Coca leaf

“ It is pretty safe to say that nineteen-twentieths of the coca seen in this market within the past two years must be almost inert and valueless, yet all is sold and used, and its reputation as a therapeutic agent is pretty well kept up. At least many thousands of pounds of the brown ill-smelling leaf, and of preparations made from it, are annually sold. And worse than this, considerable quantities of a handsome looking green leaf, well put up and well taken care of, have been sold and used as coca, when wanting in nearly all its characteristics. ”

“ It produces more cerebral action than tea or coffee. Johnson, in his “Chemistry of Common Life,” says we may dismiss those fears of the Coca leaf which old Spanish prejudices awakened, and which representations like those of Pöppig have tended to perpetuate in Europe. There is no good reason why it should not be tried among ourselves. That Coca dilated the pupils of the eye was noticed by Von Tschudi. ”

“ This can hardly be otherwise, it is to be feared, for some time to come, when we remember that the reliance upon the extraordinary virtues of the coca-leaf amongst the Peruvian Indians is so strong, that in the Huanuco province they believe that if a dying man can taste a leaf placed upon his tongue, it is a sure sign of his future happiness! ”

“ After this we are not surprised to learn that the Bolivian Indians, who take coca from infancy, are able to hold their own easily with mule-mounted travellers. Such among them as have won for themselves a reputation as "good walkers" are employed to carry government despatches, being capable of accomplishing twenty leagues a day for several successive days with nothing to sustain their energies save coca and lipta — a preparation of cooked potatoes, pounded into a pulp and burned to ashes with a maize-cob, which imparts a pleasant saline flavour to the otherwise insipid coca-leaf. ”

“ Now, why have I so minutely described the coca-bush? Because, that, in the economy of the life of those Indians who inhabit the countries of the Andes mountains, this curious plant plays a most important part. Scarcely one of these people is to be met with who is not an eater of coca—a “coquero.” With them it is what the tea-tree is to the Chinese. Indeed, it is a curious fact, that in all parts of the world some stimulating vegetable is used by the human race. Tea in China; the betel-leaf, and the nut of the areca palm, among the Southern Asiatics ”

“ No entreaty on the part of his employer will induce him to move, and, if he be a confirmed coquero, he is indifferent even to drenching rain or the roar of wild animals in the neighboring thicket. In what way the pleasures of the coca-leaf manifest themselves is not known, but they must evidently be of a very seducing kind, thus to render men insensible to personal danger. ”

“ In writing about cocaine, we find that interest lies not so much in itself as in the plant of which it is the alkaloid, the “erythroxylon coca.”
The coca plant is indigenous to Peru, and from the most ancient times, Peruvian Indians have chewed the leaves as a habit, as Indians in this country chew the betel leaf and tobacco. ”

“ Dose.—1⁄2 to 2 drachms.
Coca leaves are exhausted by percolation with proof spirit, the second part of percolate concentrated and dissolved in the first portion, and the strength adjusted so that 1 ounce=1 of leaves; this preparation contains all the properties of the leaf. If freed from the coca wax it is miscible with water and more palatable, and, so purified, if added to port, sherry, or burgundy, in the proportion of half a teaspoonful to a wineglassful (about an ounce to a bottle) , it forms an exhilarating mental stimulant. ”

“ Linnæus says that Coca possesses: "the penetrating aroma of vegetable stimulants, the astricting and fortifying virtues of an astringent, the antispasmodic qualities of bitters, and the mucilaginous nutritive properties of analeptics or of alimentary plants. This leaf," he continues, "exhibits with energy its action on all parts of the animal economy: Olido in nervos, sapido in fibras utroque in fluido."
Father don Antonio Julian wrote: "This plant is a preventive against many diseases, a restorative of lost strength, and is capable of prolonging human life. ”

“ They are said to be most active when freshly dried, and are much used by the native Indians, miners, travellers, and others. The benumbing effect on the tongue—dulling its sensibility—I find is much greater on chewing a fresh living leaf than that produced by a number of dried leaves. “The average [Pg 46] duration,” says Markham, [27] “of Coca in a sound state on the coast is about five months, after which time it is said to lose flavour, and is rejected by the Indians as worthless.” ”

“ In the lowlands of Cuzco the winds are not so violent, and the coca grower may tell when a storm is approaching and carry his leaves under shelter. The air is dry enough there even when it rains not to injure the leaf, while here the atmosphere is so damp that the coca curer must carefully secure his leaves against it, or they lose their flavor, diminishing their market value. The Yuracares coca planter is too high up on the side of the Andes. ”

“ The South American Indians, long famous as coca eaters, seem as a rule not to succumb to its effects. They use the dried leaf, which they chew, previously introducing a small amount of alkali, to set the cocaine free. In civilized countries the alkaloid as a chloride is usually employed, and is administered by hypodermic injection. ”

“ Brandy gives strength, as all know; but who does not know also that the ‘gift’ is but a loan made out at the expense of strength reserved for the future? The action of this agent, though powerful, is transient. The stimulus produced by mastication of the leaf of the Erythroxylon is, on the contrary, slow and sustained, characters which it owes, doubtless, in great part to the manner of its employment, since an infusion of Coca acts very differently from the leaf taken in the ordinary way. ”

“ In the district of Sandia, in Caravaya, there are two kinds of coca, that of Ypara and that of Hatun-yunca, which has a larger leaf. The yield is 45,000 cestos a year. In the yungus of La Paz, in Bolivia, the yield is about 400,000 cestos. The coca-trade is a government monopoly in Bolivia, the state reserving the right of purchasing from the grower, and reselling to the consumer. This right is generally farmed out to the highest bidder. In 1850 the coca-duty yielded 200,000 dollars to the Bolivian revenue. ”

“ The harvest is greatest in a hot moist situation; but the leaf generally considered the best flavoured by consumers, grows in drier parts, on the sides of hills. The greatest care is required in the drying; for too much sun causes the leaves to dry up and lose their flavour, while, if packed up moist, they become fetid. They are generally exposed to the sun in thin layers.
Acosta says that in his time the trade in coca at Potosi was worth 500,000 dollars annually; and that in 1583 the Indians consumed 100,000 cestos of coca, worth 21⁄2 dollars each in Cuzco, and 4 dollars in Potosi. ”

“ He carefully carries the part of his little stick covered with llipta to his quid, and thus performs the operation of mixing the alkaline powder with the masticated leaf. It is at this moment that the quid of Coca affords the young adult the most delightful sensation. ”

“ Coca thrives best in a warm, well-drained soil, with considerable atmospheric moisture. In the Andes region an elevation of 2,000 feet to 5,000 feet is most suitable. The young growing plants must be protected against the heat of the sun. The maximum growth is attained in about five years.
The leaves are the only parts used although the active principle, cocaine, is present in small quantities in all parts of the plant. As soon as the shrubs are several years old the leaves are picked, usually several times each year. ”

“ Chewing coca leaves has never become common among civilized nations. Large quantities of leaves are, however, imported for the purposes of extracting the active principle cocaine, whose effects are very marked. ”

“ One of the warmest advocates of the plant was the Jesuit Don Antonio Julian, who, in a work entitled “Perla de America,” laments that Coca is not introduced into Europe instead of tea and coffee. “It is,” he observes, “melancholy to reflect that the poor of Europe cannot obtain this preservative against hunger and thirst; that our working people are not supported by this strengthening plant in their long-continued labours.”
Under Don Francisco de Toledo, Viceroy of Peru, the cultivation continued, conditionally on voluntary and well-paid labourers only being employed in the Cocals. ”

“ Now as these little bushes require a humid atmosphere, maize-plants are sown between the rows to protect them from the sun. In other places arbours of palm-leaves are constructed over the coca-plants. When no rain falls, they are watered every five or six days. After about two and a half years of this nursing, the coca-bush is ready for use, and it is the leaves alone that are valuable. These are gathered with great care, just as the Chinese gather the leaves of the tea-plant; and, as in China, women are principally employed in this labour. ”

“ More than ten million pounds are produced annually in Bolivia; so that the annual yield of coca throughout South America, including Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Pasto, may be estimated at thirty million pounds.
It is scarcely pleasant news for us to learn that the natives who cultivate the coca-plant themselves absorb so much of the products of their own cultivation. We have here, doubtless, the explanation of the costliness of cocaine and the scarcity of the drug in England. ”

“ The mountains are too young to have lost to a great extent their ragged outline, yet softness is imparted by the richness of the vegetation. We stand among the coca plants and distinctly see another cocal nearly four thousand feet below us.
“The cultivated plants of the coca district are coffee, rice, cacao, sugar cane, tobacco, maize, cotton (the arborescent species) , sweet potatoes, yuccas, and the ordinary garden vegetables. ”

“ It is probable that the decline is then due rather to the exhaustion of the soil than of the vitality of the plant. Fertilisation of the soil has never been resorted to. It is probable, as suggested by Mr. Lohse, that as much can be done for the Coca in this way as has been done for other plants.
“A Coca harvest is called a mita, an Indian word meaning a division or drawing of lots, and there are from three to five in a year, according to the season. The time of picking is determined solely by the condition of the leaves. ”

“ According to some authorities the poisonous effects are due to a second alkaloid which occurs in the leaves of some varieties of coca. If that is the case, then poisoning may be prevented by excluding these varieties from the market, which is not an easy matter considering that the leaves are collected, dried, and shipped by ignorant natives. It is also known that the active principle is rapidly destroyed, hence the necessity of using fresh leaves. In the course of one year most of the cocaine has undergone a chemical change and the leaves are absolutely worthless. ”

“ In small doses it is supposed to act as a stimulant and to aid digestion; in large ones it is said to possess dangerous narcotic properties. The mountaineers in South America state they are enabled to reach high elevations without difficulty of respiration, and to stave off the feeling of hunger by chewing the leaves during their ascents. “Good quality coca should have its leaves unbroken, of a medium size, bright green in colour, and of an odour somewhat combining that of hay and chocolate. ”

“ The term coca, or cuca, as it is sometimes spelled, applies usually to the leaves of Erythroxylon coca, which are used as a stimulant by the natives of South America and which yield cocaine, a very important local anæsthetic. Cocoa or cacao refers to the seeds of Theobroma cacao, from which cocoa and chocolate are prepared, so highly prized in all civilized countries. With these preliminary statements I shall begin the description of coca, hoping at some future time to describe the even more interesting and important cocoa-yielding plant. ”

“ One is the petunia, that charming flower which at present decorates all our gardens, whence the enemies of tobacco may one day banish it; so it is only with trembling that I here announce its relationship to the nicotiana; the other, which, like the petunia, grows in profusion in the islands as well as on the continent of Southern America, is the herb coca, improperly so called, for its precious leaves, which are to the natives of Peru and Chili, what the betel is for the Indians of Malabar, grow on an elegant shrub. [1]
[1]
The erythroxylum coca. ”

“ Cannabis (Cannabis sativa) is the common hemp plant, which provides hallucinogens with some sedative properties, and includes marijuana (pot, Acapulco gold, grass, reefer) , tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, Marinol) , hashish (hash) , and hashish oil (hash oil) . Coca (mostly Erythroxylum coca) is a bush with leaves that contain the stimulant used to make cocaine. Coca is not to be confused with cocoa, which comes from cacao seeds and is used in making chocolate, cocoa, and cocoa butter. Cocaine is a stimulant derived from the leaves of the coca bush. ”

“ The plant is now cultivated in the West Indies, India, Ceylon, Java and elsewhere. It has been estimated that coca is used by about 8,000,000 of the human race, being consumed in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Rio Negro. ”