Mummified brains found in Milan crypt unravel secrets about cocaine use in Europe

Cocaine likely was being used in Europe 200 years earlier than previously recorded, as per a new study. A 17th-century crypt in Milan, Italy, has thrown open a well-kept secret about the drug, as per New Scientist.Surprisingly, the mummified brain tissue of two people found in the crypt contains traces of cocaine.

South America is home to coca leaves, from which cocaine is derived. People have been chewing the leaves for thousands of years in the region. But in Europe, it was chemically isolated from the plant in the 19th century and that is when Europeans started using cocaine.

Coca leaves were found to have psychoactive and therapeutic properties, but Spanish conquerors didn't want the information to spread. So they tried to stop the news from leaving the empire. However, in the 16th century, clues suggest that they tried to export the plant. But history says that the plants didn't travel well, so the project didn't materialise.

But it seems cocaine did move to Europe much earlier than thought. Gaia Giordano at the University of Milan and her colleagues have uncovered data that suggests the same. She and her team studied the remains of nine people who died in the 1600s. They were buried in a crypt that belonged to a hospital that treated the poor.

They studied tiny brain tissue samples of the dead to understand what kind of drugs were being used during the time. What they found was shocking. Two brains, despite having endured almost four centuries of decay, still carry traces of cocaine. Normally, the drug disappears from the body within a few months.

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So the discovery was quite shocking for Giordano and her team. “It’s very extraordinary to find that molecule,” she said.

Medicinal or leisurely use of cocaine?

They also found hygrine, a substance that is released when one chews on coca leaves. These people were patients at the former Ca’ Granda hospital, and its records don't show cocaine being prescribed as a medicine. It was only in the 19th century that it was prescribed by the hospital.

Giordano believes that either these two people were self-medicating, or chewed the leaves for leisure. But how did they get their hands on the leaves considering the Spanish Empire didn't send them out?

This is the big question the researchers are trying to answer. Since the two people belonged to a poor community, it means the leaves must have been easily available for them to chew on. They also likely knew the effects they have on humans.

The finding suggests that coca leaves did survive the journey from South America to Europe andalso reached Milan.