Coca (Erythroxylum coca)

  In Peru, since inmemorial time, coca crop has been part of the tradition and customs of andean farmers. Coca is used in chewing, also as an stimulant and in applications in medicinal and religious rituals. It is considered that these uses and applications date from around 6,500 years before the spanish conquest of Peru. All the uses of coca by the descendants of the ancient cultures of Peru are known as "legal traditional  use," acknowledged in art. 14 inc. 2 of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs of 1988.  

The traditional use of coca leaves has included multiple dimensions of social events playing a central role in all collective ceremony of transcendence: baptisms, marriages, deaths, organizing celebrations, etc.. It is precisely the  "sacred"  character attributed to the plant, which has become it as an object of reverence and worship, at the same time giving it a deeper meaning. The coca leaf, as "sacred leaf", not only got a better  social solidarity but also did easier the ritual communication with the spirits of nature.  

The sacred use of the leaf brought into harmony to men and women,  promoting internal solidarity and the integration of the group, giving them a contact with forces that are the guardians of their active support of society and nature in which these people live. This integration of the person with the family, the community, the culture and the environment through the coca, became to the plant a true symbol of ethnic identity.  

Because of its sacred meaning the coca leaf was used as a symbol of prestige and it has been a subject of reciprocal exchange, precious gift and a general way of exchange. That is why in the native context coca is the "first sale product" and, particularly, the most effective cash and with greatest circulation, playing the role of "quasi-currency" because it was one of the products that could be exchanged for almost all the possessions that have circulated for centuries in the andean farmers economy.  

Also, the coca in its traditional context has always been an integral part of the production process. When it was time of farm work,  infrastructure construction, grazing, transportation and storaging of seeds; coca leaf was chewed in the moments before work, during rest and at the end of the task. This practice assumes even greater significance and symbolism when it comes to communal work.  

Equally important in the traditional use of coca, it is its role in traditional andean mythic practice as well as in divination and invocation of occult powers. The native farmers recognized many medicinal properties to treat various diseases. Many times, coca was used as a diagnostic device and because  it, establishing a therapeutic strategy.  

It is affirmeed that many of these traditional uses are still present in the high andean farmers populations and in native populations  from the andes that have migrated to the main population centers. Now a days, these people use the coca leaf for chewing in the farm work and chore, it is the most widespread form of using it, alleviating hunger, thirst and fatigue. Other uses are rituals and for medicine, while the other uses are losing force, since the trade in goods are monetized and the younger generations move to the cities and take a variety of educational and cultural patterns.  

Here are some excerpts from an article by
Dr. Theobald Llosa (Psychiatrist graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Brazil. Aerospace Medical School of Aerospace Medicine in Texas. Investigator in the National Institute on Drug Dependence. Founder of Mariategui clinics, Heidelberg, Llosa and the Institute of Stress).  

"Although the coca plant is best known for its leaves, used for traditional  herbal teas, for chacchado (chewing of the leaves) and coca tea bags where coca leaves are ground and put into bags used in hot water; recently there  is a developing of the industry of coca plant getting powder from the leaves.  

Coca flour is the powder resulting from the milling of coca leaves, especially in a ball mill, in an slightly elevated temperature caused by the mechanical process of grinding and resulting a product of powdery consistency (coca leaves micropulverized with all the chemicals and nutrients from natural coca leaf), according to the information provided by Dr. Silveria Dongo ENACO Chemistry.  

One of the arguments put forward in defense of the use of coca is the nutritional value. It has been confirmed by several studies, among which stand out those of Collazos, Urquieta and Alvistur (Lima, 1965), Duke, Aulike and Plowman (Bolivia, 1975), Carter and Mamani (Bolivia, 1978), Marina Escobar (Cusco, 1993) , Caceres, Howard and Pine (Cusco, 1993) and Serrano (1993),  people who reviewed the components and amounts of nutrients contained in leaves, developing experimental food and  products such as those developed by Rosa Urrunaga and Marina Escobar ( 1994) in Cuzco. Whole coca leaves contain all natural ingredients: carbohydrate, protein, carotene, thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin C, niacin, calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium, potassium, and natural alkaloids among which is cocaine. It can be obtained from the plant:  flavoring oils for candies and perfumes, among other applications.  

