Walking like Incas
Technically, this should have been the first Spring post. For this occasion I thought I could have begun talking about plants from a pharmacological point of view (which means talking about Pharmacognosy).
Unfortunately (although predictably), global warming is dramatically making a mess with the seasons. Here's an example: this is a view from my room on March 11.
Lovely, isn't?
Well, here is how things look today.
This awful, crazy weather has influenced today's topic too. Since yesterday night it was raining cats and dogs, I couldn't use my bike and had to go home on foot.
A long walk in a cold, rainy night, which made me think of the ancient inhabitants of the Andes, the Incas.
Unlike nowadays, those populations used to take cocaine by mouth, chewing it to ease interminable trips.
What they chewed, actually, was a rolled leaf of Erythroxylon Coca (Bolivian type) or Truxillense (Peruvian) with ashes or lime inside.
This is a bright example of scientific knowledge achieved through sole personal experience, extremely common in agriculture.
Cocaine needs, in fact, a basic pH to be absorbed: ashes or lime lead to a basic adduct, which increase the bioavailability of the drug.
Moreover, chewing it guarantees a great compliance (if you're walking), a more prolonged (but milder) effect than inhaling it. Exactly the qualities addicts don't look for.
Cocaine is not the only alkaloid you can extract from E coca, but is the one with the highest concentration (in the leaves).
In the past, its tincture was introduced as anesthetic and not only are most of modern anesthetics designed as derivatives of cocaine, but cocaine itself is still clinically used, sometimes, topically.
From a chemical point of view, cocaine is an indirect sympathomimetic, which blocks the reutake of norepinephrine and dopamine.
This explains why it's such a potent central stimulant: it increase vigilance, but precipitates motor hyperactivity, seizures, anxiety, depression, psychosis, reduced libido and, obviously, dependence.
As a sympathomimetic, it causes vasoconstriction, which results in anesthesia but, because of the subsequent increased blood pressure, in cardiac toxicity (arrhythmia, ischemia, etc.) as well.
Nowadays, however, I reckon iPods are a much better choice, when it comes to tedious, long walks, even for the descendants of the Incas.
Nevertheless, tea made from E coca is rather popular all over the world: I actually tried it a couple of times and found it awfully tasteless.
