Coca Cola

Coca is a plant in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to northwestern South America. more...

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The plant plays a significant role in traditional Andean culture, but is best-known in modern times for the stimulant drug cocaine that is extracted from its new fresh leaf tips in a similar fashion to tea bush harvesting.

The plant resembles a blackthorn bush, and grows to a height of 2–3 m (7–10 ft). 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, one line 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 larvae of the moth Eloria noyesi.

Species and classification

There are twelve main species and varieties (Erythroxylum coca). Two subspecies, E. coca var. coca and E. coca var. ipadu, are almost indistinguishable phenotypically; a related high cocaine-bearing species has two subspecies, E. novogranatense var. novogranatense and E. novogranatense var. truxillense that are phenotypically similar, but morphologically distinguishable. 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.

Cultivation and uses

Coca is traditionally cultivated in the lower altitudes of the eastern slopes of the Andes, or the highlands depending on the species grown. Since ancient times, its leaves have been used as a stimulant by some of the indigenous people of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, northern Argentina, and Trinidad. In the highlands, it is used as a breathing aid. It also has religious and symbolic significance.

Coca leaf is the raw material for the manufacture of the drug cocaine. Though legal and necessary for medical uses, e.g., nose and throat anaesthesia, since the 1980s, the unrestricted cultivation of coca has been opposed by Western interests because the leaf is also used for the production of cocaine destined for the recreational drug market, which is illegal in most countries.

Good fresh 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. They are traditionally chewed with lime to increase the release of cocaine from the leaf. Bad specimens, usually old or stale leaves, have a camphoraceous smell and a brownish colour, and lack the pungent taste.

Read more at Wikipedia.org