Florentine Friars’ Coca Leaf Elixir Surfaces in Convent Pharmacy Archives

A friar sorting through the archives of the San Marco convent in Florence has turned up a 19th-century advertising flyer for a coca leaf elixir made from Bolivian coca leaves, kola nut and wine, as first reported by The Guardian.

The Guardian reports that Father Manuel Russo, rector of the convent, found the yellowed sheet along with a pair of empty bottles that had once held the preparation. The document carries no date, but it is thought to come from the late 1800s, when the friars were selling coca leaves brought into Italy by missionaries.

The find has drawn attention because the ingredient list resembles the one John Pemberton worked with in Atlanta in 1886. Russo himself declined to claim any connection to Coca-Cola, and there is no evidence of one.

What the flyer actually describes

The product was sold as an elixir vinoso ricostituente, a restorative wine elixir. According to the document, it was pitched at people worn down by illness and by aging — a tonic against fatigue rather than a refreshment.

• 10g of Bolivian coca leaves and 30g of kola nut, combined with wine.
• Priced between 2 and 6 Italian lira, which The Guardian notes amounts to less than a euro cent today.
• Russo told the paper it was, before the leaf was banned, “one of our bestsellers.”
• Other archive material turned up labels for pure oxygen, cognac and rectified petroleum spirit.

Preparations of this kind were not unusual. Russo pointed out that coca-based medicines were being made in both Italy and France at the time, and that the San Marco pharmacy simply had its own formula.

Why Coca-Cola keeps getting pulled into the story

Pemberton’s 1886 syrup combined coca leaf extract with kola nut. Local alcohol restrictions ruled out wine, so he used carbonated water instead — and that drink became Coca-Cola.

The Guardian reports that some Italian outlets asked whether the soft drink’s real origins might lie in Florence. Russo pushed back on that reading, saying Pemberton devised his own alcohol-free recipe, and joking that he had no wish to attract a lawsuit.

He is not the first candidate ancestor, either. Kola Coca, an alcoholic syrup produced by distillers in Valencia, Spain in 1885, has also been floated as a possible inspiration. What all three have in common is not a shared recipe but a shared moment: coca leaf and kola nut were a fashionable pharmacy pairing across Europe and the United States in the 1880s.

A pharmacy that has been open since 1460

San Marco convent was founded in 1436 on Via Cavour. Its pharmacy opened in 1460 to serve poor residents of the surrounding neighborhood, and it still operates, though the business moved to a different part of Florence in 1995.

The original rooms remain intact, crocodile included. A crocodile brought from the Nile has hung from the ceiling since the 1600s — a signal, common in European chemists’ shops of the period, that the proprietor could source rare and exotic ingredients.

Why this matters

We would keep the Coca-Cola question in perspective. There is no documentary link between the Florentine formula and Pemberton’s syrup, and the more interesting fact is the one the flyer establishes on its own: a Catholic pharmacy in Tuscany was selling coca leaf preparations over the counter, at pocket-change prices, as ordinary medicine.

That is worth saying plainly to American readers who know coca only through cocaine headlines. The leaf and the drug are not the same thing, and for several decades in the 19th century European and American pharmacists treated the leaf as a mild restorative — not a controlled substance. The 1961 international ban, which The Guardian ties to the leaf’s cocaine alkaloid content, is the reason that trade ended, not any finding about the leaf itself.

We would also resist reading the flyer as clinical evidence. It is a sales document, and its claims about fatigue and aging are advertising copy, not data. What it does supply is provenance: sourcing from Bolivia, a stated quantity, a price, and a customer base. Historians of the leaf work from exactly this kind of paper, and there is likely more of it sitting unread in European pharmacy archives.

For anyone following the modern argument — the one we covered in HerbalGram’s dedicated coca issue — finds like this matter as context, not proof. They show that treating coca as an unremarkable botanical is not a novel idea. It is a return to how much of the world handled it before 1961.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was found in the Florence convent archives?

Father Manuel Russo, rector of the San Marco convent in Florence, found an undated promotional flyer for a restorative wine elixir made from Bolivian coca leaves and kola nut. He also found a couple of empty bottles that had held the preparation. The flyer is believed to date from the late 19th century.

What was in the Florentine friars' coca elixir?

According to the flyer from the San Marco convent pharmacy, the recipe called for 10 grams of Bolivian coca leaves and 30 grams of kola nut, blended with wine. It was sold as a tonic for recovering from fatigue caused by illness and aging. The price ranged from 2 to 6 Italian lira.

Was Coca-Cola really invented in Italy?

There is no evidence of any link between the Florentine friars' elixir and Coca-Cola. Father Manuel Russo, who found the document at the San Marco convent, said John Pemberton devised his own recipe and that coca-based medicines were common in Italy and France at the time. Italian news outlets raised the question, but no connection has been established.

How did John Pemberton's original Coca-Cola recipe compare?

Pemberton created a sweet syrup in 1886 by combining coca leaf extract with kola nuts. Local alcohol laws stopped him from using wine, so he mixed the ingredients with carbonated water instead. That tonic eventually became Coca-Cola.

Is coca leaf the same thing as cocaine?

No. Coca leaf is a plant whose leaves contain a small amount of the cocaine alkaloid alongside other compounds, while cocaine is a concentrated extract produced by chemical processing. Nineteenth-century European pharmacies, including the one at San Marco convent in Florence, sold whole-leaf preparations as ordinary restorative medicines.

Why did the friars stop selling their coca preparation?

The trade ended after coca leaves were banned internationally in 1961 because they contain the natural alkaloid used to make cocaine. Father Manuel Russo said the elixir had been one of the San Marco pharmacy's bestsellers up to that point. The flyer itself predates the ban by decades.

Is the San Marco pharmacy in Florence still open?

Yes. The pharmacy, which opened in 1460 to serve the neighborhood's poor, still operates, though it moved to a different part of Florence in 1995. The original premises remain intact, including a Nile crocodile that has hung from the ceiling since the 1600s.