The use of cocaine only took off in Europe during the 19th century, after the drug was chemically isolated from coca leaves, but new evidence suggests much earlier use.
The mummified brain tissue of two people found in a 17th-century crypt in Milan, Italy, contains traces of cocaine, revealing that the drug was being used in Europe 200 years earlier than previously recorded.
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| Mummified brains showed traces of cocaine Gaia Giordano |
Coca leaves, from which cocaine is derived, have been chewed in the plant’s native South America for thousands of years, but the drug only took off in Europe in the 19th century, when it was chemically isolated from the plant.
Spanish conquerors learned of the psychoactive and therapeutic properties of coca leaves, but restricted the spread of this knowledge to keep it within the Spanish Empire. In the 16th century they made some effort to export the plant, but it didn’t transport well – or so we thought.
Now, Gaia Giordano at the University of Milan and her colleagues are rewriting that story. They looked at nine people who died sometime in the 1600s and were buried in a well-preserved crypt belonging to the former Ca’ Granda hospital, which historically treated the city’s poor. The team took tiny samples of brain tissue from each individual and analysed their chemical composition to learn what kind of drugs were being used at the time.
Because cocaine usually disappears from the body after a few months, Giordano was amazed to find traces of it in two brains after almost four centuries of decomposition. “It’s very extraordinary to find that molecule,” she says.
Alongside the active cocaine compound, the team found hygrine, a substance released by chewed coca leaves. The hospital’s records don’t mention cocaine being prescribed as a medicine until the 19th century, suggesting these two individuals had either self-medicated or were chewing the plant recreationally, says Giordano.
This evidence of Europeans chewing coca leaves in the 1600s shows that the plant could, on occasion, survive the journey from South America. As part of the Spanish Empire, and a destination within the exotic plant trade between Spain and South America, the people of Milan appear to have had access to the plant and been privy to its properties.
The fact that poorer members of society were using coca shows that “the plant was available on the open market, which is something that probably took a few years”, says Mario Zimmermann from Boise State University in Idaho. “The interesting matter now at hand is how far it reached out, and how many people,” he says.
Journal reference:
Journal of Archaeological Science DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2024.106040
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