Coca: Encyclopedia - Coca

Coca

Coca (Erythroxylum coca), often spelled koka in Quechua and Aymara, is a plant in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to northwestern South America. Under the older Cronquist system of classifying flowering plants, this was placed in an order Linales; more modern systems place it in the order Malpighiales. The plant is best-known in modern times for the drug cocaine that is manufactured from it.

The plant resembles a blackthorn bush, and grows to a height of 2-3 m. The branches are straight, and the leaves, which have a green tint, are thin, opaque, oval, more or less tapering at the extremities. A marked characteristic of the leaf is an areolated portion bounded by two longitudinal curved lines once on each side of the midrib, and more conspicuous on the under face of the leaf.

The flowers are small, and disposed in little clusters on short stalks; the corolla is composed of five yellowish-white petals, the anthers are heart-shaped, and the pistil consists of three carpels united to form a three-chambered ovary. The flowers mature into red berries.

The leaves are sometimes eaten by the moth Eloria noyesi.

Coca - Cultivation and uses

Coca is traditionally cultivated in the lower altitudes of the eastern slopes of the Andes. Since ancient times, its leaves have been used as a stimulant by the indigenous people of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and northern Argentina; it also has religious and symbolic significance. Since the 1980s, the cultivation of coca has become controversial because it is used for the manufacture of the drug cocaine, which is illegal in most countries.

Good samples of the dried leaves are uncurled, are of a deep green on the upper, and a grey-green on the lower surface, and have a strong tea-like odor; when chewed they produce a faint numbness in the mouth, and have a pleasant, pungent taste. Bad specimens have a camphoraceous smell and a brownish colour, and lack the pungent taste.

The seeds are sown in December and January in small plots (almacigas) sheltered from the sun, and the young plants when from 40-60 cm in height are placed in holes (aspi), or, if the ground is level, in furrows (uachos) in carefully weeded soil. The plants thrive best in hot, damp situations, such as the clearings of forests; but the leaves most preferred are obtained in drier localities, on the sides of hills. The leaves are gathered from plants varying in age from one and a half to upwards of forty years. They are considered ready for plucking when they break on being bent. The first and most abundant harvest is in March, after the rains; the second is at the end of June, the third in October or November. The green leaves (matu) are spread in thin layers on coarse woollen cloths and dried in the sun; they are then packed in sacks, which must be kept dry in order to preserve the quality of the leaves.

Coca - Pharmacological aspects

The pharmacologically active ingredient of coca is the alkaloid cocaine which is found in the amount of about 0.2% in fresh leaves. Besides cocaine, the coca leaf contains a number of other alkaloids, including Methylecgonine cinnamate, Benzoylecgonine, Truxilline, Hydroxytropacocaine, Tropacocaine, Ecgonine, Cuscohygrine, Dihydrocuscohygrine, Nicotine and Hygrine.

Coca - Traditional uses

In the Andes, the indigenous peoples have been chewing the leaves of the coca plant for millennia. They traditionally carried a woven pouch called a chuspa or huallqui in which they kept a day's supply of coca leaves, along with a small amount of ilucta or uipta, which is made from pulverized unslaked lime or from the ashes of the quinoa plant. A tiny quantity of ilucta is chewed together with the coca leaves; it softens their astringent flavor and activates the alkaloids. Other names for this basifying substance are llipta in Peru and lejía in Bolivia. Many of these materials are salty in flavor, but there are variations. The most common base in the La Paz area of Bolivia is a product known as lejía dulce which is made from quinoa ashes mixed with anise and cane sugar, forming a soft black putty with a sweet and pleasing licorice flavor. In some places, baking soda is used under the name bico.

The practice of chewing coca was most likely originally a simple matter of survival. The coca leaf contained many essential nutrients in addition to its more well-known mood-altering alkaloid. It is rich in protein and vitamins, and it grows in regions where other food sources are scarce. The perceived boost in energy and strength provided by the cocaine in coca leaves was also very functional in an area where oxygen is scarce and extensive walking is essential. The coca plant was so central to the worldview of the Yunga and Aymara tribes of South America that distance was often measured in units called "cocada", which signified the number of mouthfuls of coca that one would chew while walking from one point to another. Cocada can also be used as a measurement of time, meaning the amount of time it takes for a mouthful of coca to lose its flavor and activity. In testament of the significance of coca to indigenous cultures, it is widely believed that the word "coca" most likely originally simply meant "plant," in other words, coca was not just a plant but the plant.

