Coca tea consumption causes positive urine cocaine assay

Suzan S Mazor
European Journal of Emergency Medicine

Coca tea, or mate de coca, is commonly consumed in South America and is marketed as an aid to altitude adjustment. The tea, also found in restaurants in the United States, is made from the leaves of the coca plant, Erythroxylum coca, the same plant used to harvest cocaine. Previous studies have demonstrated that cocaine can be extracted from Health Inca tea (Enaco, Peru, South America), one brand of mate de coca.

Hospital toxicology screens primarily assay metabolites of a handful of parent drugs. Screens are subject to false-positive and false-negative results and require interpretation on the basis of the patient's reported history [²]. The hospital screen for cocaine measures benzoylecgonine. As coca is metabolized to benzoylecgonine, we sought to determine whether consumption of a commercially available tea made from coca leaves would result in urine benzoylecgonine concentrations high enough to result in a positive hospital screen for cocaine metabolites.

© 2009 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.

Read this article