Medicine Hunter Chris Kilham recently gained unusual access to Peru’s national coca company, ENACO, documenting its legal coca trade with Peruvian partner Sergio Cam. The visit, which followed months of discussions with ENACO, allowed the pair to see its operations, meet coca local growers and photograph the facilities.
“It was a totally new thing,” Kilham said. “We were really delighted to have that kind of access.”
While coca is strongly associated with cocaine in the US, Kilham stressed the distinction between the whole leaf and the isolated cocaine alkaloid.
“People don’t understand the difference between a single, isolated, extremely concentrated and potentially very dangerous compound, cocaine, and a whole food, which is coca leaf,” he said.
Peru cultivates around 220,000 tons of coca leaf a year, with ENACO producing legal coca leaf products like tea and powdered leaf, as well as decocainized fluid and powdered extracts. Kilham said he believes those extracts could find applications in supplements, energy shots and functional beverages.
“This is a big thing. It’s available to us,” he said.
Even though coca is legal, Kilham said the biggest obstacle to wider commercialization is likely logistics. According to him, FedEx, UPS and DHL will not ship ENACO’s alkaloid-free extract, leaving companies to consider more expensive options like air freight or ocean transport.
If that hurdle can be overcome, Kilham sees considerable potential.
“I think there’s real opportunity for coca leaf extract without the illegal compounds to emerge as a significant dietary supplement,” he said.
He also sees an opportunity for a growing legal market to benefit coca growers and harvesters in the Andes.
“I’m hoping that the benefit will not only be for the end users who get a supplement that gives them … nutrition and protective compounds, but that the people who do the backbreaking work in the Peruvian Andes make out as well.”
For a deeper look at the history, culture and legal trade surrounding coca, read Kilham’s “The Coca in the Cola” in the special coca issue of HerbalGram. The special HerbalGram issue on coca includes contributions from noted ethnobotanists Wade Davis, Dennis McKenna, and Steven King. For even more coca content, the American Botanical Council’s HerbTV also features a series of videos accompanying the issue.
To hear more tales from the trail and where Kilham plans to go temple hopping this fall, listen to the NutraCast above or on your preferred podcast platform.
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