coca leaves
Chewed Bolivian plant
Coca leaves are the foliage of the coca plant, native to South America.
Chewed or brewed as tea, they provide mild stimulation and help with altitude sickness—a traditional practice in Andean cultures for thousands of years.
The leaves are also the raw material for processing cocaine, making their cultivation and trade heavily regulated or illegal in most countries outside the region.
- drug tradeCommerce in illegal substances
- stimulantAlertness-boosting drug
- chewingCrushing food orally
- AndesSouth American western range
- South AmericaWestern Hemisphere's southern continent
drug policy · alkaloid · sacred plants · sacred ritual · ritual · indigenous practices · appetite suppression · terrace farming · spiritual ceremonies · traditional medicine · trafficking · Inca civilization · cultivation · shrub · Peru · pain management · controlled substances · bitter
- Inca cultureMachu Picchu, Cusco, quipu, sun worship, terrace farming
- Andean agriculturequinoa, potatoes, potato, terraces, terrace farming
- Andean Culturellama, alpaca, quinoa, Quechua, panpipes
- Andean economyquinoa, alpaca wool, potatoes, terrace farming, silver mining
- BoliviaLa Paz, Altiplano, Santa Cruz, Lake Titicaca, Simon Bolivar
- folk medicinefolk medicine, herbalism, herbal remedies, folk healer, herbal medicine
coca leavescoffee beans
Roasted seeds for brewing
tea leaves · khat · betel nut · guarana · yerba mate
coca leavessedatives
Drugs that calm
depressants · opium · kava · tranquilizers · opium poppy