- Region
- South America
- Origin
- Eastern slopes of the Andes in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador
South America · Herb · № 183
Erythroxylum coca
Herb · South America
Coca
Erythroxylum coca
The leaf contains a small amount of cocaine and other alkaloids. Chewing it or drinking it as tea is used in the Andes against hunger, fatigue and altitude sickness; evidence for the latter is limited. Cocaine, the first local anaesthetic and today mainly an addictive drug, was isolated from the leaf.
Safety notes
Contains small amounts of cocaine: a single cup of coca tea can make a drug test positive. Cocaine is highly addictive and can cause heart attack, stroke and psychosis. Coca leaf is on List I of the Opium Act; possession and import are criminal offences in the Netherlands. Not in pregnancy or with heart disease, and not together with other stimulants. This information describes traditional use and is no encouragement or advice; use is at your own risk and the makers of this site are not responsible for the consequences.
Cautions by tradition (3)
- Healing traditions of the Americas: Contains small amounts of cocaine; gives a positive drug test.
- Kallawaya healing in Bolivia: Coca leaf is on List I of the Opium Act and illegal in the Netherlands. Use at your own risk.
- Medicine of the Tukano peoples (Vaupés): Coca leaf is on List I of the Dutch Opium Act: possession and import are forbidden in the Netherlands. Not with heart disease or high blood pressure.
Preparation
In the Andes the leaves are chewed: a wad of leaves is held in the cheek with a little llipta or lejía, an alkaline block of plant ash or lime that releases the active substances; the wad stays in the mouth for one to several hours (acullico or chacchado). As mate de coca a few leaves or a tea bag are steeped in hot water; this is offered to travellers in Cuzco and La Paz against altitude sickness. Outside the Andes this is illegal in most countries.
Use in traditions
Chewing coca leaf (acullico or chacchado) is thousands of years old and part of the daily life, rituals and hospitality of Quechua and Aymara communities; for the Incas the leaf was sacred. In 1860 Albert Niemann isolated cocaine. The 1961 UN convention prohibits coca leaf, but since 2013 Bolivia has had an exception for traditional chewing.
Applications
Use by tradition
How different herbal traditions describe this herb. Amounts are traditional guidelines checked for obvious errors; they are not medical advice. For poisonous plants no dosage is given on purpose.
Healing traditions of the Americas
Attributed effects
The leaf is chewed and drunk as tea against hunger, fatigue and altitude sickness; it is sacred in Andean rituals and shared as a sign of hospitality. The Kallawaya also read the future in coca leaves.
Preparation and amount
In the Andes chewed with an alkaline substance (llipta) or as mate de coca. Outside the Andes the leaf and its products are banned in most countries.
Caution: Contains small amounts of cocaine; gives a positive drug test.
Kallawaya healing in Bolivia
Attributed effects
According to Bastien every Andean household keeps coca, as people elsewhere keep aspirin: for stomach and bowel complaints, altitude sickness, toothache, bruises and headache. Healers also read the cause of an illness in the leaves and offer them to Pachamama.
Preparation and amount
A wad of leaves chewed in the cheek with a little llipta, or a few leaves steeped in hot water as mate de coca.
Caution: Coca leaf is on List I of the Opium Act and illegal in the Netherlands. Use at your own risk.
Medicine of the Tukano peoples (Vaupés)
Attributed effects
Coca belongs to the men: only they pick and pound it. While pounding, the healer tells the stories of origin. According to those stories the first people came in a canoe drawn by an anaconda, with three plants: manioc, yajé and coca.
Preparation and amount
Traditionally the men pick fresh leaves every afternoon, toast them carefully on a griddle, pound them in a large mortar and sift the powder, mixed with the ash of burnt leaves of the guarumo tree (Cecropia sciadophylla). The green powder goes into the mouth with a spoon or a small blowing bag.
Caution: Coca leaf is on List I of the Dutch Opium Act: possession and import are forbidden in the Netherlands. Not with heart disease or high blood pressure.
- Ways to prepare herbs
- Tea (infusion)Powder and kitchen
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org
- Penelope Ody, The Complete Medicinal Herbal (1993; 2017)
- en.wikipedia.org
- Richard Evans Schultes, Hallucinogenic Plants (1976)
- Joseph W. Bastien, Healers of the Andes: Kallawaya Herbalists and Their Medicinal Plants (1987)
- Louis Girault, Kallawaya. Guérisseurs itinérants des Andes (1984)
- Richard Evans Schultes & Robert F. Raffauf, Vine of the Soul: Medicine Men, Their Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazonia (1992)