Coca was also a vital part of the religious cosmology of the Andean tribes in the pre-Inca period as well as throughout the Inca Empire (Tahuantinsuyu). Coca was historically employed as an offering to the Sun, or to produce smoke at the great sacrifices; and the priests, it was believed, must chew it during the performance of religious ceremonies, otherwise the gods would not be propitiated. Coca is still held in veneration among the indigenous and mestizo peoples of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and northern Argentina and Chile. It is believed by the miners of Cerro de Pasco to soften the veins of ore, if masticated (chewed) and thrown upon them (see also Cocomama). Coca leaves play a crucial part in offerings to the apus (mountains), Inti (the sun), or Pachamama (the earth). Coca leaves are often read in a form of divination analogous to reading tea leaves in other cultures.

The activity of chewing coca is called chacchar or acullicar, borrowed from Quechua, or in Bolivia, picchar, derived from the Aymara language. The Spanish masticar is also frequently used. Doing so usually causes users to feel a tingling and numbing sensation in their mouths, similar to receiving Novocain during a dental procedure. Even today, chewing coca leaves is a common sight in indigenous communities across the central Andean region, particularly in places like the mountains of Bolivia, where the cultivation and consumption of coca is as much a part of the national culture as wine is to France or beer is to Germany. It also serves as a powerful symbol of indigenous cultural and religious identity, and so plays a role similar to that of peyote to North American indigenous peoples. Bags of coca leaves are sold in local markets and by street vendors. Commercially manufactured coca teas are also available in most stores and supermarkets, including upscale suburban supermarkets.

Coca - International use

Coca has a long history of export and use around the world. Modern export of processed coca (as cocaine) to global markets is well documented, and coca leaves are exported for tea, flavoring (Coca-Cola), and for medical use. Historical evidence points to a long history of coca export. Samples taken from nine Egyptian mummies that were dated from between 1070 B.C. to 395 A.D. showed traces of cocaine (and nicotine), and these studies have been used as evidence of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. Several pipes taken from Shakespeare's residence and dated to the seventeenth century have shown evidence of cocaine, which was first introduced to Europe in the 16th century.

Coca - Industrial use

Coca is used industrially in the cosmetics and food industries. The Coca-Cola Company buys 115 tons of coca leaf from Peru and 105 tons from Bolivia per year, which it uses as an ingredient in its Coca-Cola formula (famously a trade secret). The cocaine itself does not end up in the drink nowadays, however, and is generally sold to the pharmaceutical industry where it is used for various surgical procedures. [1] In Colombia, the Paeces, a Tierradentro (Cauca) indigenous community, started in December 2005 to produce a drink called "Coca Sek." The production method belong to the resguardos of Calderas (Inzá) and takes about 150 Kg of coca per 3000 produced bottles.

Coca - Legality

Coca - International

Article 26 of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs states:

The Article 23 controls referred to in paragraph 1 are rules requiring opium-, coca-, and cannabis-cultivating nations to designate an agency to regulate said cultivation and take physical possession of the crops as soon as possible after harvest. Article 27 states that "The Parties may permit the use of coca leaves for the preparation of a flavouring agent, which shall not contain any alkaloids, and, to the extent necessary for such use, may permit the production, import, export, trade in and possession of such leaves". This provision is designed to accommodate Coca-Cola and other producers of coca products.

In December 2005, Evo Morales, a former coca growers union leader, was elected President of Bolivia and promised to legalize the cultivation and traditional use of coca. According to Morales, "coca no es cocaína", the coca leaf is not a drug.

Coca - See further

• Coca eradication
• Coca-Cola
• Huallaga Valley

Coca - External link

• The Coca Museum (A private museum in La Paz, Bolivia)
• Coca, Cocaine and the International Conventions Transnational Institute (TNI)
• Kokka Royal Food and Drink Peruvian coca based soft drink manufacturer.

Coca - Photos

• 27 original photos on coca growing in La Convención valley, Cuzco Province, Peru

Categories: 1911 Britannica | Herbal and fungal stimulants | Malpighiales

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Coca", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki