Coca chewing may originally have been limited to the eastern Andes before its introduction to the
Incas. As the plant was viewed as having a divine origin, its cultivation became subject to a state monopoly and its use restricted to nobles and a few favored classes (court orators, couriers, favored public workers, and the army) by the rule of the
Topa Inca (1471–1493). As the Incan empire declined, the leaf became more widely available. After some deliberation,
Philip II of Spain issued a decree recognizing the drug as essential to the well-being of the Andean Indians but urging missionaries to end its religious use. The Spanish are believed to have effectively encouraged use of coca by an increasing majority of the population to increase their labor output and tolerance for starvation, but it is not clear that this was planned deliberately.[
citation needed]
Coca was first introduced to Europe in the 16th century, but did not become popular until the mid-19th century, with the publication of an influential paper by Dr.
Paolo Mantegazza praising its stimulating effects on cognition. This led to invention of
cocawine and the first production of pure cocaine.
Cocawine (of which
Vin Mariani was the best-known brand) and other coca-containing preparations were widely sold as patent medicines and tonics, with claims of a wide variety of health benefits. The original version of
Coca-cola was among these. These products became illegal in most countries outside of South America in the early 20th century, after the addictive nature of cocaine was widely recognized. In 1859,
Albert Niemann of the
University of Göttingen became the first person to isolate the chief alkaloid of coca, which he named "cocaine".
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