CHAPTER FOUR
Beta-Carbolines and Ayahuasca Potions
​When I have partaken of ayahuasca, my head has immediately begun to swim, then I have seemed to enter on an aerial voyage, wherein I thought I saw the most charming landscapes, great cities, lofty towers, beautiful parks, and other delightful things. Then all at once I found myself deserted in a forest and attacked by beasts of prey, against which I tried to defend myself. Lastly, I began to come around ... Manuel Villavicencio .Geografia de fa Republica del Ecuador(1858) In 1858, the Ecuadorian civil servant Manuel Villavicencio described the unusual effects of ayahuasca (Quechua for "the vine of the souls',), a potion prepared from a vine by the Angatero, Mazan and Zaparo Indians of the basin of the Rio Napo, mighty Ecuadorian tributary to the Amazon River (Villavicencio 1858). Scant six years earlier, the great British botanist Richard Spruce (Sledge & Schultes 1988) had discovered that the Tukanoan Indian tribes along the Rio Vaup"s, Brasilian and Colombian tributary to the vast Rio Amazonas, employed an entheogenic potion known as caapi, prepared from a liana which he described and named Banisteria caapi (Schultes 1968). Spruce's Indian friends offered him the caapi beverage, about which he had previously heard under the name yaje, and Spruce imbibed a small amount, and observed the Indian caapi ritual (Reichel-Dolrnatoff 1975). Spruce was forrunatein that he found specimens of the plant from which the caapi potion had been prepared in full flower near his hosts' homes, and he presciently collected matieral for chemical analysis (Schultes & Hofmann 1980; Schultes et aL 1969). Two years later, in 1854, while traveling in the Rio Orinoco basin of Venezuela, Spruce met some itinerant Guahibo Indians near the Maipures Falls who were observed to "chew the dried stem" of caapi "as some people do tobacco." Finally, in the Ecuadorian foothills of the Andes in 1859, Spruce encountered Villavicencio's ayahuasca in use among the Zaparo Indians and, 'though he evidently did not see the plant 199 PHARMACOTHEON from which ayahuasca was derived, concluded from Vtllavicencio's account that ayahuascawas prepared from the same plant as caapi, Banisteria caapi, today known as Banisteriopsis caapi. Although Spruce's detailed notes weren't published for half a century (Spruce 1908), he did publish earlier an important paper on Amazonian "narcotics'" (Spruce 1873), and descriptions of his discovery of caapi first appeared in Britain shordy afrer his first specimens arrived at Kew Gardens (Anon. 1855). Subsequent research confirmed Spruce's identification of Banisteriopsis caapi as a pan-Amazonian entheogenic plant (Schultes & Hofmann 1980), and chemical analyses in the twentieth century led to the isolation of telepathine (Fischer Cudenas 1923; Perrot & Raymond-Hamet 1927A; Perrot & Raymond-Harnet 1927B), yajeine (Barriga Villalba 1925A; Barriga Villalba 1925B), and banisterin{e} (Lewin 1928; Lewin 1929) from Banisteriopsis specimens, all of which were subsequently shown to be the well-known alkaloid harmine (Chen & Chen '939; Elger 1928; Wolfes & Rumpf 1928). Harmine had originally been isolated from seeds of harmel or Syrian rue, Peganum harmala in 1847 (Fritzsche 1847). Louis Lewin established euphoria-ptoducing effects of injected harmine (Lewin 1928), and two related compounds, leptaflorine or TetraHydroHarmine (THH) and harmaline, the latter first isolated from Peganum harmala in 1841 (Gobel 1841) and both also found in Banisteriopsis more than a century later (Hochstein & Paradies 1957), were shown to be psychotropic in the 1960s (Naranjo 1967). In recent years, ayahuasca has emerged as one of the most sought-afrer entheogenic drugs among aficionados in the UJOited States, and it is to the story of the harmine- and harmaline-containing entheogenic drugs that we now turn in this chapter. SYRIAN RUE OR PEGANUM HARMAIA: HARMEL. .. HAOMA? The Avesta, an ancient Iranian religious text in part attributed to Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) was composed sometime during the first millennium B.C. Tradition has it Zoroaster lived during the fifrh and sixth centuries of the pre-Christian era, but most of the text of the Avesta is considerably more recent, 'though grounded in traditions a;'tedating the life of the prophet Zoroaster. Three chapters of theA vesta, Yasna 9, ro and II, collectively known as the Hom Yasht, refer repeatedly to a sacred inebriating planr known as Haoma, which is etymologically (and possibly botanically, atleastoriginally) identical to theAryan (the Iranians also descend from the Aryans) Soma ofIndia (see Chapter 6, especially Note II). The Avestan scholar]. Darmesteter considered the Hom Yasht to be a later interpolation to the text of the Avesta, 200 AYAHUASCA POTIONS probably dating from B.C. '40 to A.D. 50 (Wasson 1968), and some contemporary scholars consider the Hom Yashtto have been composed during the Hellenistic era, from the sixth to the fourth centuries B.C. (Flattery & Schwartz 1989). The SomalHaoma complex has long been a subject of scholarly disagreement inasmuch as,to quote W Doniger, one of our leading Vedists: "the history of the search for Soma is, properly, the history of Vedic studies in general, as the Soma sacrifice was the focal point of the Vedic religion" (Doniger O'Flaherty 1968). Since the use of the original Soma plant (as opposed to the use of surrogates, or substitutes, recognized as such by Brahmans, used in its place in contemporary Soma sacrifices) does not survive in India, the identity of Soma "is as obscure today as two centuries ago" when the West discovered the Aryan RgVeda, our main source of information abourSoma, which antedates the Hom Yashtbyat least a millennium (Wasson 1968). The same holds ttue for the Iranian sacrament Haoma, whose use in "a cultural-religious matrix ... seems to have altogether disintegrated with the Islamic conquest ofIran in the seventh century" of our era (Flattery & Schwartz 1989). The 1968 publication by R.G. Wasson and W Doniger (O'Flaherty) of Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality summarized the history of the attempts to identifY Soma, and proposed an entheogenic mushroom, Amanita muscaria, as me original Aryan Soma plant (Wasson 1968). Besides stimulating modern awareness of the Soma problem, Wasson's book established beyond reasonable doubt that Soma was an entheogenic plant, not an alcoholic beverage or non-psychoactive plant, as many had supposed (Brough 1971; Doniger O'Flaherty 1968). Wasson, who had learned as a young boy about the Soma problem from his father, realized this fact in the mid-1950S, shortly afrer his pioneering experience of the effects of entheogenic mushrooms in Mexico in 1955 (see Chapter 6). As W. Donigerwas later to comment: "the broader hypothesis-that Soma was an entheogen-is more significant than the narrower onethat it was a mushroom," although she personally inclined towards Wasson's identification (Doniger O'Flaherty 1982). Many consider the problem of the identity of Somal Haomato be insoluble, andoflirtle importance, beyond the astute realization by Wasson that Somal Haoma was an entheogenic plant. Of the many other nonfungal botanical candidates for Somal Haoma, the best-known is Peganum harmala, first proposed in name by P.A. de Lagarde (Lagarde 1866). Unlike Amanita muscaria, used today as an inebriant in Siberia (see Chapter 6), Peganum harmalahas not been reported in the historical record to be used as a ritual inebriant (Flattery & Schwartz 1989; Schultes 1976; Schultes & Hofmann 1980). A recent sketchy report from Ladakh, India had mentioned the "narcotic" use of Peganum harmala seeds (Navchoo & Buth 1990). Known as techepak, the seeds were 201 PHARMACOTHEON roasted and puverized, and then "taken as such or smoked with tobacco." The related harmine-containing Tribulus terrestris was said to be powdered and dissolved in milk and "reported to cause delirious conditions" (Navchoo & Buth 1990). An equally vague report alleged swallowing of harmel seeds in the Near East for "hallucination and sexual stimulation" (Abulafatih 1987; Hooper & Field 1937), and Bahraini "narcotic" use of harmel seeds was catalogued in a recent review (Abbas et al. 1992). Without giving details, a second-hand report by JA. Gunn ascribed "soporific and intoxicant" properties to the seeds, saying further that in North Mrica "the seeds may intoxicate like alcohol" (Gunn 1937). A more modern report alleged that" in India and Paltistan the seeds are employed as an anthelmintic and narcotic," ascribing both stimulatory and depressive effects on the central nervous system (Hassan 1967). The main economic value of the plant in historical times has been as the source of vegetable dyes extracted from the seeds, although it has traditional ethnomedical uses as well. In Morocco, harmelis used variously as an anthelmintic, antirheumatic and antidiarrheal (Bellalrhdar et al. 1991) and the seeds are used for rheumatism and eye diseases in northern India (Shah 1982). Recently, antimicrobial activirywas demonstrated for the harmelalkaloid harmine, with harmaline andharmol showing lower activity (Ahmad et al. 1992). In Yemen, harmellikewise is used medicinally, and the plant was cited in the 12th Century pharmacopoeia ofIbn El Beithar, in Algerian Abderrezzaq' s 18th Century compendium, and in an anonymous 12th century medicinal text (Fleurentin et al. 1983). Although harmelhas been described recently as an aphrodisiac (Flattery & Schwartz 1989), it is used traditionally by Bedouins as an emmenagogue and abortifacient, as well as for "narcotic" purposes (Bailey & Danin 1981), properties that have been documented in animal experiments (Shapira et al. 1989). In Ladalrh, India, Muslims use harmelleaves as an incense called dhup (Bhatracharyya 1991). Recently ns. Flattery and M. Schwartz published Haoma and Harmaline, a book inspired by Wasson's Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality, and accepting its main thesis-that Somal Haoma was an entheogenic plant. In this recent book, however, the authors argue against Wasson's theory that Soma was an entheogenic mushroom, proposing instead Peganum harmala as the original Aryan entheogen (Flattery & Schwartz 1989; see also Naranjo 1990). The plant known today as Harmel in German, harmal in Arabic, spand or spend in Persian, hurmur in Urdu, harmul in Hindi---Peganum harmala-is equated with Haoma of the Avesta and Soma of the Rg ~da on the basis offour lines of argument (I use here Flattery's own categories in his summary): 1) geographical correspondence---that harmel occurs throughout the Indo-Iranian area in which the ancient entheogen held sway; 2) 202 r i AYAHUASCA POTIONS pharmacological correspondence-that the etbnographicliterature on Banisteriopsis caapi or ayahuasca (which Flattery uses in place of similar literature on harmelwhich does not exist) shows a pharmacological equivalence between Somal Haoma and ayahuasca (which is assumed to be equivalent to harmel in its properties); 3) evidence from Iranian folk religion-that the ancient attributes of Haoma as recorded in the Avesta match modern ideas regarding harmel in Iran; and 4) evidence from Zoroastrian rituals-mat modern surrogates for Haoma are plants with some relationship to harmel in folklore and tradition. I find the proposal of Flattery and Schwartz to be weak and unconvincing. As for their geographical argument, this would seem to be irrelevant. The Rg ~da states repeatedly that Soma grew in the mountains, not in the Indus Valley where it was consumed in Vedic times (Wasson 1968). Similarly, the Avesta tells us again and again that Haoma grew in the mountains, which Flattery needs choo~es to interpret as a device "to assert its lofty origins" (Flattery & Schwartz 1989). The Aryan migration to the south and west of the mountain home of Somal Haoma has been cited as a reason for adopting substitutes for the original plant, leading to its eventual abandonment (Wasson 1968). Flattery's geographical argument rather shows the plausibility of Peganum harmala as a substitute in the plains for the original Soma/ Haoma, remote from its mountain home, although, as Flattery points out, harmel also grows in the mountains. However, as Flattery concedes, Peganum harmala is not common in India (Flattery & Schwartz 1989)' Flattery's four points of proposed pharmacological correspondence between Somal Haoma and Banisteriopsis have no bearing on the largely unknown pharmacology of harmel as an inebriant, and in any case are general principles that could apply to virtually any entheogenic plant with a history of traditional use, such as Siberian Amanita muscaria and Mexican entheogenic mushrooms, morning glory seeds, and leaves of Salvia divinorum (see Chapters 2, 5 and 6, and Appendix A) all of which, like Banisteriopsis and other entheogens in South America, meet all four of Flattery' s proposed points of correspondence. The evidence from Iranian folk religion is supportive of the Flattery/Schwartz thesis, but not incoIl1patible with the Wasson/Doniger thesis, that Soma was an entheogenic mushroom, and the later Haoma one of many known surrogates (a conclusion also reached in a recent Italian paper; Festi & Alliota 1990). Finally, the evidence regarding substitutes used in Zoroastrian rituals is again supportive, but indirect, and counterbalanced by similar evidence from India, for mushrooms as a primary sl!bstitute for Soma (Krarnrisch '975; Wasson et al. 1986). The reader of the Flattery/Schwartz book finishes with an empty feeling ... where is the evidence, from the authors' own experimentation (if necessary), that Peganum 203 PHARMACOTHEON harmala is a visionary plant? Why do the authors base their arguments on alleged correspondence with ayahuasca, an unrelated potion from another continent, that owes its psychoptic effects primarily to additives containing DiMethylTryptamine (DMT) and other entheogenic compounds, and not to the harmelctype alkaloids?2 CHEMISTRY OF PEGANUM HARMAlA Chemical work on the pigments of Peganum harrnala or Syrian rue seeds commenced in the 1830S. The German chemist H. Gobel isolated an alkaloid he named harmaline from seeds of Peganum harmala in 1841 (Gobel 1841). Six years later, fellow chemist]. Fritzsche isolated a related alkaloid, harmine, from the same seeds (Fritzsche 1847). More than fifryyears later, a third, related alkaloid named harmalol was also isolated from Syrian rue seeds (Fischer 1901), and later research has established the presenceofharmol, ruine, dihydroruine and Tem1HydroHarmine (THH) or leptaflorine (Allen & Holmstedt 1980). Structures for harmine and harmaline were proposed by Perkin and Robinson in 1919 (Perkin & Robinson 1919A; Perkin & Robinson 1919B) and these were confirmed by these two scientists working with British chemist R.H.F. Manske (first to synthesize DMT in 1931; see Chapter 3), when they synthesized both compounds in 19Z7 (Manske et al 1927). Spath (first to synthesize mescaline in 1919; see Chapter I) and Lederer proposed more practical syntheses three years later (Spath & Lederer 1930A; Spath & Lederer 1930B). The "harmala alkaloids" were found to share a common tricyclic indole nucleus (the nucleus consists of three attached rings, technically it is pyrido[3,4-bJindole) known commonly as the j3-carboline ring system. Harmine, for example, is 7-methoXY-1- methyl-j3-carboline; harmaline is the 3,4-dihydro- derivative of harmine and d-leptaflorineis (+)-1,2,3-4-TetraHydroHarmine OrTHH (the racemic, or d,l- formohHH " was first isolated from Leptactinia densiflora and thus named leptaflorine; later dleptaflorine was isolated from Banisteriopsis caapi; see Hochstein & Paradies 1957). The simple j3-carboline alkaloids have been found to be widely distributed in plants; having been reported in well over roo species in more than 27 families representing more than 60 genera (Allen & Holmstedt 1980). Besides the j3-carboline alkaloids, epigeal parts of Peganum harmala contain quinazoline alkaloids such as vasicine (peganine) and vasicinone, which have uterotonic effects (Bellalthdar et al. 1991; H.N. Khashimov 1971; Zutshi et al" 1980) possibly accounting for the use of P. harmala as an abortifacient, and use of the closely-related harmine-containing Tribulus terrestris is used as an emmenagogue in Thai ethnomedicine (Ponglux et al. 204 1 AYAHUASCA POTIONS 1987). Quinazoline alkaloids are also known from two Justicia species used in Ne- " palese ethnomedicine (Chowdhury & Bhattacharya 1985; Manandhar 1991) and the vasicine-containingAdhatoda vasica is now used in Thai ethnomedicine as an antiasthmatic (Ponglux et al. 1987) and in Indian ethnomedicine as an abortifacient (Nath et al 1992). The antimicrobial flavonoids quercetin and kaempferol have been found in cultured cells of P. harmala (Harsh & Nag 1984), and a novel flavonoid, peganetin, was recently isolated from whole plants (Ahmed & Saleh 1987). Novel anthraquinones of unknown pharmacology are likewise found in harmel seeds (Pitre & Srivastava 1987). The mature seeds of Peganum harmala show the highest concentration of the 13- carboline alkaloids in this plant, the reported range being from 2-7')10, while the roots contain from 1.4-3.2% (Kutlu & Amal 1967; al-Shamma & Abdul-Ghany 1977). Harmine is normally the major alkaloid, but the ratio of harmine to harmaline shows seasonal variation. In studies of Syrian rue roots, winter was found to be the season of highest alkaloid content, with 1.8% harmine content and 0-4% harmaline content; the same strains in the summer showed considerably lower alkaloid levels, with increased content of harmaline--o.8% harmaline and only 0.6% harmine (K. Khashimov et al. 1971; Sanna et al 1970). A similar seasonal disparity has been observed for alkaloidal content of the seeds, with the ratios of the two compounds reversed as to season: in winter about twice as much harmaline as harmine is observed; whereas in the summer the reverse obtains (Kamel et al. 1970). The general rule is that alkaloid content is highest in the winter, and that in the winter there is a flux of harmaline from the roots to the reproductive parts; and a reverse flux of harmine from reproductive parts to the roots. Geographical variation has also been reported, with Iraqi specimens containing nearly twice the alkaloid content of material from the Soviet Union (K. Khashimov et al. 1971; Sanna et al 1970; al-Shamma &Abdul-Ghany 1977). The harmane-alkaloidal chemistry of Peganum harmala has been reviewed by Flartery in Haoma and Harmaline, which in my opinion might more aptly have been named Haoma and Harmine, since harmine is the principal alkaloid of harmel seeds, and also of ayahuasca or Banisteriopsis caapi (Flattery & Schwartz 1989).' The main economic value of the Syrian rue seeds in modern times has been as a source of dyes for fabrics (Porter 1962). A yellow pigment is obtained by aqueous infusion of the seeds (Dollfus & Schlumberger 1842); and an important red dye used in tinting the felt for Turkish fezes, was obtained from chemical treatment of the seeds (Gobel 1838). Studies of the dyes produced by the Syrian rue seeds led to the isolation of harmine and harmaline, and the red pigment, in particular, is thought 205 PHARMACOTHEON to result from the oxidation of the ~-carboline alkaloids (Schutzenberger 1867). AYAHUASOI, CAAPI, YAjE-ENTHEOGENIC POTIONS OF AMAZONIA As we saw in the introduction to this chapter, the first reports of ayahuasca, caapi and yaji, alike entheogenic potions prepared from extracts of Banisteriopsis caapi, were those ofM. Villavicencio and R. Spruce, and placed the ritual use of ayahuasca from the east in the area of the Rio Negro in Brasil, out of the Amazonian basin and north to the Orinoco basin of Venezuela and finally west to the foothills of the Andes in Amazonian Ecuador (Anon. 1855; Spruce 1873; Spruce 1908; Villavicencio 1858). In the '40 years following these pioneering reports of Villavicencio and Spruce, that lange has been extended westerly, to the Pacific coastal areas of Colombia, Panama and Ecuador, where the Embed and Noanama Indians use Banisteriopsis potions under the names pi/de and dapa respectively (Reichel-Dolmatoff 196o). Moreover, the traditional use of Banisteriopsis potions has been reported as fur south as Amazonian Peru and Bolivia (Andritzky 1988, 1989; Baer 1969; Baer & Snell 1974; Dobkin de Rios '970A; Dobkin de Rios I970B; Dobkin de Rios '972; Dobkin de Rios 1973; Friedberg 1965; Kensinger 1973; Kusel 1965; Luna I984A; Luna I984B; Luna 1991; Ort I994A; Rusby 1923; Siskind 1973; Weiss '973; White 1922). Widespread ayahuasca use by Colombian Indians has been well studied by G. Reichel-Dolmatoff(Reichel-DolmatoffI944; Reichel-DolmatoffI969; Reichel-Dolmatoff 1970; Reichel-Dolmatoff 1972; Reichel-Dolmatoff '975) and by others (Bristol I966A; Bruzzi 1962; CaiellaI935; CaiellaI944A; CaiellaI944B; Goldman 1963; KochGrunberg 19°9; Koch-Grunberg 1923; Morton 1931; Ort I994A; Uscategui 1959; Uscategui 1961). Modern studies of ayahuasca use in Ecuador have established common use by groups of Quichua, Waorani and Shuar (widely known as "Jivaro" in the literature; now considered to be a pejorative epithet) Indians (Davis & Yost I983A; HarneI I973A; Harner I973B; Harner I973D; Maries et al 1988; Naranjo '975; Naranjo 1979; Naranjo 1983; Ort '994A). Use of caapi potions in Amazonian Brasil has likewise been well studied (Ducke 1957; Lowie 1946; Prance '970; Prance & Prance 1970; Prance et al 1977). Early papers by Schultes contributed much to the resolution of problems concerning the botanical identity of ayahuascalianas (Schultes I957A; Schultes & R.affuuf 196o), and his recent publications have done much to clariJ:Ythe ethnobotanical study of Banisteriopsis-based visionary potions (Schultes I986B; Schultes 1988; Schultes & Hofmann 198o; Schultes & Raffauf 1990). We now know the use of ayahuasca potions to have been common among South American . 206 L I i AYAHUASCA POTIONS Indians of Amazonian Brasil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, extending to the Orinoco basin of Venezuela and the coastal regions of Colombia, Panama and Ecuador. Luna has enumerated no fewer than 72 indigenous groups reported to have used entheogenic ayahuasca potions (Luna I986B; Luna I986c) along with 42 different indigenous names for the potions. Archaeological research has shown that the use of ayahuasca in Ecuador may date back as many as five millennia (Naranjo 1986), 'though it is probably considerably more recent. While most of the ayahuascalcaapilyaji potions are based on extracts of Spruce' s Banisteriopsis caapi, other species of Banisteriopsis have also been implicated. The most important of these other species is B. inebrians, chiefly used in the Amazonian foothills of the Andes (Cuatrecasas 1965; Morton 1931; Schultes I957A), and now, along with B. quitensis, considered rather to be a synonym for B. caapi (Gates 1982; Schultes & RaffaufI990). Another species, B. martinianavar.laevis (=B. martiniana vat. subenervia), has been reported also to be used in preparation of yaje potions (Garda Barriga 1975; Gates 1982; Schultes 1975). Banisteriopsis muricata (=B. argentea; B. metallicolor) is used in place of B. caapi as a basic ingIedient for entheogenic potions by the Waorani of Ecuador, who call the plant mii. The Witoto call this species sacha ayahuasca ("wild ayahuasca"), and consider it weaker than B. caapi (Davis & Yost I983A). Other species reported as basic ingredients of ayahuasca potions are: B. longialata, B. lutea and Lophanthera lactescens (Schultes I986B). In the Orinoco basin of Venezuela, B. lucida or caji is used in fishing magic-a piece of the bark put in the mouth of a small fish which is then thrown back, is thought to artract more fish (Boom & Moestl I990). A related species ofMaipighiaceae, Diplopterys cabrerana (=Banisteriopsis cabrerana; Gates I982), once classified as Banisteriopsis rusbyana, is now considered to be an additive to Banisteriopsis-based potions, and has been found to be chemically distinct from B. caapi. This will be discussed in detail below. Both Spruce (I908) and Koch-Grunberg (1909; 1923) referred to different "kinds" of caapi in the Vaup"s, and Schultes discovered the Maku Indians on the Rio Tiki" of Brasil preparing a caapi-like potion from the bark of the malpighiaceous Tetrapterys (or Tetrapteris) methystica (=T styloptera; Gates I986), about which we have no chemical information (Schultes I954A; Schultes I957A; Schultes & Raffauf I990). The Karapana Indians of the Rio Apaporis of Colombia also prepare caapi from T mucronata (Reis Altschul 1972; Schultes & Raffauf I990). There is a report of use of the malpighiaceous Mascagnia psilophylla var. antifebrilis (=Banisteria antifibrilis; Gates 1982; Callaeum antifebrile; Gates I986) as a basis for ayahuasca, but this is "open to serious doubt" owing to a mixed collection containing also Banisteriopsis species (Schultes & Hofmann I979; Schu207 PHARMACOTHEON Ites & Raffauf 1990). Mascagnia psilophylla has been described as an ayahuasca admixture plant (see below; Luna & Amaringo 1991). In Brasil, B. argyrophylla root decoction is used to treat kidney ailments (Schmeda-Hirschmann & De Arias 1990). Some errors and confusions have crept into the literature on the ayahuasca complex. A missionary in 1890 confused the entheogenic Brugmansia species (see Appendix A), which may be used as additives to ayahuasca, with the basic ingredient, Banisteriopsis caapi, an error that was widely parrored in secondary literature. Further confusion arose between the Banisteriopsis species and the genus Aristolochia (Schultes 1957A). Another curious error arose from apparent misinterpretation of Spruce's field notes that, whereas ayahuasca and caapi were prepared from Banisteriopsis species, the closely-related yajewas made from the apocynaceous Prestonia amazonica (=Haemadictyon amazonicum; Schultes & Raffauf 196o). This error was amplified in the chemicalliterarure, when it was reported that N,NcDiMethylTryptamine (DMT; see Chapter 3 and below) was detected in "Prestonia amazonicum" [sic], misidentified as yaje and found as a Banisteriopsis admixture in the Rio Napo area (Hochstein & Paradies 1957). We now know that the ayahuasca admixtures used in the Rio Napo area for their DMT content are referable either ro the above-mentioned Diplopterys cabrerana or to the rubiaceous Psychotria viridis, and the '957 analysis of putative Prestonia amazonica doubtless represented one of these species (Schultes & Raffaufr960; Schultes & Hofmann 198o). The extensive literature on the ayahuasca complex has been reviewed by ReichelDolmatoff (1975) Schultes and Hofmann (1980), P. Naranjo (1983) and most recently by Luna (1986A), Luna and Amaringo (1991) and Ott ('994A). In general terms, aqueous infusions or decoctions are made from thick. stems or stem shavings of wild or cultivatedlianas of Banisteriopsis caapi. Generally the lianastems or pieces of stems (which mayor may not be pounded prior to extraction) are cooked in water, strained, and the extract concentrated down. In some cases, for example in the Colombian Amazon, "the bark is simply kneaded in cold water" (Schultes & Raffauf 1992), and sometimes the ayahuasca is boiled briefly, and not concentrated (Rivier & Lindgren 1972). Ofren leaves or other parts of additional entheogenic plants are added to the potion priono cooking (see belowfordiscussion of the many psychoptic ayahuasca additives), although the brew may be made exclusively of Banisteriopsis caapi. In the case of the itinerant Guahibo Indians observed by Spruce in the Rio Orinoco basin in 1854, stems of caapi were simply chewed "as some people do tobacco" (Spruce 1908). There is some evidence for the use of Banisteriopsisspecies in South American visionary snuffs (see Chapter 3, "Chemistry ofEntheogenic Virola Snuffs"; Bernauer 1964; Holmstedt & Lindgren 1967; Schultes 1984), and un208 AYAHUASCA POTIONS confirmed reports of the use of Banisteriopsis preparations as an enema (De Smet 1983; De Smet 1985B; Emboden 1979; Furst 1976; Furst & Coe 1977). Schultes has recently found the Witoto Indians of Amazonian Colombia smoking dried leaves and "young bark" of Banisteriopsis caapi, in cigarettes wrapped in leaves of a Heliconia species (Schultes 1985B). Normally, however, the ayahuasca brew is ingested orally, usually in a shamanic or ethnomedicinal context; that is, as a visionary aid in the divination of the natural or shamanic causes of illness, so"metimes as an aid in the cure. It has been conjectured that the purgative effects of these ayahuasca potions are of importance as arype of chemotherapy for parasitic worms (Rodrigue z et aL 1982) and the ayahuasca constituent harmine has been shown to possess uvmediated toxiciry to yeast and bacteria (McKenna & Towers 1981). Ayahuasca sessions are important in the apprenticeship of shamans, who often must pass first an apprenticeship with tobacco (Alarcon 1990; Wilbett 1987). In the case of mestizo Peruvian shamans, the ayahuasca plant, like other visionary plants, is itself the teacher of the aspiring shaman who, among other things, learns supernatural melodies or icaros from the plant (Luna 1984A; Luna 1984B; Montgomery 1991). It has been suggested that the magical songs (Bellier 1986) and icaros which the shamans learn from ayahuasca (Luna 1984A; Luna 1984B) may represent transmogrified ayahuasca visions (Gebhart-Sayer 1986; Siskind 1973) and the ayahuasca images are a prominent component of Amazonian art (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1971; Reichel-Dolmatoff 1972; Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975; Reichel-Dolmatoff 1978). The visual art and magical melodies as much as the entheogenic effects of the potions are said to lead to an "aesthetic frame of mind" thought vital to the healing process (Gebhart-Sayer 1986). Shamans' body paint is thought to represent "healthy" versions of the patterns which the shamans can see on the skin of a patient; different illnesses lead to different distortions in the healthy designs, and ayahuasca can help the shamans to "repaint" the patients, restoring health (Luna 1992; 1993). Similar aesthetic/therapeutic ideas may have prevailed in ancient Mexico (see Chapter 5, Note 3; Caceres 1984; Ottiz de Montellano 1990). The visionary experience of ayahuasca is so important and fundamental to the world-view of the Amazonian Indians that the use of the potion by curanderos has largely survived the forces of acculturation, and mestizos consult the ayahuasca plant-teachers even in modern-day cities (Dobkin de Rios '970B; Dobkin de Rios 1973; Dobkin de Rios 1992; Dobkin de Rios & Reategui 1967; Henman 1986; Lamb 1974; Lamb 1985; Luna 1984B; Ott 1994A; Ramirez de Jara & Pinzon C. 1986). Moreover, the fame of ayahuasca has spread far beyond its aboriginal home, and cultivation and use of ayahuasca has been established in the United States and other countries, in part due to proselytizing by religious groups. 209 PHARMACOTHEON THE CHEMISTRY OF BANlSTERIOPSIS SPECIES The first successful chemical work on Banisteriopsiswas rhe isolation bya Colombian chemist of a crystalline alkaloid he named telepatina or telepatbine (Fischer Cirdenas 1923); alrhough no voucher specimens are available for identification and Fischer Cardenas rhought he was working wirh a species ofAristolochia. One Zerda Bayon had proposed rhe name telepathine as early as 1905 for an extract of an ayahuasca potion (Deulofeu 1967). Perrot and Raymond-Hamet isolated pure telepathine from aurhentic Banisteriopsis caapi in 1927 (Perrot & Raymond-Hamet 1927A; Perrot and Raymond-Hamet 1927B). In 1925, Colombian chemist Barriga Villalba isolated an alkaloid he called yajiina or yajeine (as well as a second compound named yajenina oryajenine, about which insufficient information was published to enable us ro identifY it today; it was likely harmaline or d-leptaHorine [TetraHydroHarmine, THH], rhe most important secondary alkaloids of B. caapi) from material he erroneously believed to be Haemadictyon amazonicum (=Prestonia amazonica; Barriga Villalba 1925A; Barriga Villalba 1925B). Meanwhile, in Germany, famous pharmacognosist and chemist Louis Lewin (see Chapter I) isolated an alkaloid he named Banisterin(e) from material he called Banisteria caapi (Lewin 1928; Lewin 1929). Finally, in 1928, two independent European groups isolated rhe well-known harmine from "Sourh American lianas" (Elger 1928; Wolfes & Rumpf 1928). Elger compared his material isolated from Banisteriopsiswirh harmine fromPeganum harmala and wirh synrhetic harmine, concluding that all three crystalline samples were identical. The situation was fully clarified in '939, when Chen and Chen determined rhat teleparhine, yajeine and banisterine were all alike synonyms for harmine, which rhey had isolated from Banisteriopsis caapi collected by botanist 1. Williams near Iquitos, Peru (Chen & Chen '939; Williams 1931). These researchers were able to isolate harmine from stems, leaves and roots of this documented B. caapi sample. The structure of harmine was known by rhis time (Fischer 1899; Perkin & Robinson 1919A; Perkin & Robinson 1919B), and rhe compound had been synrhesized in 1927 (Manskeetal 1927; Spath & LedererI930A; Sparh & LedererI930B). In '957, Hochstein and Paradies isolated from Peruvian B. caapi harmine as well as harmaline and d.leptaHorine or tetrahydroharmine (Hochstein & Paradies 1957). These compounds were also found in an ayahuasca potion from Peru, and harmaline and d-leptaHorine (TetraHydroHarmine) were proposed to be psychotropic compounds in rhis ayahuasca potion. In 1969, rhe stable j3-carboline alkaloid harmine was found in quantities similar to fresh material in Spruce's original type collection of Banisteriopsis caapi from 1852 (Schultes et al 1969)! Rivier and Lindgren found rhe same three j3-carbolines as major alkaloids of Banisteriopsis caapi (Rivier & Lindgren 2IO AYAHUASCA POTIONS 1972), togerher wirh small amounts ofharmol and traces of 6-merhoxytryptamine, while more recent studies have found trace amounts of six orher j3-carbolines: harmine-N-oxide, harmic acid merhyl ester, harmalinic acid, harmic acid, aceryl-norharmine and ketotetralrydro-norharmine, some of which may be artefacts of chemical manipulation (Hashinroto & Kawanishi '975; Hashimoto & Kawanishi 1976). Recent quantitative analysis of dried stems of six different B. caapi cultivars from Peru found total alkaloidal concentrations (dry weight basis) from 1. 