certain rituals, for chewing, and for nutrition. Studies
show that ingestion of 100 g (3.5 oz) of coca leaves is
sufficient to supply one’s daily needs for calcium, iron,
phosphorus, and vitamins A, B2, and E. Chewing
wads of coca leaves also suppresses fatigue, providing
important added endurance for people in the rarefied
air of the high Andes. It should be emphasized that a
leaf contains only about 1% cocaine and the effects are
modified by other compounds in the leaf, so chewing
coca leaves is not the same as smoking crack cocaine
(which affects the brain in as little as 5– 10 seconds).
Coca leaves are also applied to wounds or boiled to
make a tea.
Most coca that is grown to be used as a narcotic
is from Peru and Bolivia, though it is purified and
shipped from Colombia, which produces about 80%
of the world’s cocaine. One area of cultivation is the
Upper Huallaga Valley in Peru (along the eastern
slopes of the Andes), where it is estimated that 60% of
the world’s coca is grown.
One historic note of interest is that the soft drink
Coca Cola was at one time really coca cola. In 1903,
based on the recommendations from a report by the US
Commission on the Acquisition of the Drug Habit, the
producers of Coca Cola eliminated the minute amount
of cocaine that, up to that time, had been included in
the recipe. The report asserted that mostly “bohemians,
gamblers, prostitutes, burglars, racketeers, and pimps”
were using cocaine.Intoxicants and Hallucinogens
Perhaps the best- known hallucinogen of the Neotropics
comes from the genus Virola, in the nutmeg family
(Myristicaceae). There are between 62 and 65 species of
these understory trees throughout the Neotropics, and
extracts from a few of them are widely used throughout
western Amazonia and much of the Orinoco Basin to
achieve rapid and extreme intoxication with subsequent
hallucinations. This practice serves multiple functions,
ranging from spiritual divination to ritualistic
diagnosis and treatment of disease. In many tribes
only the shaman takes epena, ebena, or nyakwana, as
the Virola preparation is known, while in others, such
as the Yanomami, for example, all male members of
the group participate. The drug itself is obtained from
cambial exudate on the inner bark of the tree, which is
boiled, simmered, and refined into a reddish powder.
In most cases the drug is taken as a powdered snuff,blown with great force, through an elongate pipe
made from a plant stem, into the nostrils and sinuses.
In some cases, however, the drug is administered
orally, in the form of a pellet. A combination of strong
indole alkaloids, the drug, once administered, causes
immediate tearing and mucous discharge, soon
followed by a restless sleep during which the person
is subject to extreme visual hallucinations described
as “nightmarish.” Details of this experience can be
found in Schultes and Hoffmann (1992), Schultes and
Raffauf (1990), and Plotkin (1993). Besides use as
a hallucinogen, the Virola preparation is used for an
array of medical problems.
Aztec and Maya of Central America routinely
used mushrooms and various “psychedelic” fungi
in their religious rituals. Peyote, derived from the
cactus (Lophophora spp.), is a widely used alkaloid
hallucinogen throughout Middle America.Looking to the Future
Indigenous people as well as others who reside in the
vast Neotropics face numerous issues ranging from the
potential continued development of Amazonia to the
growing impact of accelerating climate change (plate
17- 12). The conservation of this unique biological
realm is uncertain, and that is the subject of the
concluding chapter.Plate 17- 12. This child with an orphaned howler monkey, its
tail around her neck, likely will face some major ecological
and societal changes over her lifetime in the tropics. Photo by
John Kricher.chapter 17 human ecology in the tropics 375