Just Call Me Coca

Photo by Carwil Bjork-James

Coca Leaf

• not cocoa
• not coke
• but coca
• this is a cash crop in Argentina, Peru, Columbia, Bolivia, and Ecuador
• it’s even grown in areas where its cultivation is illegal
• the leaves are traditionally eaten as a way to overcome hunger or thirst
• and also works to fight altitude sickness
• it can be made into different sorts teas and pastes for curing different ailments
• coca is so universally useful that it has become part of Andean religious practice

Photo by Julie Laurent

• oh and coca is also where cocaine comes from
• cocaine is an alkaloid chemical compound that the plant produces
• the thing is
• modern science has almost no information on how this plant produces cocaine
• until now
• plant produced alkaloids can be used as stimulants, toxins, pharmaceuticals, recreational drugs, etc.
• plants usually produce these compounds
• not for human use
• but for defense against herbivores
• after a rigorous search through the coca plant genome
• it was determined that
• an enzyme called methylecgonone reductase (MecgoR) is responsible for the formation of cocaine in coca plants
• success for science!
• related enzymes can also be found in mammals, yeasts, protozoa, ammphibians, and bacteria
• but understanding which enzyme is used in the biosynthesis of cocaine is only the first step
• there are surely more steps to this pathway

Sounds like it’s time to do more research. One questions is answered and ten more open up. Proverbial isn’t it?

Journal Reference:

1. J. Jirschitzka, G. W. Schmidt, M. Reichelt, B. Schneider, J. Gershenzon, J. C. D’Auria. Plant tropane alkaloid biosynthesis evolved independently in the Solanaceae and Erythroxylaceae. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1200473109