7-12.46 mg/g, (0.17-1.25%) wirh all specimens but one containing harmine as rhe chief alkaloid, followed by harmaline andd-leptaHorine (TetraHydroHarmine), wirh traces ofharmol and one specimen wirh traces of harmalol (McKenna et al 1984A). Normally harmine represented at least half of rhe alkaloidal concentration; rhe exception being rheweakest strain, which showed slighdy more harmaline rhan harmine. The pyrrolidine alkaloids shihunine and dihydroshihunine, of obscure pharmacology, have also been found in Banisteriopsis caapi (Kawanishi et al 1982). Studies on Banisteriopsis inebrians, now considered to be a synonym for B. caapi (as is rhe case also for B. quitensis; Gates 1982), have led to rhe isolation of harmine from the stems (O'Connell & Lynn 1953); whereas subsequent analysis of Peruvian material detected harmine and traces of harmaline (Poisson 1965). An "Australian" species, Banisteria chrysophylla (=Heteropterys chrysophylla; Gates 1982), incorrecdy cired as Banisteriopsis crysophylla [sic] (in Deulofeu 1967), has been reported to contain alkaloids (Webb 1949), and five j3-carbolines, including harmine and harmaline, have been isolated from leaves and stems of B. muricata (=B. argentea; Gates 1982; Ghosal 1972; Ghosal & Mazumder 1971; Ghosal et al 1971), together with N,N-oiMerhylTryptamine (OMT) andoMT-N-oxide. This interesting finding awaits confirmation, and one might be justified in suspecting contamination with a OMTrich admixture plant. Ghosal's group analyzed specimens grown in a botanical garden in Calcutta, India. Moreover, Gates' Banistenopsis muricata, the most widespread species in the genus, includes as conspecific about a dozen taxa, among them B. argentea. Chemical analyses of collections backed by voucher specimens are needed to confir~ the report of DMT in B. muricata, stem infusions of which are used agalnst headaches and fever by rhe Guaymi Indians of Panama (Joly et al. 1987). Banisteriopsis lutea has been reported to contain harmine (Raymond-Hamet 1941), as has a species in a related genus, Cabi paraensis (today known as Callaeum antiftbrile; Gates 1986; and previously called Mascagnia psilophylla var. antiftbrile; Mors & Zaltzman '954; Rios etal. 1965). Banisteriopsis nitrosiodora (=B. lutea; Gates 1982) from Argentina has been found to be "practically devoid of alkaloids" and it has also been said that several Banisteriopsis species reportedly added to ayahuasca beverages 2II PHARMACOTHEON remain to be tested chemically (Deulofeu r967). Harmine is now known from at least twelve species in seven plant families (Allen & Holmstedt 1980).' CHACRUNA, CHAGROPANGA AND OTHER AYAHUASQl ADMIXTURES One of the common denominators in South American ethnobotany of ayahuasca potions, is the fact that the brews often contain other psychoactive plants apartfrom Banisteriopsis caapi (Luna 1984'; Luna 1984B; McKenna et at. 1986; Pinkley 1969; Schultes 1972B). and may be usedatthe same time as other psychoactive plants, such as tobacco and coca. I will discuss six. distinct categories of ayahuasca "admixture" plants or cohorts in this section (see Table 3 and Ort 1994'). TOBACCO: One of the most common and widespread additives to ayahuasca is tobacco; specifically, the cultivated tobaccos, Nicotiana tabacum andN rustica (see Appendix A; Luna & Amaringo 1991; Schultes & Hofmann r979). For some reason, other common additives to ayahuasca potions have received much more attention in the - scientific literanrre. Recendy, J. Wilbert has reviewed the ethnobotanicalliteranrre on South American shamanic use of to bacco, including its prominence as ayahuasca admixnrre or cohort (Wilbert 1987). The following information was gleaned ftom Wilbert's excellent review. The Shuar "drink tobacco juice alternately with ayahuasca" while the Shipibo ayahuasquero "mixes tobacco with Banisteriopsis caapi." Shamans of the Piro tribe "drinkayahuasca followed by tobacco juice," whereas the Cocama Indians drink tobacco juice "in combination with ayahuascawhen inductingyoung shamans." The Campa Indians "lickambil [an edible tobacco preparation; see AppendixAl ... after imbibing ayahuasca" and "ingest ambil simultaneously with ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi) and coca (Erythroxylum)." Similarly, of the Barasana it was said: "considerable amounts of tobacco rape are taken alternately with yage (Banisteriopsis caapi) and coca." The Aguaruna are said to make enemas or clysters of "tobacco syrup mixed with ayahuasca" (Schultes & Raffauf 1990). While the Tecuana blow tobacco smoke "over the practitioners and their paraphernalia prior to imbibing ayahuasca," the Qmagua shamans "take tobacco in conjunction with paricd (Virola) and ayahuasca." The Lamista shamans smoke large cigars of tobacco "while ingesting various kinds of hallucinogens, like Banisteriopsis caapi," whereas the shamans of the Machigenga "achieve ecstatic flight by drinking cold tobacco juice; but ayahuascaand ... coca (Erythroxylum), are also taken on such occasions." Quijos Quichua ayahuasqueros blow tobacco smoke over the ayahuasca potion and 212 1 AYAHUASCA POTIONS the participants in a ceremony, then smoke tobacco constandy during the effects (Ort, unpublished). Tobacco is also smoked during ayahuasca sessions by the Siona and Secoya Indians of Ecuador (Vickers & Plowman 1984). Similarly, in Mexico, tobacco use may frequently accompany use of p<6lOtlamongthe Huicholes (Schaefer 1992A), and entheogenic mushroom use among the Mazatecs (Ort, unpublished). There has been a dearth of comment on the pharmacological consequences of mixing nicotine with the ~-carbolines, although ~-carboline components of tobacco smoke have been proposed to explain the visionary effects of this drug (Janiger & Dobkin de Rios 1976). In general, there is a lack of appreciation of the visionary potency of pure, unadulterated tobacco, in contrast to the weak, bastardized products of modern coml!lerce. Clearly, research is needed on this important ayahuasca additive. The very ubiquity of tobacco as an American shamanic drug may have obscured this connection with ayahuasca.Indeed, tobacco is the shamanic drug, fundamental to the world-view of the American shaman (Wilbert 1991). As Wilbert commented of the Zaparo Indians: the shamans "take ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi) to see better but believe that their true power derives ftom tobacco." Among Quichua groups of Amazonian Ecuador, the aspiring shaman must imbibe considerable quantities of tobacco juice before graduating to an apprenticeship with ayahuasca (Alarcon 1990), and tobacco ingestion is a part of shamanic apprenticeship throughout Amazonia (Schultes & Raffauf 1992). GUAYUSA: Owing in part to the soporific effects of Banisteriopsis caapi extracts, the Shuar (Furst 1976; Russo 1992), Runa (Kohn 1992) and Quijos Quichua (Ott, unpublished) of Ecuador add leaves of the holly flex guayusa (Patino 1968; Shemluck 1979) to their ayahuasca potions (Schultes 1972D; Schultes & Raffauf 1990). Shuar and Quichua Indians have also been reported to employ infusions of the guayusa leaf as a treatment for headache (Russo 1992). In Ecuador, guayusa leaf tea is taken with ayahuasca to "kill the hitter taste," "to prevent hangover" and to "give strength to deal with ayahuasca" (Schultes & RaffaufI990). Jesuit missions once grew guayusa commercially and there is a 17th cennrry report mentioning use of guayusa as an additive to a potion containing also Banisteriopsis, Brugmansia, and Nicotiana species (Schultes 1979F). A relative ofa well-known South American stimulant mate (also spelled mati!; flexparaguariensis; also known asl paraguayensisor 1 paraguensis), and of the recondite North American yaupon (flex vomitoria), leaves of an Achuar guayusa strain were recently shown to contain 7.6% caffeine, making this the most potent caffeine-containing plant yet documented. Achuar users of this strain were seen to vomit ritually after their morning cup, supposedly to avoid excess stimulation 213 PHARMACOTHEON (Lewis et aL 1991). Similarly, the "black drink" yaupon, of Ilex vomitoria leaf, was reportedly used as an "hallucinogen" to "evoke ecstasies" among North American Cherokee Indians, who likewise used strong infusions of these leaves to induce vomiting for ceremonial purification (Hamel & Chiltoskey 1975). This North American species also contains caffeine (Power & Chestnut 1919), and the only other Ilex species known to contain caffeine is I ambigua (Bohinc et aL 1977). The subjective effects of guayusalayahuasca, prepared for me by a Quijos Quichua ayahuasquero, however, were still quite soporific, with no visionary or psychoptic effects. Another caffeine-containing drug, Paullinia yoco, a relative of the famous stimulant guarand (Paullinia cupana var. sorbilis; Schultes 1942; Schultes r986A; Schultes & Raffauf 1992), was recently reported as an ayahuasca additive among the Siona (Langdon 1986). There has been no research on the interactions of caffeine with the ~-carboline alkaloids. The Campa and Barasana Indians take ayahuasca with the leaves of Erythroxylum coca var. ipadu, evidently seeking the stimulation their cocaine content affords (Holmstedt et al. 1978; Schultes 1981; Wilbert 1987). . CHlRIGUAYUSA: Various Indian groups of Colombia and &uador, including the Kofan, Siona, Ingano, Runa and Shuar, are known to add the bark, leaves or roots of Brunftlsia grandiflora, R grandiflora subsp. schultesii (known in Quechua as chiriguayusa or chiric-sananho) and leaves of B. chiricaspi to their ayahuasca brews (Kohn 1992; Langdon 1986; Plowman 1977; Schultes & Raffauf 1990; Schultes & Raffauf 1992). Brunftlsia chiricaspi is used alone as an entheogen by the Kofan, Mai Huna, Siona, Ingano and other groups of the Colombian and Ecuadorian Putumayo (see AppendixA; Bellier 1986; Plowman 1977; Schultes & Raffauf 1990; Schultes & Raffauf 1992), and is considered by the Kofan and Ingano Indians to be preferable to chiriguayusa (Schultes 1985A). Brunftlsia grandiflora var. schultesii is likewise used alone by the Kof:in and by the Siona-Secoya as an entheogen (Schultes & Raffauf 1990). The pharmacology of this intriguing solanaceous genus is obscure (see Appendix A), and there has been no research on the interactions of Brunftlsia species with extracts of Banisteriopsis caapi. The well-known Brasilian ethnomedicine manacd, root of Brunfelsia unijlora, has also been reportedly used as a shamanic inebriant, and like the Brunfelsia species added to ayahuasca, contains the coumarin scopoletin (Mors & Ribeiro '957; Plowman 1977; Schultes & Hofmann 1980). HUANTO: Another important category of ayahuasca admixture plants are the solanaceous Brugmansia species, known as huanto, huantuc or huanduj in Ecuador (Chango etal. 1984; Kohn 1992; Reinberg 1921). The Sharanalrua, Ingano and Siona 214 AYAHUASCA POTIONS Indians of Amazonia add Brugmansia suaveolens leaves to their ayahuasca potions, while in Loreta, Peru, leaves of B. insignis are so used. Leaves, stems, seeds, and ashes ofleaves of other species of Brugmansia may be likewise added to some ayahuasca (Langdon 1986; Schultes & Raffauf 1990; Schultes & Raffauf 1992). The Shuar Indians possibly use Brugmansia species in their ayahuasca brews (Lockwood 1979). Siona and Secoya Indians of Ecuador are reported to use Brugmansia x. insignis alone as an entheogen and as an additive to ayahuasca potions (Vickers & Plowman 1984). The Brugmansia species, known generally in Spanish as fioripondios, are potent entheogens in their own right (see Appendix A; Bristol 1966B), but no research has been done on the interactions of their constituent tropane alkaloids with the ~­ carboline compounds of Banisteriopsis caapi. Use of Datura has been mentioned as an a:yahuasca admixrure (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975), but this report doubtless referred to so-called "tree Datura" sp~cies, an obsolete name for Brugmansia species. MISCELLANEOUS ADMIXTURES: Makuna Indians of Colombia add crushed leaves of Malouetia tamaquarina and/or of tobacco to ayahuasca (Schultes 1960; Schultes 1987A; Schultes & Hofmann 1980; Schultes & Raffauf 1990; Wilbert 1987). This apocynaceous species (in the same family as eboka, Tabernanthe iboga; see Appendix A) has been little studied chemically, but alkaloids are known FromM becquaertiana, and steroidal alkaloids occur in various species of Malouetia, including M tamaquarina (Bisset 1992B; Schultes & Raffauf 1990). An unidentified Tabernaemontana species (see Appendix A) has been reported as an ayahuasca admixture (Schultes & Hofmann 1979), along with two lime-known apocynaceous species, Mandevilla scabra and Himatanthus sucuuba (Luna 1984B; Luna & Amaringo 1991), the former used in ethnogynecology by Brasilian Kayapa Indians (Elisabetsky & Posey 1989). The Ingano Indians of Colomb in Amazonia have been reported to add the amaranthaceousAlternanthera lehmannii to ayahuasca (a use also reported among the Siona Indians; Uscitegui 1959), another species of obscure chemistry (Schultes & Hofmann 1980; Schultes & Raffauf 1990). Another plant in the same fumily, an unidentified species of Iresine, has been described as an ayahuasca admixture (Schultes & Hofmann 1979); similarly, a species of Iresine has been reported as an admixture to the Andean entheogenic potion cimora, based on the entheogenic cactus Trichocereus pachanoi (see Chapter I; Schultes & Hofmann 1980). McKenna and coworkers reported analysis of three "uncommon admixture plants" used in Peruvian ayahuasca potions-bark of Abuta grandifolia (a well-known menispermaceous dart-poison plant; Bisset 1992B; Schultes & Raffauf '990; also used by various Ecuadorian groups as a headache remedy; Russo 1992), leaves of Teliostachya lan21 5 PHARMACOTHEON ceolata var. crispa (generally, branches are used as an ayahuasca aclmixture, whereas the leaves are sometimes made into a separate entheogenic infusion; Schultes 1972C; Schultes & RaffaufI990) , and leaves of Comutia odorata-ofwhich only the first was found to be positive for alkaloids (McKenna et al. 1984A). Of course, one can only conjecture regarding the interactions of these chemically-unknown plants with the Banisteriopsis alkaloids. The Sharanabua Indians add powdered rhizomes of a Cyperus species (which may be infested with ergoline-alkaloid-producing Balansia cyperi fungi (see Chapter 2, Note 4) ro ayahuasca (Schultes & Raffauf 1990)- this may be Cyperus prolvms (McKenna et al. 1986). Calathea veitchiana has been reportedly used as an ayahuasca aclmixture in Peru (Schultes 1972C; Schultes & Hofmann '979; Schultes & Raffauf 1990). Two species of ferns, Lygodium venustum (Lygodium mexicanum is used by Huastec Mayans of Mexico for its psychological effects in cases of insanity; Alcorn 1984) and Lomariopsis japurensis (L. japurensis is used against postpartum hemorrhage by Quijos Quichua and as an abortifacient by the Runa of Ecuador, suggesting content of ergoline alkaloids; L. nigropalatea is used by the MakU Indians as a hemostatic, again suggesting vasoconstrictive ergolines; Kahn 1992; Maries et al. 1988; Schultes & Raffauf 1990) are reported to be ayahuasca admixtures (Schultes & Hofmann 1979), the former used by the Kulina and Sharanabua Indians to "make the drink stronger" (Schultes & Raffauf 1990). A plant in the mistletoe family, Phrygilanthus eugenioides, has been used by two Peruvian Indian groups, who either boil the leaves with ayahuasca or drink the juice of the plantwith ayahuasca (Schultes & Hofmann '979; Schultes & RaffaufI990). The Sharanabua also would chew one or two leaves of a Clusia species during an ayahuasca session, and the leaves might also have been boiled with the ayahuasta (Schultes & Hofmann I979; Schultes & Raffauf 1990). Another plant also in the Gurtiferae family, Tovomita sp., is likewise reported as an ayahuasca additive in Peru (Luna 1984B). Other ayahuasca additives include the mint Ocimum micranthum (a decoction of which is used as an anthelmintic and analgesic by Garifima blacks of Guatemala and as a pain-killer and a pediatric remedy in Mexico; Alcorn 1984; Giron et al. 1991; Zamora-Martinez & Niero de Pascual Pola 1992) and the cacti Epiphyllum sp. and Opuntia sp. (Schultes & Hofmann 1979). The Sharanabua add "only one leaf" of the Epiphyllum species ro an ayahuasca brew, "or else drink the unboiled juice of the cactus with ayahuasca" (Schultes & Raffauf 1990). The same Indians were observed to brew ayahuasca with an Opuntia species, making "the effects very strong" (Schultes & Raffauf 1990). Opuntia spinosiorand other Opuntia species are known to contain small amounts of mescaline and other alkaloids (see Chapten; Ma et al. 1986; Pardanani et al. 1978), and alkaloids are also known from 2I6 AYAHUASCA POTIONS Opuntia clavata (Vanderveen et al. I974). "Persistent rumors" associated Gnetum nodiflorum leaves with ayahuasca in the Colombian Vaupes (Schultes & Raffauf 1990), and it has been suggested that this confusion has resulted from mistaking swollen-noded forms of Barzisteriopsis caapi for Gnetum nodiflorum (D.]. McKenna 1992). Gnetum nodiflorum is employed ethnomedicinally as an anti-inflammatory (Schultes 1985A). The Psychotria relative Rudgea retifolia may have been employed as an ayahuasca additive in Peru (Schultes & Raffauf I990), and the rubiaceous Cafycophyllum spruceanum is so used (Luna 1984A). Other Rubiaceae species used as ayahuasca additives are Guettarcla ferox and Uncaria guianensis (McKenna et al. 1986), along with the fruits of Sabicea amazonensis (Hugh-Jones I979; Schultes & Raffauf 1990; Schultes & Raffauf 1992). Sabicea diversifolia is used in ethnomedicine as a remedy against dysentery in Madagascar (Beaujard 1988). The leguminous Bauhinia guianensis was recently reported as a Petuvian ayahuasca aclmixture (Luna & Amaringo 1991) and as a Venezuelan gastrointestinal remedy (Boom & Moestl 1990), also used in ethnogynecology by the Brasilian Kayapo (Elisabetsky & Posey 1989). Other ayahuasca additive species in the family Leguminosae are: Caesalpinia echinata, Calliandra angustifolia, Campsiandra laurifolia, Erythrina glauca, E. poeppigiana, Pithecellobium laetum and Sclerobium setiferum (Luna 1984A; Luna 1984B; McKenna et al. I986). The euphorbiaceous species Hura crepitans and Alchornea castanaefolia have likewise been reported as Peruvian additives to the potions (Luna 1984A; Luna r984B); the latter is particularly interesting since a related species, Alchornea floribuncla is known to be ingested along with Tabernanthe iboga in Mrica (see Appendix A; Schultes & Hofmann 1980). Hura crepitansseeds are poisonous, and a decoction of the bark is used in Caribbean ethnomedicine as a purgative and emetic (Seaforth 1991). Another interesting report is of the use in ayahuasca of the Amazonian panacea May tenus ebenifolia of the Celastraceae family, a plant known to contain pharmacologically-active phenoldienones (Gonzalez et al. 1982), as well as the use of the myristicaceous Virolasurinamensis as an ayahuasca admixture (Luna 1984A; see Chapter 3 for a discussion of entheogenic Virola preparations). Other reported ~dditives to entheogenic ayahuasca potions are: Montrichardia arborescens (Araceae); Mansoa alliacea, Tabebuia incana, T heteropocla and an unidentified Tabebuiaspecies (Bignoniaceae); Cavanillesiahylogeiton, C umbellata, Ceibapentandra and possibly a QjJararibea species (Bombacaceae); Carludovica diver gens (Cyclanthaceae); Couroupita guianensis (Lecythidaceae); Coussapoa tessmannii (related ro C villosa, the fruit of which placed in a decayed rooth causes it ro fall; Boom & Moestl 1990), Ficus insipicla, F ruiziana and an unspecified Ficus species (Moraceae); Petiveria alliacea (Phytolaccaceae-root infusions are used in the Caribbean area as 2I7 PHARMACOTHEON ethnogynecological remedies and leaves are used in Haiti to prepare an antidote to the zombi powder; Davis 1983D; Seaforth 1991; Wong 1976; the Panamanian Guaymi use stem bark and leaf decoctions for ritual ceremonies; Joly et al. 1987; it is used in Santeria rites in Florida; Andoh 1986; in Brasil, the plant is called fiti,eira or "magical"; Schmeda-Hirschmann & De Arias 1990); Triplaris surinamensis (Polygonaceae) and Scoparia dulcis (Scrophulariaceae-used in the Caribbean area and by Mexican Mixe Indians as a gastrointestinal remedy; Heinrich et al. 1992; Seaforth 1991). Other little-known additive plants are listed in Table 3 (Luna 1984A; Luna 1984B). An unidentified Piper species has been mentioned as an ayahuasca additive (Schultes & Raffuuf 1990 )-might this represent the woorara dart -poison ingredient P. bartlingianum described by].CD. von Schreber from Surinam in the 18th century (Bisset 1992A), or possibly the Yanoama tobacco substitute holehole be, P. cryptodon (Wilbert 1987)? Finally, in Colombia the name