Beingindigenous | Magazine

Coca Leaves, Medicine and Food
Koka Kintu is a gift from the sun god Inti to the Andean People

Coca leaves have been chewed by Indigenous people of South American for many thousands of years to induce a mild, long-lasting euphoria.The Incas venerated coca.They used it in magical ceremonies and initiation rites.In the Inca period, the sacred leaf was regarded as far too good for ordinary Indians
When the Spanish conquistadores, early in the sixteenth century, first encountered the empire of the Incas, they found that the Inca controlled the use of a remarkable drug contained in the leaves of a mountain shrub now known as Coca.
They were impressed at coca’s efficacy as a stimulant.They believed that the herb was so nutritious and invigorating that the Indians labored whole days without anything else.The Spanish also needed native labor in their silver mines.Work in the mines was extremely arduous, and taking coca reduces appetite and increases physical stamina.Therefore there was a great surge in coca use and the number of coqueros (coca-chewers).

Coca has been used for ages as a food substitute, a stimulant, a medicine, as an aphrodisiac, a means to stay warm, and as a measure of distance. An important factor in the spread of coca-chewing among Indians was due to a need for a food substitute when the Incan agricultural economy broke down due to inter tribal wars.
Nutritional analysis shows that 100 grams of coca leaves contain 305 calories, 19 grams of protein, and 46 grams of carbohydrates. Coca contained less than 1% cocaine, a drug that alleviated hunger and fatigue for human chewers.

The chewing of coca is a well-defined practice that has changed little over the centuries.First, the coquero takes several coca leaves from a chuspa, a baglike container.The midribs of the leaves are removed and placed in the side of the mouth.More leaves are added until a quid or plug is formed.From a poporo, a small container carried in or attached to the chuspa, a limestone substance is removed and added to the quid in the mouth.

As a medicinal herb, coca has been used in treating a variety of ailments and diseases.Generally applied by shaman or medicine men, they are applied in rites and ceremonies. Studies show that coca have peripheral vasoconstrictive effects that reduces the amount of heat loss through the extremities and produces a higher central body temperature keeping the user warmer.

Coca leaves were used to lessen hunger and pain, as they still are in the Andes. The Chasqui (messengers) chewed coca leaves for extra energy to carry on their tasks as runners delivering messages throughout the empire. Recent research by Erasmus University and Medical Center workers Sewbalak and Van Der Wijk showed that, contrary to popular belief, the Inca people were not addicted to coca.

More information:
W. G. Mortimer, Peru History of Coca, "The Divine Plant" of the Incas, With an Introductory Account of the Incas and Andean Indians of Today (New York: J. H. Vail and Co., 1901),