How was cocaine extracted from the coca leaves in 19th century?
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People long knew that chewing or making tea from coca leaves gave extra energy. Chemists in the 19th century figured those “good times” must be due to specific chemical substances called “alkaloids,” which are chemicals made by plants that affect how people’s bodies function. Most alkaloids have a positive or negative charge when dissolved in water. To isolate possible alkaloids, chemists treated shredded leaves with different amounts of acids and bases to make the alkaloids uncharged. Uncharged molecules aren’t as soluble in water as charged molecules and can be extracted by using a liquid other than water. Extractions work because “like dissolves like” : more polar or charged liquids dissolve polar/charged molecules, and nonpolar or uncharged liquids dissolve nonpolar/uncharged molecules. After testing different acid/base mixtures and extracting, chemists found lots of alkaloids and tested each one. Once they found the extracted alkaloid that consistently made them talk too much, dance, and insist they needed a larger sample size, they concluded they had extracted the active alkaloid in coca leaves.
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