ayahuasca is also applied to the solanaceousJuanulloa ochracea, amedicinal plant never reported as an ayahuasca admixture (Schultes 1972C) but said by Indians of the upper Rio Apoporis area to have "magical properties" (Schultes 1985A). The same holds true for the violet Rinorea viridiflora, known as ayahuasca by the Siona-Secoya Indians, suggesting use in the entheogenic potion (Schultes & Raffauf 1990). Two species of Rinorea, R. bengalensis and R. macrophylla are used ethnomedicinally in the Andaman Islands (Awasthi 1991). With less securiry, Pontederia cordata (also found in North America, where the Micmac Indians used it as a contraceptive; Moerman 1986) has likewise been suggested to have been used as an ayahuasca admixture (Schultes 1972C). CHACRUNA and CHAGROPANGA: The best-known and most widely-studied category of ayahuasca admixture plants are those containing tryptamines, principally N,NDiMethylTryptamine (McKenna & Towers 1984; McKenna et al. 1986; Ort 1994A). The most common are chacruna or amirucapanga, Psychotria viridis, and chagropanga, chalipanga or oco-yaji, Diplopterys cabrerana (previously known in the literature as Banisteriopsis rusbyana; Kahn 1992; Schultes & Raffauf 1990). In both cases, it is the leaves of these two species which often are added to ayahuasca brews, supposedly to "heighten and lengthen" their visionary effects (Schultes & Hofmann 198o). Of the many early reports of ayahuasca admixture plants, perhaps the most prominent species mentioned was Banisteriopsis rusbyana, another malpighiaceous liana today classified as Diplopterys cabrerana (Schultes & Hofmann 1980; Schultes & Raffuuf 1990). Voucher specimens of this liana were collected in the Colombian Putumayo by Klug and Cuatrecasas, under the name chagropanga, oco-yaji or yaji-uco; and Schultes documented the use ofleaves of this liana as an ayahuasca admixture by the 218 AYAHUASCA POTIONS Mocoa Indians of Colombia, to enhance the visionary effects of their potions (Cuatrecasas 1965; Harner 1973B; Reichel-Dolmatoff "972; Reichel-Dolmatoff "975; Schultes 1957A). Siona and Secoya Indians of Ecuador also employ D. cabrerana leaves as an ayahuasca admixture (Vickers & Plowman 1984). Previously considered to be another species of caapi, the ~-carboline-containing primary ingredient of the potion, chemical analysis of Diplopterys cabrerana leaves in 1965 showed no ~-carbolines, but high concentrations of N,N-DiMethylTryptamine or DMT, discussed in detail in Chapter 3 (Poisson 1965). Subsequent research verified this finding (Der Marderosian et al. 1968) and trace amounts of N-Mono-MethylTryptamine (MMT), 5-Methoxy-N,N-DiMethyITryptarnine (5-Meo-DMT) and 5-Hydroxy-N,N-DiMethylTryptamine (5-0H-DMT or bufotenine) were also found in leaves of D. cabrerana (Agurell et al. 1968B). Trace amounts of N-methyl-tetrahydro-~-carboline were also detected in D. cabrerana leaves (Agurell et al. 1968A). The pharmacognosy of these other tryptamines was also discussed in the preceding chapter. Recent analysis of a single specimen of D. cabrerana leaf used as an ayahuasca admixture in Peru (where such use is rather uncommon, being much more common to the north and east, in Amazonian Ecuador and Colombia) found I. 74 mg DMT per gram of dried leaves (0.17%) together with "extremely trace amounts" of 5-0H-DMT or bufotenine (McKenna et at. 1984A). The pharmacological consequences of the use of D. cabrerana leaves in ayahuasca will be discussed below. Schultes reported that a related species, Diplopterys involuta (=Mezia includens; Gates 1982), is known in Peru as ayahuasca negro, suggesting its use as an additive to ayahuasca, 'though there have been no reports of this, nor of the chemistry of this liana (Schultes 1983B). Ash of burned leaves of another species, D. martiusii, were formerly used by Kobeo Indians of the Colombian Vaupes as an additive to powdered coca leaves (Erythroxylum coca var. ipadu; Schultes & Raffuuf 1990). Mascagnia psilophyllavar. antifibrilis (=Callaeum antifebrile; Cabi paraensis), once reported as a variant type of ayahuasca (Schultes & Raffauf'990) has recently been cited rather as another ayahuasca admixture plant (Luna & Amaringo 1991). The most common ayahuasca admixture plant in use in Amazonian Peru, also used in Amazonian Ecuador and Brasil, is Psychotria viridis, in the Rubiaceae or coffee family (Schultes & Hofmann 198o). Known as chacruna in Peru, and sami ruca (Kahn 1992) or amirucapanga in Ecuador (Miller 1993), like Diptopterys cabrerana, the leaves_of this shrub are added to ayahuasca to strengthen its visionary potency (Kensinger 1973; Prance 1970; Prance & Prance 1970; Prance et at. 1977; Schultes 1969B; Weiss 1973). As in the case with D. cabrerana, DMT was found to be the main active ingredient in P. viridis leaves (Der Marderosian et al. 1970). From 2I9 PHARMACOTHEON 0.I6-0.22 % DMT was also found in leaves of the Cashinahua ayahuasca admixture nai kawa, an unidentified species of Psycho tria (Der Marderosian et al I970). Subsequent analyses by Rivier and Lindgren confirmed these findings, and small amounts of MMT and me ~-carboline 2-Memyl-TetraHydro-~-carboline (MTHC) were also detected in P viridis (Rivier & Lindgren I972). Recent analyses of three samples of P viridis leaves from Peru found DMT to be the major alkaloid, present at me level of 1.02-1.58 mgpergram of dried leaves (0.ro-o.I6%), or slightly lower levels man were found in D. cabrerana (McKenna et al I981"). No other alkaloids were detected, with the exception of a trace amount of MTHC in one specimen. Sometimes a related species, Psychotria carthaginensis, is used in place of P viridis as an ayahuasca additive, and two uncharacterized species of Psychotria known as batsikawa and pishikawa are so used by the Peruvian Sharanahua (Rivier & Lindgren r972; Schultes & Raffauf r990). Cashinahua Indians reponedly used two unidentified Psycho tria species, one of which, matsi kawa, was devoid of alkaloids, and doubtless corresponds to me Sharanahua batsikawa, said to be inferior (Der Marderosian et al I970). Almough Rivier and Lindgren detected DMT (in higher quantities man mey found in P viridis, togemer wim traces of MMT and MTHC) in a sample of P carthaginemis (Rivier & Lindgren 1972), me McKenna group failed to replicate mis finding wim a single sample of yage-chacruna from Tarapoto, Peru, which was "tentatively" (or with some reservations) identified as P carthaginensis (McKenna et al. r981"). Psychotria psychotriaefolia has also been reponed as an ayahuasca additive in Colombia and Ecuador (Pinkley I969; Schultes I969A; Schultes 1969B) and has been found to contain DMT (Der Marderosian et al I970; Der Marderosian et al 1969---oral paper cited in Prance I970). Schultes recently characterized me report of P psychotriaefolia as an herbarium error (Schultes I986B) and in meir paper reponing DMT in leaves oftbis species, the Der Marderosian group concluded matthe plant was later correctly identified as P viridis (Der Marderosian etal I970). Omer species of Psychotria are used ethnomedicinally, for example me Polynesian species Psychotria insularum (Cox I991; Whistler I992), shown to be active in pharmacological screening (Cox et al. I989). Anomer related Polynesian species P flrsteriana has been shown to contain polyindoline alkaloids of the psychotridine type also found in P beccaroides and P oleoides (Rom et al. I985). These alkaloids have pharmacological activity (Beretz et al. I985). The West Sumatran species Psychotria expama, P hirta and P rostrata were all shown to contain alkaloids (Arbain et al. 1989). The African species P rufipilis is also used ethnomedicinally, in Sierra· Leone-a decoction ofleaves is said to cause movement of the fetus for detection of pregnancy (MacFoy & Sama 1983). The careful reader will recall mat in I957 220 AYAHUASCA POTIONS Hochstein & Paradies reported the detection of DMT in Prestonia amazonica (=Haemadictyon amazonicum) or "yaje," the leaves of which were supposedly mixed with extracts of Banisteriopsis caapi by Ecuadorian Indians of the Rio Napo area (Hochstein & Paradies I957). Since DMT is unknown from the Apocynaceae (almough, as we have seen above, the apocynaceous Malouetia tamaquarina is used as ayahuasca additive by me Makuna Indians of Colombia, as are three other apocynaceous species; see Table 3), and since Prestonia amazonica is unknown from me Rio Napo area, it has been generally assumed that this repon was in error as to botanical identification, and mat either Psychotria viridis or Diplopterys cabrerana, bom common ayahuasca admixture plants in me Rio Napo area and bom known to contain DMT, represents me plant actually analyzed by Hochstein and Paradies (Schultes & Raffauf 1960; Schultes & Raffauf I990). Their report, in any case, is important, in mat for me first time it associated DMT wim an ayahuasca admixture. This underscores the importance of botanical voucher specimens' in phytochemical research. Since Hochstein and Paradies did not deposit voucher specimens (mey apparently saw only an aqueous extract of the leaves and not me source plant itself), we today have no way of determining precisely what species was analyzed by them, and there is me possibility, however remote, that it was in fact Prestonia amazonica or some yet-un:'" known psychoactive species of Apocynaceae or of another family. All told, then, mere have been nearly roo different plant species from 38 plant families reported as ayahuasca admixtures, of which about a fourth are known to be enmeogenic plants (including several species of unknown chemistty from genera containing known enmeogenic admixture plants, viz. Diplopterys and Psychotria). Many of these are potent entheogens ofren used alone, wimoutayahuasca. The remaining species are, with respect to entheogenic constituents, simply unknown chemically (with the exception of mree known stimulants, me caffeine-containing flex guayusa and Paullinia yoco, and me cocaine-containing Erythroxylum coca var. ipadu) and may in the future be found to be enmeogenic plants. Many indigenous groups are known to have employed various ayahuasca additives, such as the Shuar, who have been reponed to use four different entheogenic additives to ayahuasca brews: Diplopterys cabrerana (Fericgla I991"; Harner 1973B); Brunfelsia sp. (Schultes & .Hofmann 1980); tobacco, Nicotiana spp. and maikoa or Brugmamia spp. (Schultes & Raffauf 1990; Wilben 1987). The Sharanahua Indians of eastern Peru have been reported to have used no fewer than nine ayahuasca admixtures, including me wellknown enmeogens Psychotria viridis and two yet-unidentified species of Psychotria (Schultes & Raffauf I990; Siskind 1973) as well as Brugmansia suaveolens (Schultes 221 PHARMACOTHEON & Raffaufr990); and five plants of obscure chemistry: the fern Lygodium venustum; two cacti, Epiphyllum sp. and Opuntia sp. (the latter cultivated by the Sharanahua who consider it to be entheogenic); and species of Clusia and Cyperus (Schultes & Raffauf 1990). Eleven ayahuasca adruixtures-Alternanthera sp., Brugmansia versicolor, Calathea sp., Calycophyllum spruceanum, Cyperus sp., Himatanthus sucuuba, Mdnsoa alliacea, Ocimum micranthum, Petiveria alliacea, Psycho tria poeppigiana and Scoparia dulcis-are garden plants in Amazonian Peru (Padoch & De Jong 1991). There is no doubt that some of the admixture plants are used to enhance the entheogenic potency of the ayahuasca brews. Cettain of the admixtures, viz. Brugmansia spp., Nicotiana spp., Psychotria viridis and Diplnpterys cabrerana are without question of greater visionary potency than the ayahuasca plant itself, Banisteriopsis caapi. I had a series of three different ayahuasca potions prepared for me by Quijos Quichua ayahuasqueros. EXPERIMENT I, which consisted of Banisteriopsis caapi with a small amount of flex guayusa leaves (which contain caffeine, see above), produced mainly a dreamy sedation with no visions or related visionary effects. EXPERIMENT 2, with a minute amount ofleaves of Psychotria viridis (about two to three leaves per dose) was virtually the same, but with a slight hint of threshold-level entheogenic effects. EXPERIMEN~ 3, in which the potion contained about 50 leaves of Psychotria viridis per dose, was potently psychoptic, producing vivid visions and synaesthesia. From my limited experience, I was leli: with the distinct impression that ayahuasca was a potentiator facilitating the oral activity of the DMT-rich Psychotria viridis leaves, which are not by themselves orally active (see Chapter 3). Based on self-experiments designed to recreate ayahuasca potions outside of Amazonia, T.K. McKenna setded on the ratio of 500 g Banisteriopsis caapi stem to 85 g Psychotria viridis leaves (li:esh weight basis) to yield a dose which "would leave no one standing" (McKenna 1993), concluding also that the DMT-rich Psycho tria leaves were the key ingredients for ayahuasca visions. McKenna had earlier repotted that the typical ratio for ayahuasca potions in the vicinity ofPucallpa, Peru, was 2.5 parts Banisteriopsis caapi to I part Psychotria viridis (McKenna 1989B). The widespread panAmazonian use of potent entheogenic plants in ayahuasca potions suggests that the ayahuasca extract is normally used as a base for the administration of entheogens, rather than as an entheogenic plant in its own right. In this respect, the situation would be analogous to the use of cacdhuatl, aqueous cacao-based potions (made li:om Theobroma cacao) in Mexico as vehicles for the administration of psilocybian mushrooms and otherentheogens (see Chapter 5, Note 13; Ott 1985). As was the case with some of the Mexican additives to cacao potions, some of the ayahuasca additives may be strictly medicinal and non-psychoactive. On the other hand, the aya222 T AYAHUASCA POTIONS huasca plant is clearly psychoactive (mainly sedative, in my experience, and we must recall that the two second-hand repotts of psychoactivityof Peganum harmala seeds mentioned specifically soporific and alcohol-like effects; Gunn 1937; Hassan 1967). I would describe the effects of unalloyed ayahuasca, or of harmine- and harmalinecontaining infusions of Peganum harmala seeds as Uilium-like, and indeed the 13- carboline alkaloids are known to interact with benzodiazepine receptors in mammalian brains (Skolnick et al. 1982) although they have higher affinities for serotonine receptors (McKenna et aL r990). Some indigenous groups have been repotted to use plain ayahuasca, such as the Guahibo Indians Spruce observed chewing stems of the liana. However, the ubiquitous tobacco was likely being used in some form at the same time by the Guahibo. While the pharmacological interactions of the ayahuasca alkaloids with nicotine, cocaine and scopolamine (psychoactive agents found in tobacco, coca and Brugmansia species respectively) are largely obscure, some research has been done on the human pharmacology of the harmalaalkaloids, and of the interactions of these J3-carbolines from Banisteriopsis caapi with the tryptamines from Psychotria viridis and Diplopterys cabrerana, and it is to this subject that we will now turn. CHEMISTRY OF AYAHUASO! AND PHARMACOLOGY OF BETA-CARBOLINES Although harmine and harmaline had been isolated from Peganum harmala in the r840$, the context of the research was a study of pigments, not of drugs, and it did not occur to the researchers to conduct pharmacological studies on the novel compounds. Only after Louis Lewin isolated banisterin(e) from Banisteriopsis caapi (Lewin 1928), and his colleagues Wolfes and Rumpf of the E. Merck company determined that banisterin(e) (as well as the previously-isolated telepathine and yajeine) was identical to harmine (Wolfes & Rumpf 1928), was the door opened to pharmacological investigation of the active compounds of ayahuasca, although French pharmacologist A. Rouhier (famous for his work on peyotl, see Chapter I) conducted some early work on pharmacology ofyajeine in animals (Ronhier 1924; Rouhier 1926). In his preliminary experiments, Lewin reported that 25-75 mgdoses of harmine injected subcutaneously produced euphoria in human subjects (Lewin 1928). That same year, German pharmacologist and mescaline researcher (see Chapter I) Kim Beringer published a paper on his own preliminary research with Lewin's harmine (Beringer 1928). Two years later, German physician L. Halpern studied the propetties of harmine as a therapy for Parkinsonism, and conducted 223 PHARMACOTHEON self-experimentation with up to 40 mg ingested orally and up to 30 mg injected subcutaneously (Halpern 1930A; Halpern 1930B). Halpern found herself excited into belligerence, even starting a fight with a man in the street! Although claiming her consciousness was "in no way influenced and in no way abnormal," Halpern described her consciousness as "packed in ether" and described lighmess and a "fleeting sensation" which she likened to sensations of "levitation frequently reported to occur with the crude drug ayahuasca" (Halpern 1930B). Use of harmine in zo mg doses 4-6 times daily as a therapy for Parkinsonism was pioneered by K. Beringer and K. Wilmanns (19z9). A decade later, A.G. Beer studied the pharmacology of harmine in cats, determining that it showed stimulatory effects in the central nervous system (Beer 1939A; Beer 1939B). Two more decades passed before the group of S. Udenfriend showed that harmine, harmaline and other ~-carbolines were powerful, reversible inhibitors of an enzyme called MonoAmine oxidase (MAO; Udenfriend et al. 1958). The enzyme MAO is widely distributed in vertebrate and invertebrate tissues, and important in this context is its function as an inactivator of normal neurotransmitter substances in brain tissues, such as dopamine and serotonine (see Chapter 3, Note 5). The following year, the group of A. Pletscher proposed that the psychotropic activity of the harmala alkaloids was due to their activity as MAo-inhibitors (Pletscher et al. 1959). In a discussion of "schizophrenigenesis," WJ. Turner and S. Medis (infamous for their unethical experiments with bufotenine on inmates of a New York mental hospital; see Chapter 3, especially Note 2), working with A. Carl, expressed their doubts that harmine was psychoactive (Turner et al. 1955). Nevertheless, H.H. Pennes and P.H. Hoch reported that intravenous injection of '5O-Z00 mg ofharmine into hapless "mental patients" produced "visual hallucinations" in 5 of II subjects, although the drug was "not hallucinogenic by the oral or subcutaneous routes" (Pennes & Hoch 1957). Indeed, these authors administered as much as 960 mg of harmine orally in a single dose (nearly 1Z mg/kg), finding little activity, and negative side-effects such as nausea, tremors and numbness occurred above the threshold of 300-400 mg. Five years later, S. Gershon and WJ. Lang administered harmine to dogs, finding it caused restlessness and "apparent hallucinations" at doses of Z mg/kg (Gershon & Lang 196z). One wonders how these researchers were able to learn of the poor dogs' hallucinations ... in what way these were apparent. 