Coca Plant Farmers, Peruvian Mountains, Peru

Coca is any of the four cultivated plants which belong to the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. The plant is a cash crop in Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru. It also plays a role in many traditional Andean cultures as well as the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Coca is known throughout the world for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. The alkaloid content of coca leaves is low, between 0.25% and 0.77%. This means that chewing the leaves or drinking coca tea does not produce the intense high (euphoria, megalomania, depression) people experience with cocaine. Cocaine-free coca leaf extract is used in Coca-Cola. Extraction of cocaine from coca requires several solvents and a chemical process known as an acid/base extraction, which can fairly easily extract the alkaloids from the plant.