In 1885, John Stith Pemberton, a chemist from Atlanta, created French Wine Coca, an imitation of a hugely popular aperitif from France made with Bordeaux and coca leaves, the origin of cocaine, reports The Times.
The original Le Vin Tonique Mariani had earned success after being advertised as a cure for many ailments including “nervous troubles”, overwork, impotency and seasickness.
The American version was equally ambitious in its pretensions, with Pemberton describing it as a “most wonderful invigorator of sexual organs”, although the claims were toned down a little after new laws in the US forced the introduction of recipes free of alcohol and cocaine for what was rebranded as Coca-Cola.
Now French scientists have embarked upon a study that could help to explain whether the soft drink’s forebear — the aperitif created in 1863 by Angelo Mariani, a pharmacist on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica — really was a cure for multiple troubles.
Bruno Figadère, director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), said: “We have many examples of people who consumed [Vin Tonique Mariani] saying they had health benefits. We want to see whether there is a scientific basis for the claims or whether they might have been the effect of alcohol coupled with a dose of cocaine making patients euphoric.”