Despite centuries of disco, 17th century Italian citizens may have loved cocaine. A preserved human brain from Milan tested positive for the drug, centuries before it was believed to have been widely used in Europe.
The gray matter in question was found in the Ca’Granda crypt, a burial ground near the main hospital of the time. I Ospedale Maggiore he was known for his treatment of Milan’s poor and disadvantaged.
Researchers from the University of Milan have carried out several preliminary studies on the remains found in the crypt, seeking to find out what the medicine of the time looked like. In their latest study, published in Journal of Archaeological Science, they performed toxicology tests on the brain matter removed from the skull. In two of the nine samples tested, the researchers found active components from Erythroxylum grandfatherthe official name of the plant from which cocaine is derived.
The presence of cocaine in these remains is surprising. The coca plant is native to South America and was unknown to Europeans until the Spanish arrived in the New World in the 15th century. Although there were attempts to send samples of the plant home, it was badly damaged during the long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Until now, it was widely believed that cocaine was not introduced to Europe until the 1800s.
Other evidence contradicts this account, including the records of a French botanist who received a shipment of Erythroxylum in the 1750s. Milan, which was ruled by Spain in the 1600s, was also known to import the plant to the New World, so it is possible that the coca plant could have eradicated it.
This discovery does not mean that the citizens of Milan were following each other while listening to the 17th century version of Interpol. One of the compounds found in the samples was hygrine, an alkaloid found in coca leaves, indicating that the plant had not been converted into its normal powder form. The old inhabitants of Milan, regardless of who they were, probably consumed this drug by chewing the leaves.
The researchers agreed that the presence of the medicine does not mean that it was used for treatment in the hospital. It was not recorded in any hospital records as a drug to be used, leading the researchers to conclude that the plant may have been used for its euphoric effects. If so, this study may have uncovered the first recreational use of a drug in Europe that has grown into a billion-dollar industry and caused thousands of overdose deaths a year.
Cocaine was not the only drug now known for recreational use found in remains found in the Ca’Granda crypt. A 2023 analysis of female bones by the same investigators found traces of marijuana. 17th century Milan sounds wild.
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