Is the coca leaves legal? this is a timeline

– Coca is a plant whose leaf was used by South American natives for 4,500 years.

– It was used by cultures such as Paracas, Tiahuanaco and Inca 2500 a.С. up to approx. 1800 – Evidence of use of the coca leaf was discovered in the ruins of Huanco Prieto, in the Peruvian north 2100 BC

– The ruins of Valdiviana, Ecuador date from this date and there were traces of cultivation and chewing of the coca leaf.

– Svetla Balabanova made a surprising finding the Egyptian mummy of Queen Henoubtaoui (belonging to the XXI Dynasty, 1085-950 BC) recorded traces of nicotine and cocaine (1992) 600 a.C. at 360 a.C.

– In the ruins of Nazca and Mochica, in Peru pottery containers with images of people chewing the coca leaf were discovered. Evidence was also found that in the Inca era (1200 to 1475) the coca leaf was diluted in essence oils to be used as a local anesthetic during brain tumor removal surgeries.

-In 1499, the priest Thomas Ortiz presented the coca leaf from Venezuela to Europe, where he returned carrying the Erythroxylum coca from the New World and recorded that when the coca leaf is chewed with ash, hunger, fatigue and thirst are attenuated, until the person is strengthened

– South African anthropologist has told the international press that he has discovered “cannabis and cocaine tests” in various pipes found in the garden of the old house of William Shakespeare (1582-1657). Currently a team of scholars led by anthropologist Francis Thackeray, director of the Institute for Human Evolution of Johannesburg, has submitted a formal request to the Church of England to exhume the body of the legendary Stratford writer, buried in the city church in the one that was born. The objective is to know the causes of the death of the poet, in addition to studying the remains of his body to discover if the author of “Romeo and Juliet and” Hamlet “was a habitual consumer of grass and cocaine.

– Albert Niemann (1834-1861, chemist from Göttingen), researching in the laboratory of Friedrich Wholer known for the synthesis of urea, managed to extract the alkaloid crystal from dried coca leaves and called it “kokaine”, with which He obtained his doctorate. Wholer discovered that if the coca leaf is placed on the tongue, initially a sour taste is perceived, but later it is numbed and the perception of the flavor is lost. He acquired the sheet thanks to an order he made to Karl von Scherzen (1821-1902, scientist), who was traveling around the world on the ship Novara Freegate, of the Austrian Empire. Both in Europe and in the United States, the interest in cocaine was due to the effect on the central nervous system in systemic administration.

– John Stith Pemberton (1831-1888, southern pharmacologist wounded in battle during the Civil War) emulated the Vin Mariani and made the French Wine Cola (French wine and coca), which he marketed as “the ideal nerve stimulant and tonic”. Wine Cola gained more popularity than the Vin Mariani, as it sold a thousand bottles a week, and after the enactment of the law prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages in Atlanta, in 1886 the alcohol-free Coca Tonic was developed. it was sold as a pharmaceutical headache beverage by the Jacob’s Pharmacy brand (Atlanta, Georgia), at five cents a share.

– As the wine was mixed with kola nut extract (tail: shrub native to West Africa) Source. whose main pharmacological compound is colanine, theobromine and caffeine), a friend of Pemberton, Frank Robinson (novice journalist and later partner) called it Coca-Cola. In the Atlanta Journal, on May 29 of that year the first Coca-Cola ad appeared: (“Coca-Colo Delicious! Refreshing! Exhilarating! Invigorating!”, Which translated into Spanish would be “Coca Cola, delicious, refreshing , soft and invigorating “).

– 1961 Cocaine and coca leaf are defined as narcotic drugs.

Coca leaf as a dietary supplement Among many foods that humanity has casually discovered until today, the coca leaf is one of the few high quality and that throughout the long time of consumption has not shown side effects, remaining its proven safety. Many scientific studies repeatedly demonstrated the usefulness of the coca leaf. In 1975, researchers at Harvard University concluded that its nutritional value is comparable to that of quinoa, peanuts, wheat and corn, and argued that “from the nutritional point of view there is no difference between consuming coca and eating food ”

According to the authors of the article published by Harvard University, coca is the ideal food around the world due to the scarce or no amount of organic salts, abundant dietary fiber, vitamins and low amount of calories Despite searching in several sources, the nutritional value of the coca leaf as such (Erythroxylum coco larn) was not quantified. In June 1974, a sample of 1 kg of dry coca leaf was obtained from the population of San Francisco, in the Bolivian Chapare.

After the analysis, the following nutrient results were obtained For 100 g of coca leaf, 305 calories are obtained; 6.5 g of water, 18.9 g of proteins; 46.2 g of carbohydrates, 5 g of fats; 11,000 IU of vitamin A (beta carotene); 1.4 mg of vitamin C; 0.35 mg of vitamin 81 (thiamine); 1.9 mg of vitamin B2 (riboflavin); 1.29 mg of niacin; 1540 mg of calcium; 45.8 mg of iron; 43.5 IU of vitamin E (D alpha tocopherol); 0.508 mg of vitamin B6; 0.130 mg of folic acid; 1.05 mcg of vitamin B12, 0.5 mcg of iodine: 911 mg of phosphorus; 213 mg of magnesium 2.70 mg of zinc; 1.21 mg of copper; 0.0863 mg of biotin; 0.684 mg of pantothenic acid and 40.6 mg of sodium.

It was also determined that 2.02 g of potassium are found in 100 g of coca leaf; 39.5 mg of chromium aluminum; 4.67 mg of barium; 9.71 mg of strontium; 5.35 mg of boron; 6.65 mg of magnesium and 0.359 mg of chromium.

One aspect that does worry is that both in the rainy regions (Chapare) and in the less rainy ones (the Yungas of La Paz) it is possible that coca leaf producers are using insecticides. So, for human consumption it is necessary to verify that there are no traces of these chemicals and for this it would have to be washed, since both harvesting and drying are carried out in dry seasons.

Due to its analeptic effect (ability to restore forces and stimulate the functioning of the different organs of the body), it is an indispensable food for the miners of the Andean region, who work in a very severe environment.

Recently, evidence was discovered that even the pharaohs of the ancient Egyptian culture used the coca leaf as food. The signs of chewing and consumption remain in the human hair, nails and bones for long periods of time. In the early 1990s, an anthropologist named Franz Parche of the University of Munich analyzed the use of drugs in Egyptian pharaohs through the hair of mummies. His assistant Svetla Balabanova performed the analysis of the hair and as a result, nicotine and cocaine were detected. In a subsequent investigation conducted by Larry Cametrol, from Oklahoma (USA), this fact was also confirmed.

In our shop you can buy Delisse coca tea bags, coca leaf powder, coca pills and capsules, coca mate and other coca leaves products.