Women gathering leaves of the coca plant (Erythroxylum coca) in Bolivia. Wood engraving, c. 1867. Henry Walter Bates. Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant drug made from the leaves of the coca plant native to South America. In 1859, Albert Niemann of the University of Gottingen became the first person to isolate the chief alkaloid of coca, which he named "cocaine." Extraction of cocaine from coca requires several solvents and a chemical process known as an acid/base extraction, which can fairly easily extract the alkaloids from the plant. Coca leaf extract was used in Coca-Cola products from 1885, with cocaine being completely eliminated from the products on or around 1929.