6 Probably the most complete study of the human pharmacology of the ~-carbolines was that ofC. Naranjo (Naranjo 1967). Naranjo found harmaline hydrochloride "to be hallucinogenic at dosage levels above 1 mg/kg i.v. or 4mg/kg by mouth." He further found harmine to be about half as active, with a threshold of 8 mg/kg, and 224 AYAHUASCA POTIONS leptaflorine (racemic TetraHYdroHarmine; d,1-THH) to be weaker still, with a threshold level of 1Z mg/kg. Only 6-methoxy-harmalan was found to be a bit more potent, with a threshold of 2.7 mg/kg (Naranjo 1967). Naranjo chose to concentrate on harmaline, since it was the most potent of the natural compounds. However, all of Naranj 0' s 30 subj ects could readily distinguish the harmaline from mescaline, based on its producing nausea and uncomfortable physical symptoms absent from mescaline sessions. Furthermore, harmaline did not produce the characteristic effects of mescaline and LSD involving distortions and alterations in the perception of the environment: "with harmaline, the environment is essentially unchanged." Unlike mescaline and LSD effects, the perception of music and the sense of time was unaltered in harmaline inebriation. Rather, "the typical reaction to harmaline is a closed-eye contemplation of vivid imagery ... which is in contrast to the ecstatic heavens or dreadful hells of other hallucinogens." Harmaline was more of a "pure hallucinogen" in that it seemed to lack the profound emotional and sensual content of mescaline or LSD "trips," and seemed to exert rather a peripheral effect on the eye than a fundamental alteration in perception somewhere in the brain. Indeed, the direct action of harmaline on the retina was confirmed by recording electroretinograms in cats. While harmaline seemed to stimulate part of the "midbrain," its effect on the cerebral cortex was "hard to interpret and seems more that of a depressant. .. " (Naranjo 1967). Recently De Smet conducted two self-experiments with 0.5 mg/kg harmine free base, the first intranasally and the second orally. De Smet commented: "on neither occasion was a notable psychoactive or somatic effect felt" (De Smet 1985A). This report contrasted with an earlier experiment in which doses of o. 5 mg/kg harmine HCL injected intravenously resulted in transient subjective effects (Slotkin et al. 1970), and we will recall that C. Naranjo found harmine to be four times more active injected intravenously than ingested orally (Naranjo 1967). Recently European investigator M. Maurer characterized harmine as a mild sedative in low doses, causing "unpleasant vegetative and neurological symptoms" at doses above 300 mg (Leuner & Schlichting 1989). Naranjo's characterization of harmaline as a CNS depressant is in keeping with the two vague reports of the effects of the harmaline- and harmine-containing seeds of Peganum harmala, said to be soporific, narcotic, and alcohol-like (Gunn 1937; Hassan 1967), and with the finding that ~-carbolines interact with benzodiazepine receptors (Skolnick et al. 198z). Moreover, harmala-alkaloid-containing Passiflora species are used ethnomedicinally as sedatives and tranquilizers (Joyal 1987; Monardes 1990; Oga et al. 1984; Speroni & Minghetti 1988). However, some of the firsthand reports of ayahuasca effects stress the powerfully emotive, perception-altering 225 PHARMACOTHEON effects characteristic of LSD and mescaline, hardly that detached contemplation alluded to by Naranjo (Flotes & Lewis 1978). The ecstatic heavens and dteadful hells are definitely part of the psychic territory of ayahuasca. AB one Indian informant said: "it is a fearsome thing, I was very much afraid" (Kensinger 1973). Part of the discrepancy derives from the fact that Naranjo's results came from experiments with harmaline, not harmine, and harmaline "is essentially a trace component in ayahuasca ... " . (McKenna et al 1984A). The major difference, however, doubtless results from the common practice of adding other entheogenic plants to the ayahuasca potion~Kensinger' s Cashinahua Indian informants had imbibed ayahuasca fortified with Psychotria viridis leaves. After the Udenfriend group showed that harmaline and related ~-carbolines were MAo-inhibitors, both the groups ofW.M. McIsaac and V. Estevez, and N.S. Buckholtz and W.O. Boggan confirmed and extended this observation (Buckholtz & Boggan 1977; McIsaac & Estevez 1966). Besides harmine and harmaline, these groups found leptaflorine (which is tacemic TetraHydroHannine; d, l-tetrahydroharmine), harmol, harmalol, tettahydroharmol, harman (passiflorine), norhannan, tetrahydro-norharman, tettahydroharman, 6-methoxy-tettahydroharman, 6-hydroxy-tettahydroharman, 6-methoxy-tetrahydro-~-carboline, 6-Methoxy-harmalan (or 6-Meo-harmalan) and 6-Methoxy-harman (or 6-Meo-harman) all to be potent reversible inhibitors of MAO (it will be recalled from Chapteq that the last two compounds are the principal alkaloids of Virola cuspidata; see Cassady et al. 1971), and later 2-Methyl-6-MethoXY-TetraHydro-~-carboline (2-Me-6-MeO-THBc) was added to the list (McKenna et al. 1984A). On finding DMT in an ayahuasca admixrure plant, Diplopterys cabrerana, the groups of A. Der Marderosian and S. Agurell suggested that DMT was an entheogenic principle of these ayahuasca brews, and that this orally-inactive compound (see Chapter 3) was rendered orally-active by the MAOinhibiting effects of the ~-carbolines from Banisteriopsis caapi (Agurell et aL 1968B; Der Marderosian et al. 1968; Schultes 1972B), an idea earlier proposed by Holmstedt and Lindgren (1967) to explain the activity of entheogenic snuffs. A similar mechanism was later suggested for the orally-ingested pastes or pellets of Virola resin (see Chapter 3; Schultes 1969B; Schultes & Swain 1976; Schultes et al. 1977A). This theoty would explain why the Indians added DMT-containing plants to ayahuasca, and account for the similarity of the ayahuasca brews containing DMT to entheogens like mescaline and LSD, with their beatific heavens and terrific hells. Sixteen years were to pass, however, before this theory was put to the test. The Canadian group of D.]. McKenna measured the MAo-inhibition of two Peruvian ayahuasca samples in a rat liver preparation, and found both to be "exttemely 226 AYAHUASCA POTIONS effective" as :MAo-inhibitors, as was an "ayahuasca analogue," a mixture of harmine (69%), leptaflorine orTHH (26%; presumably the racemate) and harmaline (4. 6%) mimicking the proportions found in the Peruvian ayahuasca samples (McKenna et aL 1984A). Theoretically, then, the MAo-inhibition of a typical ayahuasca potion could render any contained DMT (or other tryptamines) orallycactive. The question remained, however ... did this happen? The only way to know for certain would be for human subjects to ingest known amounts of~-carbolineswith DMT to gauge the effects. To my knowledge, the first such experiment was reported by American J. Bigwood who, afrer finding an oral dose of 100 mg of harmaline hydrochloride to be inactive, ingested a capsule containing 100 mg harmaline hydrochloride together with 100 mg DMT free-base. Bigwood reported the first effects in 15 minutes, leading to a peak afrer 45 minutes with "DMT-like hallucinations" that "gradually tapered off" and had disappeared 4 hours afrer ingestion. Bigwood concluded: "in short, the experience was very similar to, in both time course and effect, that of a DMT- and harmaline-containing ayahuasca brew that I had previously experimented with" (Bigwood 1978; cited in Stafford 1983). This would seem to clinch the argument, except for the fact that, as McKenna pointed out, harmaline is a trace constituent in ayahuasca and "probably does not contribute significantly to the MAD-inhibition which the drug elicits." Moreover, harmaline is "slightly stronger" as an MAO-inhibitor than is harmine (McKenna et al 1984A). While it may be splitting hairs, there is the necessity of doing further experiments using amounts of DMT and ~-carbolines (ideally, McKenna's mix of harmine, THH and harmaline in the proportions found in ayahuasca potions) commensurate with quantities found in typical ayahuasca brews, then comparing the effects of the DMT/~-carboline mixrure with the effects of the ayahuasca they mimic (see Ott 1994A for details of such research). Which brings us to the question of quantitative analyses of the alkaloids present in ayahuasca potions ... thus far, there have been only four published srudies with quantitative analyses of alkaloids in ayahuasca potions. A preliminary and incomplete study of a single sample of ayahuasca (which had been kept at least two years unrefrigerated prior to analysis) prepared by the Amazonian Cashinahua Indians will be discussed below (Der Marderosian etal 1970). L. Rivier andJ.-E. Lindgren obtained nine samples of ayahuasca as prepared by Sharanahua and Culina Indians of the upper Rio Pums in Pem, and submitted these to a quantitative assay using the technique known as Gas chromatograpy/Mass spectrometry (GclMS). They found that a typical, 200 ml dose of ayahuasca prepared with DMT-containing leaves of Psychotria viridis, contained a total of only 65 mg of alkaloids, of which nearly half, 30 mg, was harmine, with 25 mg of DMT and 10 mg d-Ieptaflorine or THH (Rivier & 227 PHARMACOTHEON Lindgren 1972). The 40 mg ofJl-carbolines in a dose is about an order of magnitude below the psychoactive dosage of these compounds following their oral ingestion. While 25 mg of DMT is active when vaporized, this quantity is below the threshold for injected DMT. Up to a gram of DMT has been ingested orally without any effect in the absence of MAD-inhibitors (see Chapter 3)' One recently-reported analysis of a daime sample (ayahuasca prepared from Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis by members of a Christian church in South America who use the potion as a sacrament; see below) found 26.5 mg DMT plus 74.5 mg harmine and 69.5 mg dleptaflorine or THH in a 50 ml dose (Liwszyc et al. 1992). Only traces of harmaline were found. While the daime contained quantities of DMT similar to those found by Rivier and Lindgren in Rio Punis ayahuasca, in contrast to the 40 mg Jl-carbolines per dose in the Rio Punis samples, the daimecontained 144 mg Jl-carbolines per dose, with approximately equal amounts of harmine and THH. Subsequent to the report of Rivier and Lindgren, the Canadian group of D.J. McKenna studied eight ayahuasca samples obtained from ayahuasqueros around Pucallpa, Iquitos and Tarapoto, Peru, all but one prepared using the Psychotria viridis admixture. Thinlayer chromatographic analysis of the eight samples found harmine, d-Ieptaflorine (THH) , harmol and harmaline to be present in all samples, while harmalol was found in only one sample (McKenna et al. 1984A). DMT was found in all samples save the one which did not contain Psycho tria viridis. That sample contained instead P. carthaginensis, and analysis of the source plant showed it to be devoid of alkaloids. Five undiluted ayahuasca samples from Pucallpa were submitted to quantitative analysis using High-pressure Liquid chromatography (HPLC). Averaging the five samples, McKenna's group found the ayahuasca to contain 7.3 mg of total alkaloids per milliliter (0.73%), with the following distribution: harmine 4.7 mg/ml; dleptaflorine (THH) 1.6 mg/ml; harmaline 0.4 mg/ml; and DMT 0.6 mg/ml. This would break down to the following proportions: harmine 65%; d-Ieptaflorine (THH) 22%; harmaline 6% and DMT 8%. These researchers reported that a typical dose ofPucailpa ayahuasca rarely exceeded 75 ml, and was more commonly 55-60 ml. A 60 ml dose, then, would contain 437 mg of total alkaloids, including 280 mg harmine, 96 mg d-Ieptaflorine (THH), 25 mg harmaline, and 36 mg DMT (McKenna et aL 1984A). This corresponds to ten times the quantity of Jl-carbolines per dose, as compared to Rivier & Lindgren's report (4or mg : 40 mg), nearly three times the Jl-carboline content of the daime sample analyzed by Liwszyc's group (4OI mg: 144 mg) and almost half again as much DMT as reported in the other studies (36 mg : 25 mgor 26.5 mg). The difference in part can be explained by the fact that in PucalIpa the extract was typically boiled for 10-15 hours and concentrated considerably 228 T i AYAHUASCA POTIONS before ingestion. In contrast, the Rio Purus ayahuasqueros boiled the extract only one hour and did not concentrate it. This may explain the discrepancy in Jl-carbo' line levels, but why is the resulting DMT content so similar? Evidently, the Rio Purus ayahuasqueros used relatively more Psychotria viridis or a more potent strain of this admixture. In addition, these results may suggest that, while DMT may efficiently be extracted in I hour, extraction of the Jl-carboline alkaloids might require substantially more boiling time. A more provocative interpretation of the discrepancy in the results of these two studies is that the 40 mg ofJl-carbolines contained in the average Rio Purus potion is sufficient to render orally-active the 25mg OfDMT present. The obvious corollary to this is the observation that the Rio Punis ayahuasqueroswere, in fact, seeking the effect oftheDMT in the potion, and extracted only enough of the f3-carbolines to render theDMT orally-active. It will be recalled that, in the first human experiment on record, Bigwood found 100 mg of harmaline itself to be inactive, but sufficient to render a corresponding amount of DMT orally-active in a subsequent experiment. Indeed, even the tenfold excess ofJl-carbolines in the Pucallpa potions would seem to be of little pharmacological consequence, apart from its role as an MAo-inhibitor. We must recall that Naranjo found the oral threshold level for harmine effects to be 8 mg/kg, and for leptaflorine (racemic THH) to be 12 mg/kg. The threshold for harmaline effects was lower, 4 mg/kg. Assuming an average body weight of 70 kg, a threshold dose would thus represent 560 mg of harmine, 840 mg of leptaflorine (racemic THH) , or 280 mg of harmaline. Even with 40I mg ofJl-carbolines in adose of ayahuasca, and assuming additive effects (since the MAD-inhibiting effects of the Jl-carbolines are additive; McKenna et al 1984A), a simple calculation shows the likelihood that this quantity would still be sub-threshold. The 280 mg of harmine would represent exactly 50% of a threshold dose of that compound, while the 96 mg of d_Ieptaflorine (THH) corresponds to II% of threshold (although Naranjo's results were based on racemic leptaflorine, it is unknown whether the d-leptaflorine present in ayahuasca is of greater activity) and the 25 mg of harmaline to only 9% of threshold. This adds up to a dose ofJl-carbolines representing, at best, only 70 % of a threshold dose for psychoactive effects, and we must recall that Pennes and Hoch (1957) found oral harmine to be "not hallucinogenic" up to a 960 mg dose. Clearly, DMT i; where the action would be in these three sets of ayahuasca samples submitted to quantitative analysis. Even 'though the Jl-carbolines may have weak psychotropic effects in their own right, there is no evidence that they are present in "hallucinogenic" amounts in the ayahuasca potions studied thus far, 'though of course they may contribute sedative effects. In a recent book, L.E. Luna and P. 229 PHARMACOTHEON Amaringo reached the same conclusion: "the alkaloid responsible for the psychoactiviry of the brew was most probably dimethyltryptamine, the alkaloids in Banisteriopsis caapi not being a large enough dose to elicit hallucinations" (Luna & Amaringo 1991). McKenna, Luna and Towers had commented: "DMT ... is probably responsible for the hallucinogenic effects of ayahuasca" (McKenna et al. 1986). In the case of DMT, we know it to be orally active at a 100 mg dose in the presence of 100 mg of harmaline. Based on the results of McKenna's group, plus those ofLiwszyc's group and Rivier and Lindgren, we can postulate that DMT is also orally-active in the range of 25-36 mg, and as lime as 40 mg of~-carbolines may suffice to render it so. The next experiment would be to ingest, say, 30 mg of DMT along with 40 mg of McKenna's "ayahuasca analogue" (which would be, in this case, 28 mg harmine, 10 mg d-Ieptaflorine and 2 mg harmaline), to vetifJrwhether this mixture is, indeed, active (see section "Use of Harmel, Ayahuasca and Analogues" below for the results of such pharmahuasca self-experiments; detailed more completely in Ott 1994A). The above-mentioned preliminary report by the Der Marderosian group found 30 mg of DMT in a rypical8 ounce (240 ml) dose of ayahuasca prepared by Peruvian Cashinahua Indians, together with only 20 mg "of harmine or harmaline" (Der Marderosian et at. 1970). The drink, called nixi pae (steeped only I hour), was prepared from Banisteriopsis caapi stems and leaves, with buds of two unidentified Psychotria species called nai kawa and matsi kawa, of which the latter was devoid of alkaloids. The former (said to be possibly P. carthaginensis, P. alba, P. marginata or P. horizontalis) contained 0.16-0.22% DMT in the leaves. There are several problems with this study, which led me to discard it in my analysis of ayahuasca pharmacology. Not only is the botanical identiry of the Psychotria admixture unlrnown, but the resulting potion was kept for" at least two years" unrefrigerated before analysis. Furthermore, the authors did not analyze the content of d-Ieptaflorine (THH) , subsequendy found to represent 20-50% of the ~-carboline fraction of other ayahuasca samples studied (Liwszyc et al. 1992; McKenna et al 1984A; Rivier & Lndgren 1972). This may explain the unusually low content of~-carbolines reported, which would appear to be sub-threshold levels for pharmacological activiry. Finally, although the authors reported about 50% more harmaline than harmine in the aged nixi pae sample, they later mentioned being able to isolate and crystallize DMT and harmine from the potion. It is likely