Many people is talking about the nutritional value of coca leaves (natural, milled, flour or infusions). Some authors have reported that coca nutrients are not digestible. But studies up to date have left no doubt that highly significant amounts of nutrients are absorbed properly from coca, including some such as thiamin, 100%, as demonstrated by the Collazos report in 1964.  

Collazos report determines the absorption of several nutrients including thiamin (100%), riboflavin and carotene before and after chewing and percentage of extraction. Concerning to riboflavin it seems that there is  a direct relationship between the amount of coca chewed and extracted. And in the case of carotene it was extracted over 50% . The conclusions of Collazos and colleagues showed that coca leaf as it is chewed, contains several nutrients, in some cases in a great proportion (calcium, carotene, riboflavin, thiamine, iron and niacin) and during mastication are extracted  several nutrients including provitamin carotene and vitamin A, which increase their concentration in the blood. 
 
 Meanwhile Duke and colleagues have reported the nutrient content in coca leaves and the great amount compared with other known plants of the region, in a coincidence with the analisys of Collazos. Duke and colleagues believe that "few food plants can supply calcium and iron in the recommended dietary allowance (RDA). The reports presented here on the leaves from Bolivia contain the requirements of the RDA".  

There is a big promotion about the benefits of coca flour in human health. However this new method of using coca leaves, although there are some anecdotal indications of its use in the inca empire, has not been adequately studied nor casuistic clinically or statistically valid. It is very strange the contraindications on coca leaf chewing, so the use in the presentation of coca flour should not be a problem in health. The problem lies in the dosage, which in most cases has not been medically calculated and administered to those individuals at high risk, such as uncontrolled hypertension, pregnant women, small children or people with glaucoma and allergic to any protein or other component of coca.  

The Medical Industry of coca is not new. As shown by the history and the products that survived specially the famous coca cola, originally promoted as a tonic for the nerves and headaches. Although the coca industry has never disappeared, it was reduced to a handicraft industry and hidden due to prohibitions and misguided policy of the Andean governments. But scientific research about drinking and chewing effects of coca leaves continued in various domestic and foreign laboratories, showing that the orally use of cocaine in doses much higher than those consumed by traditional chacchadores  (people who use coca leaf by chewing) and coca tea drinkers,  do not produce psychological or behavioral disorders nor diseases carried. Rather, it demonstrated again that consumption of coca leaves increase resistance and reduces stress in daily life, being an excellent natural energizer.  

In recent years, protectors of the proper use of coca and its derivatives, including scientists, sociologists and people from industry, they have restart the elaboration of  products based on whole coca leaf, the extracts or the flour, thanks to pressure made by people from handicraft industry to popularize the coca-based products, but also there is an increasing of the number of industries with  license to industrialize and commercialize coca leaves under its form of flour or extract. However, not all promoters of coca flour have fundamental knowledge of information or the content and effects of the use of coca flour, so it has been created a lolt of confusion and exaggerations and distortions about its benefits or damages. Some people recommend coca flour for everything, whether cancer, AIDS, osteoporosis and also for use in children. That's not right if there is no traditional or scientific evidence. To give to the children regularly coca flour has no scientific or tradicional evidence, as the Incas did not routinely administered coca flour for their children. Just as they began to work (12 to 14 years) were initiated in the chewing of coca leaves, using an alkaline substance based on the ashes of a plant (llipta). But it was never showed why they used this alkaline substance (llipta). Some claimed it was to get less strong the flavor of coca and others said it was for a better extract of cocaine from the leaves. Both hypotheses were valid, but the second was the truly scientific.