1949), pioneer of spinal anesthesia. In 1855, Friedrich Gaedcke (1828–1890) became the first to chemically isolate cocaine, the most potent alkaloid of the coca plant. Gaedcke named the compound "erythroxyline". [4] [5]
Niemann isolated cocaine from coca leaves in 1859. In the 19th century, there was great interest among European chemists in the effects of coca leaves discovered in Latin America . In 1855 the chemist Friedrich Gaedcke had published a treatise on an active alkaloid extract of the coca leaf he called erythroxyline , after the genus Erythroxylum ...
Leaves of the coca plant (Erythroxylum novogranatense var. Novogranatense), from which cocaine, a naturally occurring local anesthetic, is derived. [1] [2]An anesthetic (American English) or anaesthetic (British English; see spelling differences) is a drug used to induce anesthesia — in other words, to result in a temporary loss of sensation or awareness.
The coca plant resembles a blackthorn bush, and grows to a height of 2 to 3 m (7 to 10 ft). The branches are curved, and the leaves are thin, opaque, oval, and taper at the extremities.
On a New Organic Base in the Coca Leaves is an 1860 dissertation written by Albert Niemann. [1] Its title in German is Über eine neue organische Base in den Cocablättern. The piece describes, in detail, how Niemann isolated cocaine, a crystalline alkaloid. It also earned Niemann his Ph.D., and is now in the British Library. He wrote of the ...
Because coca and cocaine were being trafficked up through South and Central America to the United States, coca production in South America came to the attention of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which, subsequently under Plan Colombia, began to fund eradication efforts across the continent. Plan Colombia sent hundreds of millions of ...
Working with coca leaves, Gaedcke isolated the cocaine molecule. [3] Gaedcke named the alkaloid “erythroxyline,” and published a description in the journal Archiv der Pharmazie in 1855. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] He described the alkaloid as being of small crystal molecules with needle-like points on four to six sides. [ 3 ]