They chewed coca 8 thousand years ago

• April 28, 2024

More than 8 thousand years ago I chewed coca in Peru, according to new research conducted by the English magazine Antiquity, in ruins found in the northwest of the Peruvian country that exposed chewed coca leaves and rocks rich in calcium.

Residues of calcite were used by the inhabitants to help remove more levels of alkaloids of the Coca leaves . The excavations and chemical analyzes carried out on a group of nearby sites suggest that its inhabitants were already beginning to extract and supply lime or calcite, and therefore coca, while agriculture began to take off as a systematic activity.

This finding advances about 3 thousand years the date established on the first use of coca . It has long been known that chewing coca leaves for medicinal purposes is a very old practice.

Evidence has been found in the ruins of house flats inhabited by hunters northwest of Peru where conditions were favorable to preserve the organic remains of this civilization, said the BBC.

The coca alkaloids are known for their ability to reduce hunger and alleviate symptoms of altitude sickness.  

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