CHAPTER 9Psychoactive Drugs
The British and Dutch East India Companies were the world’s first
multinational corporations and wielded great power during their
heyday—the 1600s to the 1800s. They had the capacity to wage war in
the service of their business enterprises. Among their most important
commodities were tea, coffee, and spices. During its later years, the
British East India Company was also heavily into opium. Psychoactive
drugs have been an important factor in the history of human civiliza-
tion and, more recently, in the history of neuroscience.
Caffeine. Coffee (Coffea arabica, native to northeast Africa), tea
(Camellia sinensis, native to East Asia), and cacao (Theobroma cacao,
native to South and Central America), from which chocolate is made,
are the three best-known plant sources of caffeine. Other caffeine-
containing plants include kola (Cola acuminata, native to Africa),
guarana (Paullinia cupana, native to South America), and yerba mate
(Ilex paraguariensis, native to South America). The widespread con-
sumption of beverages made from these plants unquestionably makes
caffeine (1,3,7-trimethylxanthine) the most widely used psychoactive
drug in the world.