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Coca-cola coca flavoring?

StagnantReaction

StagnantReaction

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Mar 19, 2004
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I read this on wikipedia, it's about Coca cola.

According to popular belief, the coca leaf extract cocaine was once added to Coca-Cola, per se. Because cocaine is naturally present in untreated coca leaves, small amounts of cocaine were also present in the beverage. Today's Coca-Cola uses "spent" coca leaves, those that have been through a cocaine extraction process, to flavor the beverage. Since this process cannot extract the cocaine alkaloids at a molecular level, the drink still contains trace amounts of the stimulant[10]. The United States DEA oversees the importation of coca for Coca-Cola, and later sale of the extracted cocaine to the drug industry where it is used in the creation of many of the common drugs whose names end in "-caine" (such as Procaine and Lidocaine).[11]
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I found this as well:
The leaf is ground up, mixed with sawdust, soaked in bicarbonate of soda, percolated with toluene, steam blasted, mixed with powdered Kola nuts, and then pasteurized. The Coke-Cola company, forever fearful of the DEA and the drug lords, is a stickler on security and quality.

Drug lords have a less formal way to extract cocaine: they use kerosene as a solvent; the drug leaches out like tea from a tea bag. Cocaine is then recovered by evaporation.
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Hmmm.. so what is this coca leaf 'flavoring' they still use today? What stimulants are they retaining through their processes?
 
Who says the are retaining any stimulants? But I too wonder what flavour the coca gives to the brew.
 
StagnantReaction said:
Hmmm.. so what is this coca leaf 'flavoring' they still use today? What stimulants are they retaining through their processes?
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I don't understand your question?

It's not a secret that Coca-Cola's flavoring comes from Coca leaves and Kola nut (hence the name Coca-Kola)

The only stimulant it contains is Caffeine. I think it's approx. 30mg/33cL bottle
 
No how it works is they basically extract the cocaine and sell it for what it is. Then with the left over leaves they use this to create a sugary drink for kids to drink.
 
If there was only about 10 mg in the soda at the turn of the century, I doubt much, if any, would actually be bioavailable due to hydrolysis of the esters in the stomache. Does anyone know off hand the oral bioavailability of cocaine?
 
You know, I've sometimes had Coca-Cola and thought "Damn, I swear there's something else in this stuff other than Caffeine" at times.
 
It must be lower than that. Those mate de coca tea bags have no effect at all except maybe a little placebo excitment and numbed mouth. Im not just talking about a couple of cups either. Even after 10 bags in a row there is no effect whatsoever.
 
I've heard that cocaine in the leaf quickly degrades, so that might be another reason why you didn't feel much. But then again this would only apply if you ordered it online.
 
My question still has yet to be answered.. and I've looked in those threads.

I guess I should rephrase: Does coca cola's recipe contain any of the coca leaf's alkaloids, obviously besides cocaine? For all we know, they could jack up a crazy amount of these supposed non-narcotic "flavoring" alkaloids in their mix, making them somewhat effective.

fastandbulbous said:
I remember reading somewhere that they did return some of the alkaloids to the coca leaf preparation (obviously not cocaine or any of the controlled econine esters), things like hydergine as they're needed to get the unique taste (none of the returned alkaloids has any CNS effects).
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wikipedia said:
Besides cocaine, the coca leaf contains a number of other alkaloids, including Methylecgonine cinnamate, Benzoylecgonine, Truxilline, Hydroxytropacocaine, Tropacocaine, Ecgonine, Cuscohygrine, Dihydrocuscohygrine, Nicotine and Hygrine. Some of these non-narcotic chemicals are still used for the flavouring of Coca-Cola.
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wizekrak said:
I took a course in medicinal/hallucinogenic plants last year. It is infact the spent leaves that are used or were used in the early 1900's. They were actually sued/investigated in the early 1900's over alleged alkaloid content in the drink even though they used spent leaves. No alkaloids were found in the drink and a confidential deal was struck shortly thereafter.
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I'm quite interested in how many things nicotine is naturally found in.. I know tomatos, potatoes, eggplant, green pepper, and coca, but perhaps coca-cola too?
 
You could try and acid/base wash with several nonpolar solvents. That should extract all the alkaloids. If I get a chance I might GC/MS some coca cola, but otherwise I doubt anyone on this board has a definite answer.
 
Yes, there must be some alkaloids from the coca left in the cola, or otherwise there would be no point in using the coca at all.
 
chaosgardens said:
You know, I've sometimes had Coca-Cola and thought "Damn, I swear there's something else in this stuff other than Caffeine" at times.
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yeh as stupid as this sounds i agree 100% say i have had a big few days on coke go to sleep wake up go and get some food and have a can of coke with, it always makes me feel wasted, i experimented thought it may have been caffiene and had a couple of espressos one time did nothing so i may get told its bs but i 100% agree with you, cans of coke have made me feel very similar to the feeling i have got from insuffilation of coke, anyone had this?
 
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