Not sure we can call it cocaine though, isn’t that term reserved for the hydrochloride salt form of the drug?

If these plants were brought back as marvels of the new world, they probably were presented to some sort of royalty or another, and there were a lot of alchemists in 17th century Europe.

Which brings me to my point that I don’t think “cocaine” is exclusively for the hydrochloride salt. Sure, freebase cocaine has its own name (crack), but it still is cocaine. So I’d wager a guess saying cocaine is defined as any extract from the plant.

Let’s see.

Well some so, yeah. Mostly it’s just referring to the alkaloid, but I’d agree with you that chewing leafs doesn’t constitute “using cocaine”.

Because I’m pretty sure that, say, Bohemian alchemists would’ve had no trouble making a potent concoction from the leaves. And I mean “Bohemian” and “concoction” in their literal meanings.

Like a tincture of cocaine. Hits like a hammer, easy to make.