HerbalGram Coca Issue Puts the Leaf Under Peer Review

Updated September 5, 2026

The American Botanical Council has published an entire peer-reviewed journal issue about coca. The HerbalGram coca issue — issue #147 — gathers anthropologists, ethnobotanists, clinicians and policy writers around a single plant that most Americans know only through its most notorious derivative.

The announcement, carried by Yahoo Finance, states that this is HerbalGram’s first themed issue since #124 in 2019, which dealt with the climate crisis and medicinal plants. Yahoo Finance reports that the nonprofit publisher describes the issue as an effort to correct misinformation about a plant it calls frequently vilified and commercially underused.

That framing is worth pausing on. Erythroxylum coca is the botanical source of cocaine, but the leaf is not the drug — it is a chewed, brewed and traditionally revered plant used across the Andes for energy, altitude sickness and everyday nutrition. A peer-reviewed journal treating it as a subject of botany rather than a subject of interdiction is not a small editorial decision.

What is inside issue #147

The published contents span history, ethnobotany, current science and the legal picture around the leaf. Named contributions include:

• “The Sacred Leaf,” a feature by anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis, PhD, on coca’s cultural and spiritual role in the Andes and Amazon.
• A report by Chris Kilham on ENACO (Empresa Nacional de la Coca S.A.), Peru’s national coca company, and its role in the legal coca trade — including its connection to Coca-Cola.
• An account by ethnobotanist Steven King, PhD, of Magdalena Biosciences, on the development of a coca botanical drug candidate and the clinical research behind it.
• A feature on the Khoka Project in Medellín, Colombia, by Susana Mejía and Daniel Montoya-Cataño, on shifting public perception of coca through art and science.
• A Coca Herb Profile by Traci Pantuso, ND, MS, of the Beneficial Plants Research Association.
• A conference report by ethnopharmacologist Dennis McKenna, PhD, on a 2025 gathering of scientists and coca researchers.

A video series filmed inside Peru’s coca monopoly

Alongside the journal, ABC’s YouTube channel HerbTV is releasing an 11-part series titled “On The Coca Trail,” following Kilham’s June 2026 travels in the Peruvian Andes. ABC states that Kilham and his Peruvian project partner Sergio Cam were given unrestricted access to ENACO facilities in Lima and elsewhere in Peru, and were permitted to film ENACO’s coca buyers in the mountains.

Footage from inside the state coca monopoly is genuinely rare. ENACO sits at the center of the only substantial legal coca market in the hemisphere, and it is the institution most often invoked — and least often shown — in arguments about whether a regulated leaf economy can work. We have written before about the pressures on Peruvian coca growers in our coverage of the country’s bamboo substitution program.

The playlist also includes an ABC interview with integrative medicine physician Andrew Weil, MD, discussing coca.

What this does not establish

We want to be precise, because precision is the whole argument. A coca leaf extract being developed as a botanical drug candidate is exactly that — a candidate. No FDA approval has been announced, and no clinical results were stated in the announcement. Anyone reading “USFDA-approved medicine” as a completed fact is reading past the evidence.

Nor does a journal issue change American law. Coca leaf remains scheduled in the United States, and nothing in this publication alters that status.

Why this matters

Our view is that the significance here is institutional rather than scientific. No new trial data has been released and no legal position has moved. What has changed is who is willing to put their name on the subject: a 37-year-old nonprofit with a peer-reviewed journal, a stable of credentialed contributors, and a readership of herbalists, researchers and industry buyers who take its herb profiles seriously.

That matters because the barrier to coca research in the United States has always been reputational as much as regulatory. Scientists avoid the plant because the association with cocaine is career-adjacent radioactivity. A formal herb profile, sitting in the same format ABC uses for echinacea or turmeric, quietly reclassifies coca as an ordinary object of botanical study.

It also puts Andean voices and institutions — ENACO, the Khoka Project, the traditions Davis writes about — into the record as sources of knowledge rather than as background scenery. Readers hoping this signals imminent rescheduling should temper that. This is a credibility step, and credibility is built slowly.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the HerbalGram special coca issue?

HerbalGram issue #147 is a themed issue of the American Botanical Council's peer-reviewed journal devoted entirely to coca (Erythroxylum coca). It brings together contributors from anthropology, ethnobotany, clinical research and policy to cover the plant's history, traditional uses, modern science and legal status. It is HerbalGram's first themed issue since #124 in 2019.

Who wrote for the HerbalGram coca issue?

Named contributors include anthropologist Wade Davis, PhD, on coca's cultural and spiritual significance; Chris Kilham on Peru's national coca company ENACO; ethnobotanist Steven King, PhD, of Magdalena Biosciences on a coca botanical drug candidate; Susana Mejía and Daniel Montoya-Cataño on Colombia's Khoka Project; Traci Pantuso, ND, MS, on a Coca Herb Profile; and Dennis McKenna, PhD, with a report from a 2025 coca research summit.

Is coca leaf the same thing as cocaine?

No. Coca leaf is a plant, Erythroxylum coca, chewed and brewed across the Andes for energy, altitude sickness and nutrition. Cocaine is a concentrated alkaloid extracted and chemically processed from that leaf. Treating the two as identical is the central confusion the American Botanical Council's HerbalGram coca issue sets out to address.

Has the FDA approved a coca leaf medicine?

No approval has been announced. The HerbalGram coca issue includes an article by Steven King, PhD, of Magdalena Biosciences describing the development of a coca botanical drug candidate and ongoing clinical research. A candidate in development is not an approved medicine, and no trial results or approval dates were stated in the announcement.

What is ENACO in Peru?

ENACO, or Empresa Nacional de la Coca S.A., is Peru's national coca company and the body at the center of the country's legal coca trade. The HerbalGram coca issue includes reporting by Chris Kilham on ENACO's role in that trade and its connection to Coca-Cola. ENACO facilities are also featured in an accompanying video series.

Where can I watch the On The Coca Trail video series?

On The Coca Trail is an 11-part series released on HerbTV, the American Botanical Council's YouTube channel. It follows Chris Kilham's June 2026 travels in the Peruvian Andes, including access to ENACO facilities in Lima and elsewhere in Peru filmed with his project partner Sergio Cam. The associated playlist also includes an interview with physician Andrew Weil, MD, discussing coca.

Does the HerbalGram coca issue change US law on coca?

No. Publication of HerbalGram issue #147 is a scientific and editorial development, not a legal one, and nothing in it alters the scheduled status of coca leaf under United States law. The American Botanical Council has stated it hopes the issue shifts perspectives among policy makers, scientists and consumers, but no regulatory change has been announced.