LORINI

LORINI


30.05.1994

The other day a man came from La Paz to look at some machinery in one of the plants.  His surname was Lorini and he turned out to be a fairly interesting character. His great-grandfather had come to South America with Garibaldi in the nineteenth century.  I did not know that Garibaldi took part in the Wars of Independence in South America.  Apparently after he had united all of northern Italy, King Vittorio Emmanuele did not want him to continue south and he was issued with an ultimatum to the effect that either he got out of the way or he would be eliminated.  So, off he went to South America where he met his wife who was Argentinian.

Well, the great-grandfather of this man was a chemist and eventually made his way to La Paz where he set up a pharmacy in the main square just opposite the government building.  One day a military officer who was coming out of the government building fell down the steps and hurt himself and great-grandfather Lorini was called upon to help him.  He did his best.  While he was attending to the officer he noticed that he had a wound on his ribcage which was bound with a kind of leaf poultice and the wound was healing and looked very good.  He was curious about this and later called upon the officer at his home or barracks or wherever, ostensibly to find out how he was faring, but also to find out a bit more about these leaves.  They turned out to be coca leaves and he decided to do some chemical research himself to discover what properties the leaves had.

After some time he developed a kind of medicinal syrup which he sold in his chemist shop.  An American company later came and offered to buy the patent of this syrup from him and he sold it.  This company then sold the patent on to - yes, you guessed it! - the Coca Cola company and the syrup was the basis of the modern drink.

Another aspect of this story is that Mr. Lorini had a chemist friend in Germany, and in their correspondence he mentioned this miraculous leaf to him.  His German friend asked him to send some leaves so he could do some experiments, and he obliged.  This German chemist was the first person to make cocaine hydrochloride which is the basis of cocaine.  

So, you see, it's a small world.  A friend of the family in La Paz has all the documentation regarding this.