Medicine Hunter Chris Kilham recently gained unusual access to Peru\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a totally new thing,\u201d Kilham said. \u201cWe were really delighted to have that kind of access.\u201d<\/p>\n
While coca is strongly associated with cocaine in the US, Kilham stressed the distinction between the whole leaf and the isolated cocaine alkaloid.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople don\u2019t understand the difference between a single, isolated, extremely concentrated and potentially very dangerous compound, cocaine, and a whole food, which is coca leaf,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a big thing. It\u2019s available to us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s alkaloid-free extract, leaving companies to consider more expensive options like air freight or ocean transport.<\/p>\n
If that hurdle can be overcome, Kilham sees considerable potential.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s real opportunity for coca leaf extract without the illegal compounds to emerge as a significant dietary supplement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also sees an opportunity for a growing legal market to benefit coca growers and harvesters in the Andes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping that the benefit will not only be for the end users who get a supplement that gives them \u2026 nutrition and protective compounds, but that the people who do the backbreaking work in the Peruvian Andes make out as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a deeper look at the history, culture and legal trade surrounding coca, read Kilham\u2019s \u201cThe Coca in the Cola\u201d<\/a> 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\u2019s HerbTV<\/a> also features a series of videos accompanying the issue. <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n If you enjoy listening to the NutraCast, feel free to leave a review. You can subscribe on Apple<\/a>, iHeart<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Medicine Hunter Chris Kilham recently gained unusual access to Peru\u2019s national coca company, ENACO, documenting its legal coca…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,85,46,543],"class_list":["post-598787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}