A History of Cocaine: the Mystery of Coca Java and the Kew Plant

Strange history, intriguing curiosities, unhappy lessons for would-be controllers of the cocaine trade and satisfaction for the armchair traveller await the reader of this handsomely produced paperback. Over the years, Professor Karch has written much about cocaine, its actions and its licit and illegal usage, and this new book extends his previous writings on the ways in which cocaine has been used and abused by various European governments for their own purposes. It presents six accounts of the earliest botanical studies, planting and trade in cocaine which illustrate the ability of the species to thrive in Java (now part of Indonesia) as well as in South America, how 19th century pharmacognostic confusion muddled the start of legal international trade in the plant and its alkaloid, and the early appreciation of the source and potential medicinal value of cocaine. It is even possible to discern an early approach to ‘crack cocaine’ in comments on the use of alkaline cocaine mixtures.