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Coca

Q: Is Coca natural or synthetic?

. Extraction: Steam distillation of Erythroxylum coca leaves yields a small quantity of essential oil. Decocainised coca extract is legally available in some markets. Legal restrictions on coca leaf products vary significantly by country..

GREENS, HERBS AND FOUGERES / green · fresh · sweet

Coca

Category	GREENS, HERBS AND FOUGERES
Subcategory	green · fresh · sweet
Origin
Volatility	Heart Note
Botanical	Erythroxylum coca
Appearance	Pale yellow to amber liquid
Odor Strength	Medium
Producing Countries	Bolivia, Colombia, Peru
Pyramid	Heart

Green, herbal-grassy, with a faintly camphor-like freshness. Coca leaf (Erythroxylum coca) smells like a mild, slightly bitter Andean herb -- nothing like cocaine, everything like a high-altitude tea.

Scent
The Full Story
Fun Fact
Extraction & Chemistry
In Perfumery

Scent

Green, mildly herbal-bitter, with a camphor-like freshness and a faint wintergreen edge. Gentler than mate, less astringent than green tea, with a particular high-altitude medicinal-herb quality. The smell is unremarkable and pleasant -- a bitter-green tisane leaf, nothing more.

Evolution over time

Immediately

Green-herbal freshness, faint camphor, bitter-mild

After a few hours

Wintergreen edge (methyl salicylate), herbal warmth

After a few days

Faint herbal-medicinal trace, quiet

The Full Story

Coca (Erythroxylum coca) is a South American shrub whose leaves have been chewed and brewed as tea in the Andes for millennia. The fresh leaf has a mild, green, slightly bitter-herbal aroma with a faint camphor-like freshness. This natural leaf smell bears almost no relationship to processed cocaine.

The volatile profile of coca leaf includes methyl salicylate (wintergreen-medicinal), methyl benzoate (sweet-floral), various monoterpenes (camphor-like freshness), and green-leaf aldehydes. The overall impression is of a mild, pleasant, mildly medicinal Andean herb -- closer to mate or green tea than to anything illicit.

In perfumery, coca is an extremely niche note used for its green-herbal character and its cultural-geographic reference to the Andes. Legal status varies by jurisdiction; decocainised coca extract is used in some applications. Functionally, it works as a green-herbal modifier in the heart zone.

This note in Première Peau. Simili Mirage · Gravitas Capitale. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.

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Related: Alpha Pinene · Angelica · Angelica Root · Angelica Root Oil · Artemisia · Barrenwort · Beachheather · Behini Tree

Did You Know?

Did you know?

Coca-Cola originally contained coca leaf extract and likely small amounts of cocaine (until 1903). Today, the Stepan Company in New Jersey remains the sole US-licensed importer of coca leaves, providing decocainised coca extract to Coca-Cola and selling the extracted cocaine alkaloid to Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals for medical use.

Extraction & Chemistry

Extraction method: Steam distillation of Erythroxylum coca leaves yields a small quantity of essential oil. Decocainised coca extract is legally available in some markets. Legal restrictions on coca leaf products vary significantly by country.

Molecular Formula	Complex mixture — key alkaloid: cocaine C₁₇H₂₁NO₄ (removed in perfumery-grade decocainized extract)
CAS Number	84775-48-4
Botanical Name	Erythroxylum coca
IFRA Status	No known restrictions
Synonyms	coca leaf, Erythroxylum
Physical Properties
Odor Strength	Medium
Appearance	Pale yellow to amber liquid

In Perfumery

Coca leaf is a niche green-herbal modifier for the heart zone. The volatile profile (methyl salicylate, methyl benzoate, camphor-like terpenes) provides a mild, Andean-herb character. Legal status varies by jurisdiction. Works in South American-themed, green-herbal, and geographic-specific compositions.