Content and De Novo Synthesis of Cocaine in Embryos and Endosperms from Fruit of Erythroxylum coca Lam

Alkaloid Content in TwoErythroxylumTaxa During Juvenile Growth and Development

“…var. coca, however, only reached 47 percent of the amount previously reported by Johnson and Emche (18) in bud tissue of this species. The cause for decreases in trans-cinnamoylcocaine and methyl ecgonine content in the taxa with plant growth and development are unknown, but may be indicative of inter-conversion of ecgonine derived alkaloids as detailed by Novàk et al (30).…”

“…var. coca showed similar patterns of decline in older tissues (weeks 24 and 52 after seeding), whereas, methyl ecgonine in cotyledons increased from 0.30 percent (cotyledons) at 12 weeks after seeding to 0.41 percent in leaves at 52 weeks after seeding (18). Hygrine in E.c.…”

“…Unblemished dissected Emanuel L. Johnson 49 embryos and endosperms from each taxon were subsequently separately placed into two labeled beakers (maintained at 0°C), and further divided within each taxon to provide two sample replications of embryos and endosperms per taxon (45 embryos and endosperms, per taxon, per replication). The replicated samples of embryos and endosperms were processed and analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and GC-mass spectroscopy for tropinone, tropacocaine, methyl ecgoning, cocaine cis-and trans-cinnamoylcocaine as detailed by Turner et al (40) and Johnson and Emche (18). Seeded pots of E.c.…”

“…var. novogranatense, several other ecgonine derived alkaloids have been detected in leaves, stems, buds, flowers and berries (9,11,(16)(17)(18)21,22,24,(30)(31)(32)35,36,40,42). The purpose of the current research is to describe the presence and content of tropinone, tropacocaine, methyl ecgonine, hygrine, cocaine, cis-and trans-cinnamoylcocaine, and ecgonine derived alkaloids, in embryos, endosperms, roots, hypocotyls, stems, cotyledons and leaves of E.c.…”