The surprising discovery reveals Europeans sniffed around much earlier than we thought.
Although cocaine use became widespread in the 19th century once it was synthesized into cocaine hydrochloride salts, Europeans knew of the coca plant’s stimulating effects since the early 15th century. A new study of 17th-century remains from a crypt in Milan shows traces of an active component of the coca plant in the subjects’ brain tissue. This suggests Europeans used coca leaves earlier than previously thought and is the earliest evidence of such drug use on the European continent.
The crypt was used as a burial place for the Ospedale Maggiore—a world-class hospital in the 17th century—and the study’s lead author, University of Milan’s Gaia Giordano, previously found evidence of opium use among the cadavers of this crypt. But this new study extends that the era’s drug list by also including cocaine. “Toxicological analyses were performed on preserved human brains revealing the first evidence of Erythroxylum spp.
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