Early Holocene coca chewing in northern Peru

Abstract

Chewing coca in South America began by at least 8000 cal BP: our authors found and identified coca leaves of that date in house floors in the Nanchoc Valley, Peru. There were also pieces of calcite — which is used by chewers to bring out the alkaloids from the leaves. Excavation and chemical analysis at a group of neighbouring sites suggests that specialists were beginning to extract and supply lime or calcite, and by association coca, as a community activity at about the same time as systematic farming was taking off in the region.

Tropane and Granatane Alkaloid Biosynthesis: A Systematic Analysis

“…Przewalkia tangutica is a rare medicinal solanaceous plant found in the Tibetan Plateau of China in which the roots, seeds and entire vegetative tissues are utilized [14]. P. tangutica contains several biologically active TAs including anisodamine (2), scopolamine (3) and atropine (the racemic mixture of hyoscyamine (4). The TAs present in P. tangutica are associated with many biological activities including analgesic, spasm modulation, pesticidal, and anti-inflammatory effects [14].…”

“…The Erythroxylum genus includes at least 230 species that are distributed throughout the tropical regions of South and Central America [3,31,32]. Erythroxylum coca was one of the first domesticated plant species that provided nutritional, medicinal, and digestive properties to ancient civilizations by chewing the leaves of the plant [33].…”

“…The correct chemical name for the compound N-methylpelletierine (7) is 1-[(2R)-1-methyl-2piperdinyl]-2-propanone. Pseudopelletierine (6), also referred to as granatanone, contains a bicyclic core and can be referred to as [9-methyl-9-azabicyclo [1,3,3] nonan-3-one].…”

“…Nocquet et al attempted a total synthesis approach to produce the compound scopolamine (3), however their low yield of 16% does not make this method economically feasible [2]. A major problem for the commercial production of scopolamine (3) in hairy root cultures is achieving industrial level yields [132]. Researchers are now focused on metabolic engineering plants that produce these important compounds to increase final yields, or engineering microorganisms that will be able to produce the compounds from simple sugars or common precursors.…”

“…Some of the oldest domesticated medicinal plants have been those that produce alkaloids. For example, Erythroxylum coca, a species notable for the production of the tropane alkaloid cocaine (1), was used in Peruvian households at least 8000 years ago [3]. Similarly, pomegranate (Punica granatum) has a history of cultivation that goes back at least 10,000 years in Egypt and is well-known for the production of granatane alkaloids [4].…”