Kola nut
Kola, cola, gurru or guru nut, bissy nut; Kola vera of Grieve; Sterculia acuminata P. Beauv.; Cola nitida (Vent.) Schott & Endl. and Cola acuminata (P. Beauv.) Schott & Endl.; in pharmacy Colae semen
- Known today as
- The dried cotyledons of the seeds of the kola trees of western Africa, of the family Malvaceae (in the older books Sterculiaceae), freed from their purplish seed coat. Grieve describes a tree about forty feet high with yellow flowers spotted with purple; the seed, nearly white when fresh, turns reddish-brown on drying and loses much of its astringency. King’s Dispensatory places the tree between Sierra Leone and the Congo and Lower Guinea, carried by the slave traders to Jamaica. The European Medicines Agency’s assessment report takes the drug to contain at least 1.5 per cent of methylxanthines, chiefly caffeine.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- caffeine
- Earliest authority here
- King’s American Dispensatory (1898)
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online · GBIF · Wikidata
Caution. Not for people with stomach or duodenal ulcers, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat or other heart disorders, or an overactive thyroid; not under eighteen, nor in pregnancy or breast-feeding, nor at bedtime, since it may disturb sleep. Those taking MAO inhibitors should use it with caution; like other caffeine preparations it weakens sedatives and increases the side effects of sympathomimetic drugs.
Kola nut: what was it used for?
A stimulant to stay hunger and sustain strength. King’s records that the peoples of the region chewed kola “to allay hunger, prevent thirst, promote digestion, and sustain strength,” and Grieve that a small piece was chewed before each meal and was thought even to make putrid water palatable. In European medicine its properties were, in Grieve’s words, “the same as caffeine, modified only by the astringents present.”
Kola nut: what does modern science say?
The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts the seed as a traditional herbal medicine, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for symptoms of temporary fatigue and a sensation of weakness (monograph of 2011). Its assessment report found that clinical trials supporting its uses “are lacking,” and judged the traditional use plausible from its caffeine content, the maximum daily dose amounting to at least 135 mg of caffeine.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- The European agency judged the traditional use plausible from its caffeine content.
- Standing
- European Union herbal monograph (2011): traditional use, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for temporary fatigue and a sensation of weakness.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. European Union herbal monograph on Colae semen (Cola). EMA/HMPC/722367/2010, 22 November 2011. Read in full · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Assessment report on Colae semen. EMA/HMPC/722365/2010, 22 November 2011. Read in part · the text read
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Kola nut: what lore surrounds it?
It also figured, King’s continues, “in courtship and marriage, compacts of friendship, as a mark of hospitality, and was put into the graves of the dead to nourish them on their long journey.” Grieve warns of a false kola, the male kola of Garcinia kola, which contains no caffeine.
Kola nut: what did the older authorities say?
- King’s American Dispensatory (1898)
- Leo Africanus, in the sixteenth century, referred to the tree as the Gora or Guru and wrote of its bitter nut; Clusius described and illustrated the seeds in 1591, and J. Bauhin first noted its use by the natives in fevers. Kola figured in many ceremonies, social, political, and religious: “It was used as a declaration of war (red nut), and as a symbol of peace (white nut).”
Sources
- Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Kola Nuts.” As published on botanical.com. Read in full · the text read
- Felter, H. W., & Lloyd, J. U. (1898). King’s American Dispensatory, vol. 2, “Kola.” Internet Archive, kingsamericandis02kinguoft. Read in part · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. European Union herbal monograph on Colae semen (Cola). EMA/HMPC/722367/2010, 22 November 2011. Read in full · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Assessment report on Colae semen. EMA/HMPC/722365/2010, 22 November 2011. Read in part · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 4 cited: 2 read in full, 2 read in part.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Club members can point at a technical term in this entry, such as a constituent, an action, or a word of Jung’s, to read its definition from the source. The Club.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published October 17, 2026
- Chicago
“Kola nut.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 17, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/kola-nut.
- MLA
“Kola nut.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 17 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/kola-nut. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Kola nut. (2026, October 17). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/kola-nut
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See Also
Sharing caffeine
Camellia sinensis · Paullinia cupana · Ilex paraguariensis · Coffea arabica
Drawing on the same sources: Grieve, Felter
Laburnum · Knotgrass · Lady’s mantle · Kava · Lime flower · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Labdanum (Cistus ladanifer and C) · Koji mould (The mould grown on steamed rice or soybeans) · Kermes (which yield a red dye used since antiquity) · Lapis lazuli, pills of
Historical description, not medical advice.