that harmaline would have crystallized rather than harmine, had the former in fact been present in higher amounts (since both have similar solubilities and other chemical properties). While it is true that there are reports of ayahuasca brews containing only Banisteriopsis caapi, we haven't any reports on quantitative analysis of a rypical dose. It T I AYAHUASCA POTIONS seems obvious that a "hallucinogenic" dose of a DMT-Iess ayahuasca would have to contain at least half again as much ~-carbolines as found by McKenna's group, and perhaps twice the amount. & McKenna's group reported, for hallucinogenic activiry of a DMT-Iess ayahuasca: "concentrations of ~-carbolines considerably greater than those measured in our samples would be required ... " (McKenna et at. 1984A). This theory of ayahuasca as DMT-activator would go a long way toward explaining the widespread use of psychotropic admixrure plants in the potions. It would explain my three experiences in Ecuador, in which ayahuasca with guayusa leaves or with a small amount of Psycho tria viridis leaves acted only as a mild sedative, whereas a full-blown psychoptic experience resulted when a substantial amount of the DMT-containing leaves were added. Moreover, the results ofquantitative analyses of ayahuasca brews cast considerable doubts on Flattery's attempt to deduce the effects of the DMT-Iess Peganum harmala from reports of DMT-enriched Banisteriopsis caapi potions in Amazonia (Flattery & Schwartz 1989; see Note 3)· Finally, it would fit in well with the obvious fact that the South American Indians like tryptamines-they have found and use these in other plant forms, such asAnadenanthera and Virola snuffs and potions prepared from the roots of Mimosa species (see Chapter 3). In this context, it is also wotth noting that the artificial DMT homologue, DiEthyhryptamine (DET, see Chapter 3) has itselfbeen shown in high doses to be an MAo-inhibitor like the ~-carbolines (Satory et al. 1961), and a number of other tryptamines have been shown to be MAo-inhibitors (including DMT, 5-MeoDMT, psilocybine and psilocine; McKenna etal. 1984B). Furthermore, the psychoactive nutmeg compound myristicin is known to be an MAo-inhibitor (see Chapter I; Truitt et al. 1963). Several myristicaceous plants, including species of Iryanthera and Virola, some of which contain tryptamines, are used by the Witoto and Bora in preparation of orally-active entheogenic pastes (see Chapter 3). Since these pastes were not found to contain the ~-carbolines (McKenna et al. 1984B), it might make sense to look for myristicin and allied compounds in the pastes as prospective MAOinhibitors, although McKenna's group found the MAo-inhibition of such pastes to be explainable by the weak MAo-inhibitory activiry of their constituent tryptamines (McKenna & Towers 1984; McKenna et al. 1984B). MODERN INTEREST IN AYAHUASOt AND HARMEL & the ancient ayahuasca potion slowly yielded its secrets to the probings of modern chemistry and pharmacology, the drug began to insinuate itself ever more into PHARMACOTHEON modern consciousness. The American writer W.S. Burroughs concluded his first, autobiographical, book Junk (originally published as Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict; Lee 1953) with a chapter on pryot! or peyote, "a new kick in the states." Burroughs ended the book discussing ayahuasca: "I read about a drug called yage, used by Indians in the headwaters of the Amazon. }lige is supposed to increase telepathic sensitivity ... I decided to go down to Colombia and score for yage ... Maybe I will find in yage what! was looking for in junk and weed and coke. }lige may be the final fix" (Lee 1953). Making good his word, duringJanuaty ofl953, Burrougbs went to Colombia in search of what he had wryly called his "final fix," and by April had found a "brujo" in the Putumayo region to prepare the potion for him, complete "with a double handful ofleaves from another plant" which Burroughs identified as "ololiqui." Burrougbs had an attack of "violent, sudden nausea" and "blue flashes" in front of his eyes. He also experimented with ayahuasca prepared "Vaup"s method"-a cold-water infusion of the inner bark with no admixtures-and repotted "the effect was similar to weed." He returned to Bogoci with a crate of vine stems and made some experiments on extracts of the vine, which had a soporific effect (Burroughs & Ginsberg 1963). A decade later, Burroughs and American poet A. Ginsberg published The }lige Letters, consisting of Burroughs' letters to Ginsberg from Colombia in 1953, and Ginsberg's letter to Burroughs from Peru in 1960, describing his own ayahuasca experiences in Pucallpa, during which: "the whole fucking Cosmos broke loose around me, I think the strongest and worst I've ever had it ... " (Burroughs & Ginsberg 1963). Despite the negative tone of the experiences inelegantly reporred (Ginerg appended a drawing of a hideous being called "The Vomiter"), neverrheless this book made the hitherto obscure South American ayahuasca potion famous in the United States and elsewhere. The legal battle surrounding the American publication of Burroughs' second novel The Naked Lunch (Burroughs 1959; excerpts were published in the Chicago Review in 1958 and the number was suppressed, leading to the resignation of the editorial staff; there was later a state Suprerne Court battle in Massachusetts over the book) had become a cause celebre, catapulting Burroughs to fame and drawing attention to the slim volume on ayahuasca. References to the drug were also found throughout the widely-read The Naked Lunch, as well as in Burrougbs' subsequent books The Soft Machine, The Ticket that Exploded, Dead Fingers Talk, Nova Express and Exterminator! (Burroughs 1959; Burroughs 1961; Burroughs 1962; Burroughs 1963; Burroughs 1964; Burroughs 1966) . In his first book, Burroughs had mentioned casually that: ''yage is supposed to increase telepathic sensitivity. A Columbian scientist isolated from yage a drug he 23 2 AYAHUASCA POTIONS called telepathine" (Lee 1953; referring to Fischer Cardenas' isolation of telepatina or harmine in 1923). This comment of Burrougbs' about a rather fanciful exercise in nomenclature was to inform modern consciousness on the properties of yaje or ayahuasca, contributing to what A. Weil called "a considerable mythology of yage" (Weil 1980), to "extravagant and unfounded claims concerning the powers of the drink, especially in regard to its 'telepathic' properties," as Schultes and Hofmann commented (Schultes & Hofinann 1980). It is difficult to conjecture why telepathy came to be particularly aSsociated with ayahuasca, for, as Wei! pointed out, telepathy is often associated with entheogenic plants, such as pryot! in North America. In his comprehensive study of entheogen use by Colombian Indians, G. ReichelDolmatoffhad commented: The idea that yaji has telepathic powers has, of course, fascinated the credulous. Zerda Bay6n, who traveled among the Indians of the upper Putumayo River in 1935, declares that yajl produces visions in which the person develops telepathic faculties. Garcia Barriga mentions this traveler and writes: "Savage Indians who have never left their forests and who, of course, can have no idea of civilized life, describe, in their particular language, and with more or less precision, the details of houses, castles, and cities peopled by multitudes." The fact is that even fairly isolated Indians know a great deal about "civilized" life, having been told of its marvels by missionaries, soldiers, rubber collectors, traders and travelers, and having seen pictures in calendars and illustrated journals. (Garcia Barriga 1958; Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975; Zerda Bay6n 1915). C. Naranjo has reported that ciry dwellers given harmaline frequently report seeing felines and jungle imagery (Naranjo 1967; Naranjo 1973A; Naranjo 1973B; Naranjo 1987), suggesting that the spirit of the jungle could be present even in synthetic harmaline (or that suggestion or coaching was at work) ! Of course, as McKenna and colleagues have pointed out, harmaline is not even of pharmacological significance in ayahuasca potions (McKenna et at. 1984A), and Shulgin and Shulgin recount an amusing anecdote in which C. Naranjo, apparenrly not knowing with whom he was speaking, asked R.E. Schultes what he thought of the jaguars in the ayahuasca visions. Naranjo was disappointed to learn that Schultes, who by then had had considerable personal experience of the effects of ayahuasca, had never seen the 233 PHARMACOTHEON jaguars, "only wiggly li;"es" (Shulgin & Shulgin 1991). So firmly rooted is this ayahuasca association, that Weil recounted an anecdote in which a Haight-Ashbury pharmacopolist in 1967 alleged that Eskimos had been given ayahuasca experimentally, experiencing visions of huge house cats (Weil 1980)! ] might mention that Weil, Schultes, Shulgin and Naranjo were in San Francisco inJanuary1967 to attend an extraordinary conference organized by the U.S. Government's National Institute of Mental Health to help coordinate the Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs (Schultes 1966), title of the published proceedings, which contained a section on ayahuasca (Efron et al 1967).7 The 1971 publication of Wizard of the Upper Amazon greatly expanded modern awareness of the existence of ayahuas.ca potions from Amazonia, and firmly cemented in modern consciousness the association of the drug with paranormal psychic events (Cordova-Rios & Lamb 1971). It is worth examining the history of this book in some detail. In 1963, EB. Lamb had sent a 30-page manuscript for review to R.L. Carneiro, an ethnographic expert on the Amahuaca Indians, the subject of Lamb' s manuscript. Carneiro had studied the use of ayahuasca by the Amahuaca (Carneiro 1964; Carneiro I970). Briefly, the manuscript detailed the life of one M. CordovaRios, supposedly kidnapped as a boy by some Amahuaca Indians, then groomed by their chief to be a shaman and leader, learning the secrets of ayahuasca and other medicines (there was even a movie made, detailing just such a story, The Emerald Forest). On reviewing this, Carneiro told Lamb: "] thought it was an imaginative piece of jungle fiction and gave him very specific reasons for my views" (Carneiro I980). Some years later, Natural History Press sent Carneiro, one of the few experts on the Amahuaca, "an expanded version" of the same paper, and since it was "no truerthan the shorter, ] advised the Press to reject it, which they did." Nevertheless, Lamb eventually persuaded Atheneum to publish the book in I97I, and afrer a I974 reprint edition (Lamb 1974), Carneiro finally broke silence and explained why he was convinced the book was "jungle fiction," and more appropriately entitled Chimera of the Upper Amazon (Carneiro 1980). Carneiro explained: While I cannot categorically state that Cordova's adventure never happened, I find it extremely diflicult to believe ... Nothing in Wizard of the Upper Amazon convinces or even suggests to me that Manuel Cordova was ever captured by the Amahuaca, that he ever lived among them, or that he was ever groomed to be their chief, let alone actually serving in that capaciry. The story Cordova told Bruce Lamb consists of fragmentary ethnographic tidbits gleaned 234 T AYAHUASCA POTIONS indisciminately from many tribes and encased in a matrix of personal fantasy. While conceding that Cordova knew" a good deal about Amazonian hunting methods in general," Carneiro pointed out he knew "little or nothing about Amahuaca hunting methods in particular," emphasizing numerous incongruities in Cordova's tale. Cordova's story of the Amahuaca chief Xumu grooming him to be his successor was to Carneiro completely unbelievable, inasmuch as the Amahuaca don't even have chiefs! Nor do they live or dress as Cordova claimed, and they do not make or use ambil, the "lickable" tobacco juice preparation carefully described by Cordova, which is known only among the Bora, Siona and Witoto Indians (Schultes I945; Wilbert 1987). Indeed, Cordova appeared to have drawn his information from the Bora and Witoto of Northwest Amazonia: "the area Cordova knows best and from whose tribes he draws most of the traits he falsely assigns to the Amahuaca" (Carneiro I980). Evidently Cordova chose to attribute his "jungle fiction" to the Amahuaca precisely because "they were so little known and he thought he could say anything he wished aboutthem and no one would ever be the wiser" (Carneiro I980). But Carneiro knew berter, having studied among the Amahuaca, and finally the time came "to lifr the mask of respectability and reveal the imposture" (Carneiro r980). By this time, Cordova was dead, afrer enjoying considerable renown in his last years. When someone expressed too much awe at one of his tales, Cordova was quoted as saying: "Don't believe everything] tell you. It could all be a lie" (No crean todo 10 que fes digo. Puede ser todo mentira; Carneiro 1980). Nevertheless, Lamb challenged Carneiro's opinion (although he himself had originally sought it), claiming it was still possible to extract "ethnography" from Cordova's story (Lamb I98IA; Lamb 198IB). But the damage had been done. Lamb's book gained broader attention whenA. Weil referred to it in his best-selling first book The Natural Mind-A New Wily of Looking at Drugs and the Higher Consciousness (Weil I97Z). Wei!, who had no reason to suspect the veracity of the book by Cordova-Rios and Lamb, since Carneiro's exposihad still not appeared, accepted it at face value, as an ethnographic account of the Amahuaca and as valid ethnopharmacognostical accounts of the use of ayahuasca and "lickable" tobacco preparations. Indeed, Weil cited one of Cordova's accounts of an ayahuasca session in support of "The Reality of Shared Consciousness," characterizing the presumed Amahuaca ingestion of ayahuasca as: "group vision sessions in which all participants see the same visions," in this case visions of jungle cats, other animals, enemy tribes, and village scenes (Wei! I972; '@:i!I974). 235 PHARMACOTHEON Indeed, Wei! became so enthusiastic about this "reality of shared consciousness" that he recommended the book to his publisher for a paperback reprint, to which he wrote a laudatoty introduction (Lamb 1974; Wei! 1974), and the book was later reprinted by North Atlantic Books, categorized as "Ethnomedicine," replete with Weil's introduction and sponsorship of a "Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences,)) anon-profit educational organization. Moreover, this Society and North Atlantic Books brought out a sequel, Rio Tigre and Beyond (Lamb 1985). I do not wish to suggest that "telepathy" or "group vision sessions" are impossibilities, only that Cordova's account, being manifestly fictitious, or at least suspect of considerable embellishment, is by no means admissible as evidence of this (will we next hear of the pharmacodynamics of cocaine based on the experiences of Sherlock Holmes?). Even were we to consider as veridical (which we now would have no reason to do) Cordova's account of group visions as cited by Vki!, this could be accepted as evidence of the "reality of shared consciousness" only by someone who already believed in this phenomenon. After all, even were he being truthful, how on earth could Cordova have known he and his "Amahuaca" companions were seeing precisely the same vision? Some years after promoting Lamb's book, Wei! himself went to Colombia, "the land of yage" to see if a Colombian Karnsa shaman "measures up" against Lamb's "untouched Amahuaca Indians." As so often is the case when reality confronts fantasy, Vkil was disappointed. When he finally sampled ayahuasca (containing chagropanga, Diplopterys cabrerana, as well as Brugrnamia and an unknown fourth ingredient), he was "sortyto say there were no jungles or jaguars" in his visions, "nor any telepathic news bulletins of distant events" (Vkil 1979; Vkil 1980). We will see in the final chapter how, when put to the test, the entheogenic "mushroom telegraph" failed to make telepathic connection between Mexico and Maine in 1955 (see Chapter 6, Note 9). But by this time all the world "knew" that ayahuascawas a "telepathic" drug, and when the paperback edition of Lamb's book was reprinted with Vkil's introduction, there was no mention of Carneiro's debunking of Cordova' s "jungle fiction," and scant mention ofVki!' s failure to observe anything like telepathy or "shared consciousness" when he actually tried the drug. The whole situation is reminiscent of the Castaneda/Don Juan hoax (see Chapter I Note 9 and Chapter 5), except that Castaneda's books are now (finally) being catalogued by libraries as, and issued by the publisher under the rubric of, fiction, whereas the third printing of Lamb's Wizard o/the Upper Amazon bears in redletrers on the back cover the legend "EthnomedicinelSouthAmerican Indians." Moreover, there are two "blurbs" on the back cover; one by P. Marshall referring to "pleasant and imporrant communal visions" (italics in the original), along with :r. I AYAHUASCA POTIONS Weil's "group vision sessions in which all participants see the same visions simultaneously." Surely Marshall is correct, in a sense he did not intend, that "this book is far superior to anything Castaneda has arrempted" -after all, Castaneda's books have been relegated to the pulp fiction shelf, whereas Lamb continues to promote tall tales under the imprimatur of "Ethnomedicine"! 