Coca and Costumes Museum. Coca leaf: Coca and Cocaine.

Cocaine hydrochloride and its molecular composition

In 1858 the German Albert Neimann isolated the active alkaloid ‘cocaine’ from Coca.
Cocaine was originally used in medicine for its anesthetic properties.
Later it was used in the treatment for heroin addiction. Many chemists began to value this alkaloid, using it for dentistry, ophthalmic treatments, hemorrhages, traumas, obstetrics etc.
In the field of medicine, its use was widespread at the turn of the 20th century, especially in select social groups.

In 1923, Richard Willstatter of the University of Munich succeeded in synthesizing the cocaine molecule, naming the result “Procaine”.