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There is a heterogeneous genetic structure among the cultivated Erythroxylum taxa where E. coca and E. novogranatense are two independent species. Erythroxylum coca var. coca is most likely the ancestral taxon of E. c. var. ipadu and a founder effect may have occurred as E. c. var. ipadu moved from the eastern Andes in Peru and Bolivia into the lowland Amazonian basin. There is an indication of artificial hybridization in coca grown in Colombia.

Leaf extracts of Erythroxylum coca var. coca Lam. (E. c. var. coca) yielded six O-eonjugates of Eriodictyol flavonoids, while the equivalent extracts from Erythroxylum novograna tense var. novogranatense (Morris) Hieron (E. n. var. novogranatense) contained five flavo noids, two of which were O-conjugates of Luteolin and three were O-conjugates of Kaempferol. All six of E. c. var. coca methanolic extracted peaks (resolved by HPLC) were found to have a 2, 3 single bond, which in E. n. var. novogranatense is replaced by a 2-hydroxy allene. The other primary difference in the predominant flavonoids between these taxa is the chemical composition of the sugar and/or acyl O-conjugation and site(s) at which this conjugation occurred. The results suggest that the most abundant O-conjugated flavo noids of E. c. var. coca and E. n. var. novogranatense may be used as chemotaxonomic markers for the two taxa. Therefore, the O-conjugated peaks of Eriodictyol , are distinct chemotaxonomic markers for E. c. var. coca and the O-conjugated peaks Luteolin and Kaempferol for E. n. var. novogranatense. These taxa are two of the four cultivated Erythrox ylum taxa that contain commercial quantities of the cocaine alkaloid in their leaves, this entity also sets apart the taxa from other members of Erythroxylum. We suggest that the biochemistry of flavonoids of other Erythroxylum taxa may also be species selective.

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Leaf extracts of Erythroxylum ulei O. E. Schulz, produced six O-conjugated flavonoids. Three of the flavonoid aglycones were isoflavones, two were isoflavanones and the remainder a flavonol (quercetin). The major glycosides of these flavonols included mono-and dirham-nosides, mono-glucosides and galactosides with either 3̕ 4̕, or 7 linkage or a combination thereof. The two isoflavanones, in addition to being glycosylated, possessed a methyl group at position 2 of the C-ring. These flavonoids may be used as chemotaxonomic markers for the taxon.