The History of Cocaine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The History of Cocaine - Essay ExampleIt is an important source of commissariat and energy in a region that is lacking in new(prenominal) food sources and oxygen the vitamins and protein put in in the leaves, as well as the cocaine alkaloid, helps provide the energy and strength necessary for unconscionable walks in this mountainous area and days without eating (Winger 45-47).Although the stimulant and hunger-suppressant properties of coca had been known for many centuries, the isolation of the cocaine alkaloid was not achieved until 1855. Although many scientists had attempted to isolate cocaine, no one had been successful for two reasons the friendship of chemistry required was insufficient at the time, and coca does not grow in Europe and is comfortably ruined during travel.The cocaine alkaloid was first isolated by the German chemist Friedrich Gaedcke. Gaedcke named the alkaloid erythroxyline, and produce a interpretation in the journal Archives de Pharmacie. In 1856 Fri ederich Wohler asked Dr. Carl Scherzer, a scientist aboard the Novara (an Austrian frigate sent by emperor Franz Joseph to circle the globe), to bring him a large amount of coca leaves from South America. In 1859 the ship destroyed its travels and Wohler received a trunk full of coca. Wohler passed on the leaves to Albert Niemann, a Ph.D. student at the University of Gottingen in Germany, who so developed an improved purification process.Niemann described every step he took to isolate cocaine in his dissertation entitled On a New Organic Base in the Coca Leaves, which was published in 1860 it also earned him his Ph.D. and is now in the British Library. ... He wrote of the alkaloids colorless transparent prisms and say that, Its solutions have an alkaline reaction, a bitter taste, promote the flow of saliva and leave a risible numbness, followed by a sense of cold when applied to the tongue. Niemann named the alkaloid cocaine - as with other alkaloids its name carried the -ine affix (from Latin -ina).In 1879 cocaine began to be intentiond to treat morphine addiction. Cocaine was introduced into clinical habit as a local anaesthetic in Germany in 1884, about the same time as Sigmund Freud published his work Uber Coca, in which he wrote that cocaine causes...exhilaration and lasting euphoria, which in no way differs from the convention euphoria of the healthy person...You perceive an increase of self-control and possess more vitality and capacity for work....In other words, you are simply normal, and it is soon hard to believe you are under the influence of any drug....Long intense physical work is performed without any fatigue...This result is enjoyed without any of the unpleasant after-effects that follow exhilaration brought about by alcohol....Absolutely no craving for the further use of cocaine appears after the first, or even after repeat taking of the drug...In 1885 the U.S. manufacturer Parke-Davis sold cocaine in various forms, including ciga rettes, powder, and even a cocaine mixture that could be injected directly into the users veins with the included needle. The company promised that its cocaine products would supply the place of food, make the coward brave, the noneffervescent eloquent and ... render the sufferer insensitive to pain. By late Victorian era cocaine use had appeared as a vice in literature, for example as the cocaine injected by Arthur Conan Doyles fictional