A Tobacco Plant Has Been Engineered to Produce Cocaine in Its Leaves

[Warpy]

Used by humans as a stimulant and anesthetic for thousands of years, the drug commonly known as cocaine has been carefully shaped by species of the coca plant (Erythroxylum) over tens of millions of years in an arms race against hungry insects.

Knowing just how the plants pull off this feat of chemical engineering would be a big win for the pharmaceutical industry while helping biologists better understand the evolution of similar pesticides across the plant kingdom.

Yet the sheer complexity of the chemical's production has been one of nature's best-kept secrets, one that scientists have spent the better part of a century untangling.

Now, researchers from China's Kunming Institute of Botany have finally uncovered the last major steps of the biosynthetic process.

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-tobacco-plant-has-been-engineered-to-produce-cocaine-in-its-leaves

Jesus, if this one ever gets out of the lab...

It would probably be a lot more effective chewed than smoked, so I wish they'd chosen a more palatable plant, like spearmint.

[Wounded Bear]

1. Like nicotine wasn't dangerous and addictive enough...

[Warpy]

2. Yeah, I know. China is a nation of butt fiends

so I suppose having a nation of compulsive chain smokers would be nothing new to them. Still, the naturally produced coca is much more effective via leaves stuffed in the cheek. Only the refined forms are effective up the nose, smoked, or injected.

The Chinese honchos were starting to realize tobacco was killing off too many of their highly educated people a few years ago, but nothing seems to have come of that, antismoking programs dropped as far as I can tell.