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Cocaine is the most potent stimulant of natural origin. It is extracted from the leaves of the coca plant (Erythroxylum coca), which is indigenous to the Andean highlands of South America. Natives in this region chew or brew coca leaves into a tea for refreshment and to relieve fatigue, similar to the customs of chewing tobacco and drinking tea or coffee. Pure cocaine was first isolated in the 1880s and used as a local anesthetic in eye surgery. It was particularly useful in surgery of the nose and throat because of its ability to provide anesthesia, as well as to constrict blood vessels and limit bleeding. Many of the therapeutic applications of raw, "natural" cocaine are now obsolete due to the development of safer drugs, either synthesized products from the natural coca extract or man-made using some of the natural products chemical components.
Cocaine is the most potent stimulant of natural origin. It is extracted from the leaves of the coca plant (Erythroxylum coca), which is indigenous to the Andean highlands of South America. Natives in this region chew or brew coca leaves into a tea for refreshment and to relieve fatigue, similar to the customs of chewing tobacco and drinking tea or coffee. Pure cocaine was first isolated in the 1880s and used as a local anesthetic in eye surgery. It was particularly useful in surgery of the nose and throat because of its ability to provide anesthesia, as well as to constrict blood vessels and limit bleeding. Many of the therapeutic applications of raw, "natural" cocaine are now obsolete due to the development of safer drugs, either synthesized products from the natural coca extract or man-made using some of the natural products chemical components.
Cocaine is used as a local anesthetic during eye surgery. It used to be used as a painkiller. It was first isolated by German chemist Friedrich Gaedke. Cocaine used to be used to cure morphine addiction, and to a lesser extent other addictions such as tobacco addiction, alcoholism, heroin addiction, and opium addiction, but now that safer drugs have been developed for these purposes it is no longer used for this. The soda Coca-Cola was originally a medicinal beverage containing cocaine in order to cure stomach pains because cocaine was a painkiller.
==Effects==
==Effects==