Coca Bitters —Numbing the Fatigue Rather Than the Pain

Historically, the debilitating, recurring fevers of malaria were remedied with cinchona (quininevs. shivering) and coca (cocainevs. fatigue) —botanically, a bark and a leaf, respectively. However, quinine has direct antimalarial properties, which coca lacks. This reality did not prevent New York City’s Quichua [sic] Coca Company from falsely advertising the malaria-fighting powers of pharmaceuticals and beverages mixed with the company ’s Coca Bitters. The printer’s proof (above) of the logo for those bitters trademarked a presumably cocaine-driven Quechuan Amerindian hiking through Peruvian jungle carting a seated man whose chair was lashed to the tireless porter ’s forehead and waist. So, 5 yr before Karl Koller’s research on the numbing properties of topical cocaine, Coca Bitters were peddled in 1879 as socially acceptable stimulants for numbing the effects of fatigue. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of An esthesiology.)
Source: Anesthesiology - Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: research