8 In 1970, Ecuadorian researcher p. Naranjo published the first full-length book on ayahuasca, Ayahuasca: Religion y Medicina, wrirren in Spanish (Naranjo 1970) and later published in a revised edition (Naranjo 1983). Unforrunately, this excellent study has not been translated, and has thus had little impact beyond specialists in ethnopharmacology. In 197Z three books appeared which drew further attention to ayahuasca: M. Dobkin de Rios' The Visionary Vine (Dobkin de Rios 197Z) , W. Emboden's Narcotic Plants (Emboden 197ZB) and P.T. Furst's Flesh o/the Gods (Furstr97z). The first, together with three papers by Dobkin de Rios (Dobkin de Rios 1970A; Dobkin de Rios 1970B; Dobkin de Rios 1973), concentrated on the use of ayahuasca by mestizo curaoderos on the outskirts of the Amazonian city of Iquitos, Peru. Furst's book, an anthology, contained a chapter by G. Reichel-Dolmatoff(Reichel-Dolmatoffl97Z) describing the histoty, use and effects of ayahuasca. This anthology was widely read, and Reichel-Dolmatoff's concise but excellent review served to increase greatly public awareness of the existence and properties of the Amazonian amrta. In 1973, C. Naranjo published The HealingJourney, an account of his use of entheogens, including harmaline, in psychotherapy (Naranjo 1973A), followed by a paper (Naranjo 1973B) in another anthology, Hallucinogem and Shamanism, edited by M. Harner (Harner 1973A). It is unfortunate that Naraojo's 1973 paper was entitled "Psychological Aspects of the 10gl Experience in an Experimental Serring," since it did not deal with the experimental use of yaji at all. Rather, it involved the experimental psychotherapeutic use of harmaline which, being a trace constituent of ayahuasca brews (Liwszyc et al 199Z; McKenna et al 1984A; Rivier & Lindgren 1972), can in no way be described as ''yage.'' Naranjo's results with harmaline have little or no bearing on ayahuasca pharmacology, even leaving aside the important question of tryptamine and other additives to the potions. Once and for all, harmaline is notayahuasca, nor is it o/importance in ayahuasca pharmacology (pace Flattery; see Note 3 cited above)! Nevertheless, Harner's anthology Was widely read, aod no fewer than seven of the ten chapters perrain to ayahuasca and ~-carbolines (Harner 1973A), including editor Harner's summary of his work among the Shuar (Harner 1973B) and his literature· studies of ayahuasca (Harner 1973D). This book must have extended greatly the renown of the Amazonian entheogen in the Eng237 PHARMACOTHEON !ish-speaking world. Harner had already published The ]ivaro: People of the Sacred Wftterfolls (Harner 1972), which dealt at some length with the use of ayahuasca by the Shuar Indians. G. Reichel-Dolmatoff's important book The Shaman and the Jaguar (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975) appeared in '975, and stands aB one of the most complete reviews of the use of ayahuasca and other entheogens in northwest Amazonia. Mention must also be made ofP.T. Furst's Hallucinogens and Culture (Furst 1976), and two other books by Reichel-Dolmatoff, Amazonian Cosmos: The Sexual and Religious Symbolism of the Tukano Indians (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1971), and Beyond the Milky way: Hallucinatory Imagery of the Tukano Indians (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1978), which likewise made mention of ayahuasca. We have already had occasion to note the importance of A. Weil's The Natural Mind (Weil 1972), and his second book The Marriage of the Sun andMoon: A Quest for Unity in Consciousness (Weil 1980), with its chapter "In the Land of Mge." These books, together with Wei!,s article in High Times (Weil 1979), have probably had more popular impact than any other writings on ayahuasca. A 1965 paper in Psychedelic Review (Kusel 1965) must likewise be credited with spreading the fame of ayahuasca beyond the Amazonian home of its constituent plants. There was also a 1970 report on a modern experiment with "yage" (Stafford 1970) which, aB pointed out by the editors of the volume in which it appeared (Aaronson & Osmond 1970) "WaB probably not yage, but harmine or harmaline." Moreover, since the author started the "trip" by taking LSD and later smoked marijuana, the reportwaB oflittle scientific value, although it did augment further the renown of the Amazonian entheogen. In the same volume (Aaronson & Osmond 1970), there WaB a brief review of ayahuasca effects aB reported by anthropologists (LinzerI970). Other earlier mentions of ayahuasca in popular literature were found in N. Taylor's Narcotics: Nature's Dangerous Gifts (Taylor 1966; paperback reprint of the '949 Flight from Reality), R.S. De Ropp's Drugs and the Mind (De Ropp 1957), andM. Kreig's Green Medicine: The Search for Plants that Heal... (Kreig 1964). Ayahuasca was also briefly mentioned in S. Cohen's popular The Beyond Within: The LSD Story (Cohen 1964). There WaB also a chaptel on ayahuasca in L. Lewin's claBsic 1924 treatise Phantastica, an American (and the second English-language) edition of which appeared in 1965, baBed on the 1926 expanded and definitive edition (Lewin 1924). I would be remiss were I to neglect to mention in this context the obscure (but recently reprinted) book The Invisible Landscape: Mind Hallucinogens and the I Ching (McKenna & McKenna 1975). Co-authored by ayahuasca researcher D.J. McKenna and his brother T.K. McKenna, this strange volume included the description of a sort of ayahuasca brew in which psilocybian mushrooms (Psilocybe [Stror I I AYAHUASCA POTIONS pharia 1 cubensis) were used aB a source of tryptamines in a potion the authors prepared, which precipitated a long-lasting trip characterized by one eyewirness as a "psychotic" reaction (McKenna 1993). One result was T.K. McKenna's launching in the foreword to Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide of what co-author J. Bigwood WaB to call the "spores from outer space theory" (see Chapter 5; ass & aerie 1976). T.K. McKenna himself conceded in that foreword that the opinions expressed about Psilocybe [Stropharia 1 cubensis in the book were not scientific, and a recent book described the "spores from outer space" theory as being "in the realm of funta>y" (Garrz 1993). A bewildered professor of chemistry, on reading The Invisible Landscape, thoughtitwaB an academic joke, but co-author D.]. McKenna assured me "it was written in dead earnest." Nevertheless, in a foreword to the 1993 reprint, he admitted he was now "less willing to insist on the veracity of these concepts," some of which he called the "musings ofa scientifically untutored student." With the advent of the 1980s, the Reagan Dark Ages supervened, and there was lirtle further publication of information on entheogens. Just before the door slammed shut, Schultes and Hofmann published a lovely "coffee-table book" on entheogens, Plants of the Gods: Origins of Hallucinogenic Use (Schultes & Hofmann 1979), complete with a chapter on the "Vine of the Soul" and portraits of Banisteriopsis caapi plus some of the prominent admixture plants. A. Wei! and W. Rosen's Chocolate to Morphine: Understanding Mind-Active Drugs (Wei! & Rosen 1983), which briefly mentioned ayahuasca, was a welcome exception to the reign of terror of the "just say no" (to information) Reagan administration. The same can be said for M. Dobkin de Rlos' Hallucinogens: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (Dobkin de Rlos 1984), which included information regarding ayahuasca. In 1987, M. Taussig published Shamanism, Colonialism and the WildMan (Taussig 1987), a critique ofcolonialism and anthropology, which dealt at length with the shamanic use of ayahuasca. As Reagan gave way to his protege Bush, Schultes published a magnificent collection of photographs of Where the Gods Reign: Plants andPeoples of the ColombianAmazon (Schultes 1988). This splendid book depicted Banisteriopsis caapi, Diplopterys cabrerana and other Amazonian drug plants, aB well aB a special ceramic caapi pot and a Makuna shaman dressed for the ceremonial use of the entheogenic potion, and WaB followed by a sequel dealing directly with ayahuasca and ayahuasqueros, Vine of the Soul: Medicine Men, their Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazon (Schultes & Raffauf 1992). In 1990, Schultes and chemist R.E Raffauf published The Healing Forest: Medicinal and Toxic Plants of the Northwest Amazonia (Schultes & Raffaufr990), a superb and encyclopaedic treatment of 1500 NorthwestAmazonian medicinal plants, with photographs and botanical drawings of Banisteriopsis caapi, 239 PHARMACOTHEON numerous admixture plants, and innumerable unique photographs of the preparation of ayahuasca and other entheogenic drugs. We have already had occasion to mention the 1989 publication of Haoma and Harmaline (Flattery & Schwartz 1989) which drew further attention to the ~-carboline alkaloids and ayahuasca. In r991 L.E. Luna and P. Amaringo publishedAyahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman, a book devoted entirely ro ayahuasca and the paintings of Peruvian ayahuasquero and co-author P. Amaringo, also featured in a recent article (Luna 1991; Luna & Amaringo 1991). P. Matthiessen's novel At Play in the Fields of the Lord described an ayahuasca experience (Matthiessen 1967) and was the subject of a 1992 film by the Brasilian director H. Babenco. This author's 1994 Ayahuasca Analogues: Pang£an Entheogens reviewed ayahuasca pharmacognosy (Ott 1994A). All of the above-mentioned publications played their parts in expanding modern consciousness regarding the history and properties of ayahuasca. Running in parallel with the expansion of modern awareness of the wondrous potion from Amazonia, was broadened interest in shamanism (Wolf 1991) and an awareness of the necessity for rainforest conservation. In part owing to insights gained from entheogens, members of the American and European "counterculture" became increasingly aware of the ecological plight of our planet, and especially the desttuction of tropical rainforests and their constituent organisms, plant and animal, including small and fragile tribes of preliterate humankind continuing their subsistence economies in Amazonia and elsewhere. Not only were rainforest habitats disappearing in Amazonia, but with them, plants like Banisteriopsis caapi, endemic to the Amazon basin, and many of its admixtures plants, together with countless other economic and unused species of plants (for the connection between ethnopharmacognosy and conservation groups, see King 1991; King 1992). Innumerable animal species, such as the jaguars of ayahuasca visions, who make their home in the Amazonian rainforest, were likewise disappearing. Just as important was the extermination of tribes of Amazonian Indians who suddenly, afrer five centuries of co-existence with European invaders, found themselves in the way of "development." Even where the physical survival of the tribes is not in question, the destruction of their cultures, and all the pharmacognostical and other knowledge these encase within a matrix of memory and oral transmission, represents an unimaginable tragedy, one repeated again and again throughOUt our pathetic history, down through the ages to this very day and right next door to evety one of us (Huxtable 1992). The written word which enables us to communicate through the wondrous medium we call a book, such as you hold in your hands this minute, spanning perhaps millennia of time in the case of our most cherished books, or maybe just a few months or years 240 AYAHUASCA POTIONS in the present case, is the enemy of traditional knowledge, however diligently we might attempt to enshrine this wisdom also in books. As Gordon Wasson put it (Wasson 1980): I think the unlettered herbalists possessed a body of knowledge, commanding an infinity of empirical subtleties, that has escaped our botanists and anthropologists. In the prehistory of all cultures including those still existing, the herbalists are a repository of knowledge acquired through centuries of intensive observation and experience which they pass on from generation to generation by word of mouth from master to apprentice ... These practitioners were hardly the ones to quicken with excitement and curiosity when the talk of the alphabet was abroad in the land. On the other hand those who took to the new-fangled writing were the aggressive intellectual leaders and scribes, including sometimes priests for their own reasons and some of the aristocracy, all of them beings from a different world, and the hidden knowledge of the herbalists would hardly have come their way, their corpus of knowledge not lending itself easily to writing. How remarkable that the Age ofEntheogens (Ott 1995B) lives on even today, in the most remote outpOSts of human habitation, although it can not and will not survive the onslaught of literacy! Again read Wasson, describing his astonishing lifring of the veil in Mexico in 1955: I arrived in the sarne decade with the highway, the airplane, the alphabet. The Old Order was in danger of passing with no one to record its passing. The Old Order does not mix with the New. The wisdom of the Sabia, genuine though it was, has nothing to give to the world of tomorrow. I think it was ever so with the arrival of the alphabet. Now the young generation is intent on the new learning, wants to forget the mushrooms that only yesterday evoked their awe, chooses the young doctor from the medical school in the city in preference. to the wise-woman, and is not learning or forgetting the language of his [sic] ancestors ... Wbether these trends are good or bad is not the question: they are inevitable. (Wasson 1980) 241 PHARMACOTHEON While I agree wholeheartedly with Wasson's vision, I dispute one particular: the Old Wisdom does have something to give to the world of tomorrow, and that priceless gifr is the knowledge of entheogenic plants and their use. Encoded in the genes ofentheogenic plants are instructions fur the biosynthesis of molecules which open up to us the wonder and mystery inherent in the universe and in ourselves, ancient wisdom so readily ourshone by the brilliant beacons of our modern knowledge; neverrheless residing in every human heart and soul, awaiting a chemical or other key for its unfurling. It is the case that the use of ayahuasca potions, more so than any other entheogenic drug we know, has survived the onslaught of literacy and acculruration, to make a place for itselfin the New Order. While there has been a modern resurgence of use of ancient entheogens like piyotland teonandcatl (see Chapters I and 5 for their stories), ayahuasca had found its niche in' the modern world long before it was "rediscovered" by the entheogenic subculture. I am referring to the fact that mestizo ayahuasqueros, after abandoning their jungle homes for the ciry, had continued to practice shamanichealing in urban areas of Peru, such as in Iquitos (Dobkin de Rios 1970A; Dobkin de Rios r970B; Dobkin de Rios r972; Dobkin de Rios 1973; Dobkin de Rios 1992), and in Lima (COrdova-Rios & Lamb 1971; Lamb 1985) and in the Colombian capital city of Bogora (Ramirez deJara& Pinz6n C. 1986), even as their Indian relatives continued, in ever decreasing measure, to commune with Sacha Runa (the "jungle man") and other "plant spirits" (Luna 1991), in ever-diminishing islands of primary rainforest throughout Amazonia (Whitten 1976; Whitten 1985). Furrhermore, despite nearly three decades oflegal persecution of the entheogens (Chayet 1967; Horowitz 1991; Ott r995B), neither the US. government nor the bulk of its Latin American counterparts, has yet seen fit to illegalize harmine and harmaline, alkaloids found in Banisteriopsis caapi (Sigma Chemical Co. 1996 prices per gram for the synthetic free-bases: harmine $50.00; harmaline $16.30; and $38. 50 and $70 .40 per gram for the respective hydrochloride salts ofharmol and harmalol; all compounds sold for research and labeled "not for drug use"). Thus, although an ayahuasca potion containing the proscribed DMT might technically be illegal, the Banisteriopsis plant, its constituent alkaloids, plain ayahuasca potions, or those containing innumerable other additives, remain legal. In spite of anti-cocaine hysteria in South America (Antonil 1978; Bold6 i Climentr986; Morales 1989), and general anti-drug propaganda everywhere, ayahuasca continues to be used openly, with no stigma attached to it whatever, in Peru, Ecuador, Brasil and elsewhere! Emblematic of the cultural niche for ayahuasca in the New Order is the Brasilian religious cult of Santo Daime. The roots of this modern cult, which has expanded I I AYAHUASCA POTIONS with the 1961 founding of another ayahuasca church, Uniiio do Vegetal (UDV) , can be traced back to the early 19005 (Henman 1986), particularly the founding in 1930 of a cult in Rio Branco, Brasil by Raimundo Irineu Serra, known to his disciples as Mestre Irineu (MacRae 1992). These Christian ayahuasca churches enjoy some legal dispensation in Brasil owing to two favorable governmental decisions (Henman 1986; MacRae 1992)9 In the UDV iconography, the ayahuasca potion represents a union between light (DMT-containing Psychotria viridis) and power (MAo-inhibitors in Banisteriopsis caapi; Henman 1986). In 1970, ethnobotanist G. Prance had reported that there were latter-day ayahuasca cults around the Brasilian city of Rio Branco, capital of Acre state, in the BrasilianAmazon, just norrh of Bolivia and east of Peru. Prance mentioned that "in Rio Branco, there are several highly secret groups that meet to drink the narcotic [sic] ," ayahuasca, which had "become a part of the Acre culture" (Prance 1970). Prance reported a similar phenomenon in Tarauaca, northwest of Rio Branco, and east of Pucallpa, Peru. By 1980, Rio Branco users had organized an open ayahuasca cult based on a Christian church. The ayahuasca potion, called by cult members Santo Daime, was prepared from "a mixture of approximately equal parts of an aqueous extract of the bark of Banisteriopsis caapi and the leaves of a rubiaceous plant, Psychotria viridis." The cult has expanded in South America to "countries whose native population never used the potion" and a recent analysis of adaime potion showed it to contain DMT and ~-carbolines (Liwszyc et at. 1992). The approximately 250 members of the Rio Branco Santo Daime church cultivated the source plants "for the production of impressive quantities of the hallucinogen, which they consume during such celebrations as Christmas, All Saints Day, and the New Year," and ingestion of the resulting potion was said to be "one of the most significant influences in their lives (their 'raison d'etre')." Large quantities of the potion (hundreds of liters) are stored on the premises of the church, and "the drink is freely dispensed on the occasions mentioned, as well as at other unspecified intervals. The congregation carries out their religious devotions in a church ... built and decorated by its members, and it is here that they partake of their potion, women and children not being excluded from their ceremonies" (Lowy 1987). In keeping with its long history of religious intolerance ("freedom of religion" being little more than a propaganda line ... in reality the US. Constitution merely separates Church from the federal State, reserving to the 50 states the right to discriminate with respect to religion, which they have historically done with great vigor; see