Coca

Description:

Coca may refer to any of the four cultivated plants which belong to the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. The plant is an important cash crop in Bolivia and Peru and plays a significant role in many traditional Andean cultures as well as the lives of the inhabitants of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Coca is best known throughout the world because of its alkaloid chemical compounds. However, the coca leaf is not cocaine, just as grapes are not wine. The coca alkaloid content in coca leaves is negligible: between .25% and .77%, which means two things: first, traditional chewing or drinking coca tea does not produce the high (euphoria, megalomania) people experience with cocaine. Second, someone must apply complex chemical processes using any type of alcohol/acid base chemicals to the plant in order to transform it and obtain a concentration of coca alkaloid that is high enough to produce the transformation to cocaine paste and the high associated with cocaine. Furthermore, current U.S.A. extraction methods use the chemicals methanol alcohol and benzoic acid to extract coca out of a coca product at a molecular level for scientific testing.

Habitat:

desembocadura de la quebrada de agua caliente al río suaza, Garzón, Huila, Colombia

Notes:

This foto was taken in an area that will be affected by the Quimbo Dam currently under construction. Esta foto fue tomado en una zona que sera afectada por la Represa del Quimbo actualmente bajo construcción