Coca

Traditional use by Andean laborers chewing leaf with lime or ash to sustain endurance at high altitude with minimal food

Historical eclectic use as a nerve tonic for exhaustion with mental depression, now abandoned due to dependence risk

Overview. Erythroxylon coca is a shrub native to the eastern slopes of the Andes and parts of the Amazon basin, cultivated for millennia by indigenous peoples of Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia. The dried leaf, traditionally chewed with an alkaline substance such as lime or ash, is the part used, and it remains embedded in Andean cultural and ceremonial life. In nineteenth century eclectic and physiomedical practice the leaf and its isolated alkaloid cocaine were investigated as stimulants and anesthetics, but this use was largely abandoned once the profile of dependence and toxicity became clear.

Clinical Notes. This plant has no place in contemporary Western herbal or naturopathic dispensing. Historical eclectic texts described coca leaf as a nerve tonic and anti-fatigue agent for exhaustion, low vitality, and digestive weakness, and noted its capacity to blunt hunger and suffering during hard physical labor, but these observations came from populations using traditional chewing methods with low, slowly absorbed doses of cocaine alongside lime, a very different exposure from concentrated extracts or the purified alkaloid.

Action and Therapy. The action of coca depends very largely upon the cocaine it contains, therefore the physiological effects are recorded under that subject. From time immemorial the people of the Andes, particularly in Peru, Bolivia, and Chili, have used coca leaves as other nations use stimulating table beverages; and when undergoing long journeys and hard work the natives are accustomed to chew the leaves with lime or some other alkaline substance, in order to endure hunger and fatigue, which it enables them to do with remarkable certainty.

Therapy. There are few cases of neurasthenia in which this agent will not be found useful. Taken after dinner, it serves often to facilitate digestion, and even confirmed dyspeptics find their distressing symptoms relieved by it.