Travel medicine, coca and cocaine: demystifying and rehabilitating Erythroxylum – a comprehensive review

Abstract Few travel health measures are as controversial as the use of coca leaves at high altitude; yet, there appears widespread ignorance among health professionals and the general public about coca, its origins as well as its interesting and often flamboyant history. Equally, the cultural and tr...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Irmgard Bauer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2019-11-01
Series:Tropical Diseases, Travel Medicine and Vaccines
Subjects:
Online Access:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40794-019-0095-7
id doaj-4c58da8f038a4ec2a5ede0e58b72e7ad
record_format Article
spelling doaj-4c58da8f038a4ec2a5ede0e58b72e7ad2020-11-25T02:17:59ZengBMCTropical Diseases, Travel Medicine and Vaccines2055-09362019-11-015111410.1186/s40794-019-0095-7Travel medicine, coca and cocaine: demystifying and rehabilitating Erythroxylum – a comprehensive reviewIrmgard Bauer0College of Healthcare Sciences, James Cook UniversityAbstract Few travel health measures are as controversial as the use of coca leaves at high altitude; yet, there appears widespread ignorance among health professionals and the general public about coca, its origins as well as its interesting and often flamboyant history. Equally, the cultural and traditional significance to Andean people is not recognised. The coca leaves contain many alkaloids, one of which, cocaine, has gained notoriety as a narcotic, leading to the mistaken idea that coca equals cocaine. This article contrasts coca with cocaine in an attempt to explain the differences but also the reasons for this widespread misconception. By its very nature, there may never be scientific ‘proof’ that coca leaves do or do not work for travellers at altitude, but at least a solid knowledge of coca, and how it differs from cocaine, provides a platform for informed opinions and appropriate critical views on the current confusing and contradictory legal situation.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40794-019-0095-7Coca leafAcute mountain sicknessNarcoticsCocaineAltitudeTravel health advice
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Irmgard Bauer
spellingShingle Irmgard Bauer
Travel medicine, coca and cocaine: demystifying and rehabilitating Erythroxylum – a comprehensive review
Tropical Diseases, Travel Medicine and Vaccines
Coca leaf
Acute mountain sickness
Narcotics
Cocaine
Altitude
Travel health advice
author_facet Irmgard Bauer
author_sort Irmgard Bauer
title Travel medicine, coca and cocaine: demystifying and rehabilitating Erythroxylum – a comprehensive review
title_short Travel medicine, coca and cocaine: demystifying and rehabilitating Erythroxylum – a comprehensive review
title_full Travel medicine, coca and cocaine: demystifying and rehabilitating Erythroxylum – a comprehensive review
title_fullStr Travel medicine, coca and cocaine: demystifying and rehabilitating Erythroxylum – a comprehensive review
title_full_unstemmed Travel medicine, coca and cocaine: demystifying and rehabilitating Erythroxylum – a comprehensive review
title_sort travel medicine, coca and cocaine: demystifying and rehabilitating erythroxylum – a comprehensive review
publisher BMC
series Tropical Diseases, Travel Medicine and Vaccines
issn 2055-0936
publishDate 2019-11-01
description Abstract Few travel health measures are as controversial as the use of coca leaves at high altitude; yet, there appears widespread ignorance among health professionals and the general public about coca, its origins as well as its interesting and often flamboyant history. Equally, the cultural and traditional significance to Andean people is not recognised. The coca leaves contain many alkaloids, one of which, cocaine, has gained notoriety as a narcotic, leading to the mistaken idea that coca equals cocaine. This article contrasts coca with cocaine in an attempt to explain the differences but also the reasons for this widespread misconception. By its very nature, there may never be scientific ‘proof’ that coca leaves do or do not work for travellers at altitude, but at least a solid knowledge of coca, and how it differs from cocaine, provides a platform for informed opinions and appropriate critical views on the current confusing and contradictory legal situation.
topic Coca leaf
Acute mountain sickness
Narcotics
Cocaine
Altitude
Travel health advice
url http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40794-019-0095-7
work_keys_str_mv AT irmgardbauer travelmedicinecocaandcocainedemystifyingandrehabilitatingerythroxylumacomprehensivereview
_version_ 1724883906894757888