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Coca Leaf Exposition in Caracas on Earth Day

Thousands will be chewing coca leaves and drinking coca tea at this Sunday’s Peruvian Food Fair in Caracas, Venezuela

CARACAS, 16 April 2012 – Teas of the World together with the Alameda de Peru Cooperative will host Venezuela’s first ever Coca Leaf Expo on Amador-Bendayán Boulevard near the State Engineering College in Caracas. The event is being held Earth Day which is Sunday, April 22, 2012 from 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM. Those who attend will be treated to a fresh cup of ice cold coca tea, coca leaves and educational materials demonstrating the health benefits derived from using the coca leaf as a super food and natural medicine.

There will be many other commercial and homemade products available and on display from several Alameda de Peru member stands made using the coca leaf including candy, cookies, tea, flour, cakes, bread, medicines, liquor, and dietary capsules.

According to the organizer David Wright, who is a ethnobotanist and tea master, “the plant contains 14 plant alkaloids and over 30 vitamins and minerals found nowhere else in nature, it is so nutritionally rich it can be used as a food substitute or supplement. The natural benefits are so unique that it can be used as a preventive medicine and has been shown to be effective in controlling and preventing osteoporosis, arthritis, degenerative bone diseases, high blood pressure, low blood pressure, colic, diabetes, obesity and is an effective remedy for those wishing to lose weight or regulate their metabolism.”

Wright's beliefs are shared in the company of noted scientists from around the world, there are thousands of pages and articles available online denoting the coca leaf as an excellent food source that boasts a great number of nutritional and medicinal properties.

A Harvard Study, entitled ‘The Nutritional Value of the Coca Leaf,’ conducted in 1975 showed that chewing 100 grams of coca leaves provides enough nutrition to satisfy the dietary requirements for men and women.

The exposition is organized by Wright in an independent effort to educate the public as to the benefits of the coca leaf to eliminate the stigma that surrounds the coca leaf and to promote special high nutrition energy drink products he created using the coca leaf called ‘Triple Coca Tea’ a fresh brewed organic tea and energy drink made from coca leaves, honey, lemon and raw sugar. He says his motive is to provide others with health, well-being and knowledge.

Wright is an American expat from Kentucky, has been living in Caracas since 2001, well-known in the US during the 1990s as a environmentalist and ecological event organizer; in the 1990’s he organized the 20th Anniversary of Earth Day and for Arbor Day he distributed 10 million trees to the public for urban reforestation planting projects all across the United States.

Erythroxylum coca and Erythroxylum novogranatense are versatile plants that grow from the jungle lowlands of South America to the mountains of the Andes, given the proper soil conditions. In Colombia the novogranatense species is grown primarily to extract the alkaloid paste which they refine further and combine with chemicals to produce the illicit drug cocaine hydro-chloride. According to the University of Caldas in Colombia the actual cocaine alkaloid content is actually very low in the leaf requiring about 1 kilo of dried leaves to produce approximately 1 gram of cocaine.

The coca leaf was legalized implicitly in Venezuela by President Hugo Chavez with the purchase of 4 tons of coca leaves from President Evo Morales of Bolivia and his personal recommendation to use the coca leaf as food and medicine from the Hall of the National Assembly in 2008; indirectly his action made the coca leaf legal in Venezuela despite an international prohibition by the United Nations.

Wright will be present at the Coca Expo all day on April 22nd to serve coca leaves, coca tea, hand out educational information, and talk about the coca leaf as a health food, and to answer questions.


For information about the coca leaf, Wright’s coca tea product, or about this Sunday’s Coca Expo contact David Wright directly at (0426) 111-0529.