E.A. Wasson 1914; E.A. Wasson 1965), the United States government reacted to attempts to establish the Church of Santo Daime in the United States by seizing supplies of ayahuasca and effectively proscribing the Church in the 243 PHARMACOTHEON U.S.! Nevertheless, as is always the case, law-enforcement efforts seved as the most effective advertising for ayahuasca possible, and people uninterested in rainforest conservation or ethnobotany were made aware of the existence of ayahuasca anyway. Meanwhile, the ayahuasca churches of UDV and Santo Daime have established themselves in many countries outside of South America (Luna 1992), are presently thriving in the United States, Spain and in other European countries, and individual ayahuasquerosare operating in Mexico Ciry and doubtless other cities far from the aboriginal home of the jungle ambrosia (Ott 1995B). Rainforest conservation, riding on the coattails of modern interest in ayahuasca (and vice versa), has been a vehicle for the dissemination of the use of ayahuasca in the United States and other countries (see, for example, rhe Fall 1989 issue of Whole Earth Review, devored to "The Alien Intelligence of Plants," with a special section on "Plants as Teamers"). As the decade of the 1970S gave way to the 1980S, the phen- ·omenon of "nature tourism" or "ecotourism" came into being, including a specialized offshoot of "ayahuasca tourism." As early as 1980 a California group was promoting a "Shamans and Healers of Ecuador" tour at the rather steep price of $1790 plus airfare. Throughout the eighties and into the nineties, many people were introduced to ayahuasca, as well as to the Amazonian rainforest area, through special ayahuasca tours, costing as much as $3500! One tour group advertised no fewer than four shamanic tours in Magical Blend Magazine; "The Shaman's Journey" and "The Way of the Warrior" in Peru; "Visions of Power" in Mexico and "The Healer's Journey" in Brasil (Our994A; Ou 1995B).Ayahuascatours were recently mentioned in Newsweek magazine (Krajick 1992). By the end of the 1980S, ayahuasca, together with some typical admixture plants, was being cultivated in diverse partS of the United States, in greenhouses where necessary, for the preparation of ayahuasca potions. There exists at least one Banisteriopsis farm in the United States, and pre-mixed cocktails of ayahuasca plus chacruna (Psychotria viridis) are available sporadically on a rudimentary black market, selling for as much as $800 per dose! Finally, there has come into being, mainly in California, a small network of entheogenic therapists and guides, offering controlled, safe, guided introductions to the entheogenic experience. Ayahuasca has become one of the most popular substances for use in this informal sort of "psychotherapy," generally made with traditional ingredients, although analogues of Syrian rue and Mimosa root also are used, and mescaline, ibogaine, the artificial anesthetic ketamine (Ketalar or Vetalar), MDMA and other drugs may likewise be available to the client. Journalist J. Stevens, in the epilogue to his American social history of entheogenic drugs, Storming Heaven (Stevens 1987), described his fleeting contacts with the 244 T I I AYAHUASCA POTIONS modern California entheogen scene, although in 1987 ayahuasca was not yet a hor topic, and rated nary a mention in the book, outside of describing the experiences of Burroughs and Ginsberg some three decades earlier. Ayahuasca therapy is also being practiced in the eastern United States (Krajick 1992). Americans, ever on the lookout for innovations, particularly in an open and un- . regulated field such as the underground drug market, have put considerable effort into the creation of temperate-zone analogues of ayahuasca, that is, combinations of temperate-zone plants which will supply a source of DMT and a source of~-carbolines that, when combined, will yield anahuasca (Ott 1995B), a visionary potion similar to the decidedly tropical ayahuasca. Dennis McKenna has proposed the name ayahuasca borealis for temperate-zone ayahuasca analogues (D.J. McKenna 1992). The seeds of Peganum harmala, legally and meaply available (a half-pound, containing from 4- 5-16 grams of ~-carboline alkaloids, can be had for $20-40) as a source of vegetable dyes, are the most widely-used source of harmine and related MAD-inhibiting ~-carbolines (see Note 4 below for a list of plants containing MAOinhibitors; and Ott 1994A for a list of tryptamine-containing plants). Not only are the seeds an article of commerce, but the plant,. introduced to the United States early in the twentieth century, now flourishes in the deserts of the southwest, and is naturalized even as far north as central Washington state. Many species of the family Gramineae (grasses) contain DMT and other tryptamines, and two easilypropagated species now being used experimentally in temperate-zone ayahuasca are "giant reed" or "Spanish reed," Armida donax, and "Canary reed," Phalaris arundinacea (Anon. 1991; Audeue et al r969; Audette et al. 1970; Culvenor et al 1964; Festi & Samorini 1993; Ghosal etal 1969; Marten 1973A; Marten 1973B; Wassel &Ammar 1984; Williams et al 1971). These two grasses were depicted, along with Peganum harmala, in a recent photo-essay, "leonae Plantarum Inebriantium-r" published in the first number of Integration: Journal for Mind-Moving Plants and Culture (De Vries 1991B). Arundo donax has various important rirual uses among Mexican Huichol Indians-it is used in HUimol backstrap looms, as a dance staff held by peyotl pilgrims, and to make the shafts of votive arrows used in ritual hunting of peyotl (Schaefer 1993). An Australian species, Phalaris tuberosa, is known to contain DMT, 5-Meo-DMT and bufotenine (Baxter & Slaytor r972; Gallagher etal. 1964; Oram & Williams r967), and together with P arundinacea, contains also traces of ~-carbolines (Frabn & O'Keefe 1971; Gander et al. r976; Shannon & Leyshon r97r; Vijayanagar et al. 1975). Another Australian species, P aquatica (which may be synonymous with P tuberosa), has been shown to contain DMT and 5-MeO-DMT (Mulvena & Slaytor 1982); whereas the yopo and epena snuff constituent (see Chapter 3) 5- 245 PHARMACOTHEON Meo-N-methyltryptamine, of unknown pharmacology, has been found in Phalaris arundinacea (Wilkinson I958). Phragmites australis is still another grass species now known to contain DMT (Wassel et al I985). Leaves and branches of the rutaceous Vepris ampodywere shown to contain over 0.2% DMT, making this one of the richer known sources of the compound (Kan-Fan et al I970) and two other rutaceous species, Limonia acidissima and Zanthoxylum arborescens (and possibly also Casimiroa edulis) likewise contain DMT (Abu Zarga I986; Diaz I976; Garza I990; Grina et al. I982; Velazquez Diaz I992). Bark of the leguminous Lespedeza bicolor (relative of L. capitata, a Ponca and Omaha analgesic and rheumatism remedy; KindscherI992; Moerman I986) is likewise used in this context and also contains tryptamines (Gatu et al. I958), as is also the case for the root of the leguminous Desmanthus illinoemis (traditional Paiute eye and dermatological remedy; Moerman I986) recently shown to contain substantial amounts of DMT and MMT (Thompson et al I987). Bark of Acacia maiden;;, leaves of A. phlebophylla and of other Acacia species likewise have potential for use as sources of entheogenic tryptamines in temperate-zone ayahuasca analogues (Fitzgerald & Sioumis I965; Rovelli & Vaughan I967). DMT has also been found in Acacia confosa, A. nubica, A. polyacantha, A. senegal and A. simplicifolia (Arthur et al. I967; Liu et al. I977; Poupat et al I976; Wahba Khalil & Elkheir I975)· Like Phalaris species, some Acacia species may also contain ~-carboline alkaloids (Repke et al I973). The following species contain entheogenic tryptamines DMT, DMT-N-oxide, and/or 5-MeO-DMT, and could be used in ayahuasca analogues: variousAnadenanthera species (Reis Altschul I972); a Delosperma species (Rivier & Pilet I97I); Desmodium caudatum, D. gangeticum, D. gyrans, D. pulchellum and D. triflorum (Banerjee & Ghosal I969; Ghosal I972; Ghosal etal I972; Ueno etal. I978; with D. lasiocarpum and D. paniculatum also likely to be active; Bodner & Gereau I988; Kindscher I992; Moerman I986; Speck I941); Dictyoloma incanescem (Pachter et al. I959); Mimosa tenuiflora [~M hostilis], M verrucosa and M scabrella (De Moraes et al I990; Gon<;alves de Lima I946; Meckes-Lozoya et al I990; Pachter et al. I959); Testulea gabonensis (Leboeuf et al I977), numerous Virola species (see Chapter 3; Holmstedt & Lindgren I967) and Mucuna pruriem (Bhattacharya et al I97I). The £:unous "Yanqui ingenuity" is thus overcoming ecological constraints, creating temperate-zone equivalents of the wondrous potion from the tropical rainforests of Amazonia! Given that there exist nearly 70 species containing known MAo-inhibiting ~-carboline alkaloids (Allen & HolmstedtI980; Otr I993) and more than 60 species presently known to contain entheogenic ttyptamines (Otr I994A; Shulgin & Shulgin I996; T.A. Smith I977), there can be conjectured at least 4000 possible plant combinations which will yield an ayahuasca-like entheogenic potion! I I AYAHUASCA POTIONS USE OF HARMEL, AYAHUASOI AND ANAHUASCA Since harmine and harmaline have not appeared on the underground entheogen market, despite their low cost and legal availability (the reason for this would appear to be the somewhat undesirable effects, as detailed by Naranjo I967), I will concentrate in this section on plant drugs-Peganum harmala, Banisteriopsis caapi, and genuine ayahuasca potions as well as their temperate-zone analogues. Because there is no ethnographic literature on the use of Peganum harmala seeds as an inebriant, it was necessary to conduct self-experiments to establish the active dose and nature of effects. In all experiments ground seeds were extracted twice by boiling 15 minutes in 30% lime juice in water, followed by filtration. This resulted in efficient extraction of the harmel alkaloids, and it was determined that '5 grams of seeds was a psychoactive dose. For EXPERIMENT 4, I ingested the combined extracts of 15 grams of seeds, and one hour after ingestion itwas obvious the seeds were psychoactive, producing a mild sedation which progressed to a peak at 2 hours and was mostly gone at 4 hours. Tinnitus was prominent, with a mild numbing sensation in the body. The effect was not overly unpleasant, but hard on the body, and there were no visual effects, save a bit of visual "tailing." Speech and concentration were normal, heartbeat slowed, and on attempts to sleep, there was slight vertigo with eyes closed. A hangover persisted throughout the next day after fitful sleep. I had no desire to repeat the experience, which I would characterize as involving more a Uzlium-like sedation than visionary effect, and it was similar to EXPERIMENT I in Ecuador with ayahuasca brewed without tryptamine admixture, but with a smalI amount of caffeine-containing leaves of flex guayusa. According to literature reports, the dose of '5 g harmel seeds would have contained 300-I050 mg of a mixture of harmine, harmaline and d-Ieptaflorine (THH), plus lesser amounts of other alkaloids. Judging by Naranjo's reports of the activity of these alkaloids, the seeds must have contained levels closer to the upper limit, about a gram of alkaloids. An "underground" publication referred to experiments with smoking alkaloid-enriched extracts of harmel seeds, as well as of Banisteriopsis caapi stems and Passiflora incarnata whole plants (this article appeared roughly contemporaneously with Schultes' article on Witoto Indians smoking of Banisteriopsis caapi leaves and bark; Schultes 1985B). The authors commented: "the high is not particularly psychedelic or hallucinogenic ... One feels calm. At higher doses, dizziness and nausea sets in with very little increase in the high. Closed eye imagety is at best hypnagogic ... No one who has experienced DMT or high dose mushrooms would ever call them visions" (Gracie &Zarkov1985B). These researchers found that, although ayahuasca doses analyzed by McKenna's group had been found to contain some 400 mg of~-carbolines, with 247 PHARMACOTHEON smoking: "we only needed to consume sufficient plant material for dosages in the 50 mg range ... increasing the dosage did not increase the high but only aggravated the [noxious] physical symptoms." The authors of this interesting report then experimented with smoking pure DMT ten minutes after feeling the "high" from smoking the p-carboline alkaloid-enriched plant extracts, findilfg a threefold enhancement in potency of smoked DMT (15 mg with premedication by f3-carbolines "felt more like 35-45 mg or roughly tripled intensity"), a lengthened visionaty period (6 minutes instead oh-3 minutes), and enbanced, "almost overwhelming" auditoty effects (Gracie & Zarkov I985B). But we are really interested in the interactions of orally-ingested DMT with f3-carbolines; the smoking experiment suggests an enhancement in potency of DMT, but that compound is normally active when smoked (see Chapter 3), but inactive by oral ingestion. Since the only experiment on record was that of]. Bigwood (1978; mentioned also in Stafford 1983), involving roo mg each of harmaline HCL and DMT free-base (substantial amounts of both), it was necessary to conduct self-experiments to establish minimum orally-active doses of tryptamine/f3-carboline combinations. EXPERIMENT 5 involved an extract of 5 gof harme!seeds (same conditions as abovethis would be expected to contain ro0-350 mg f3-carboline alkaloids) with 20 mg (0.25 mg/kg) DMT free-base (isolated and crystallized from Desmanthus illinoemis; melting point 45"C) dissolved in the hot, acidic extract. Initial effects were felt within 45 minutes, and developed slightly over the next half-hour, lasting about 3 hours. This represented a definite stimulation from the DMT, but only threshold-level for psychoptic effects ... a feeling of aliveness and excitement in marked contrast to the sort of deadbeat feeling I had experienced with three times the dose of harmel but absent the DMT. I definitely wished to repeat the experiment with a higher dose of DMT,anditwassomewharlikeEXPERlMENT2inEcuadorwithayahuascacontaining only a few leaves of DMT-rich Psycho tria viridis per dose. The above-mentioned authors reported experiments with oral combinations of harmel seed extract with synthetic DMT, concluding that "5 gm of seeds with 20 mg of DMT seems to be the threshold dose," which is exactly what I observed (Gracie & Zarkov 1986). I next experimented with an extract of 4 g harmelseeds (80-280 mg p-carbolines) to which 30 mg (0.38 mg/kg) isolated DMT free-base was added. This EXPERIMENT 6 produced distinct visionary effects of DMT commencing I:ro after ingestion and building to a peak in 5 minutes, with a 45 minute plateau (to 2:00 after ingestion), followed by another hour of distinct, 'though diminishing, DMT effects consisting of colored patterns with eyes opened and closed, exhilaration and stimulation alloyed with the sedative effect of the harme!seeds, which caused me to yawn repeatedly. The orallyT I I AYAHUASCA POTIONS active DMT was less potent than smoked DMT, perhaps half as potent. While 30 mg produced a distinct DMT effect reminiscent of EXPERIMENT 3, ayahuascawith a large dose ofleaves of Psycho tria viridis, it was by no means a saturation-level effect; that is, 40 mg would surely produce a stronger effect. Gracie and Zarkov (1986) reported that "our nominal dose would be ro gm of seeds with 40 mg DMT" and they found 30 mg of DMT active, and reported "our personal preference is 7 gm of seeds with 30 mgof DMT." It can thus be concluded that the active oral dose range for DMT in ayahuasca-rype potions is from 0.25-0.5 mg/kg (15-30 mg for a 60 kg person; 20- 40 mg for an 80 kg person like me). It can also be supposed that the extract of 4 g of harme! seeds (with estimated content of 80-280 mg f3-carbolines) is more than necessary to activate the DMT, since the analysis of the Rio Punis ayahuasca by Rivier and Lindgren (1972) found 25 mg ofDMT per dose (clearly active in 50-60 kglndians) and only 40 mg of f3-carbolines per dose, which would correspond to an extract of only 0.57-2.0 g of harme! seeds. Accordingly, since I found the effect of the harme! seeds to be disagreeable, and wished to establish the minimum dose of f3-carbolines needed to render DMT orally active, I extracted harmine from Peganum harma!a seeds, and purified it as the hydrochloride salt (melting point 262"C), for further experiments. EXPERIMENT 7 involved oral ingestion of a capsule containing 30 mg DMT freebase together with 47 mg harmine HCL, equivalent to 40 mg harmine free-base or 0.5 mg/kg (since Rivier and Lindgren had found only 40 mg f3-carbolines in a typical dose of ayahuasca). Although I felt a slight hint of activity, in general this amount of harmine was insufficient to produce the oral activity of DMT I had experienced when I took the same quantity (30 mg) with the combined extracts of 4 g harme! seeds (estimated to represent from 1-3.5 mg/kg f3-carbolines). Since the Sharanahua and Culina Indians who prepared the ayahuasca for Rivier and Lindgren likely weighed on average about 60 kg, the 40 mg of f3-carbolines in their typical dose would represent 0.67 mg/kg. For an 80 kg person like me, this would correspond to 54 mg of f3-carbolines. Accordingly, for my next experiment I increased the quantity of harmine HCL to 63 mg (equivalent to 54 mg harmine freebase), keeping the quantity of DMT free-base at the known active level of 30 mg. Again, the compounds were combined and placed into a gelatin capsule for ingestion. This EXPERIMENT 8 led only to a threshold-level DMT effect; prompting me to increase the dose of harmine HCL to 70 mg (=60 mg harmine base; 0.75 mg/kg), combined again with 30 mg DMT free-base. The capsule containing these quantities was ingested for EXPERIMENT 9, and produced a mild but detectable DMT effect commencing at 30 minutes after ingestion and still distinct at 2:40 after ingestion. 249 PHARMACOTHEON The effect was still, however, considerably milder rhan my previous experiment wirh 30 mg DMT combined with extracts of 4 g harmel seeds, and I decided again to increase the dose. Accordingly, in EXPERIMENT IO I ingested a capsule containing 30 mg DMT freebase plus 94 mg harmine HCL (=80 mg base; 1.0 mg/kg). The effect was similar to rhat ofrhe previous experiment. 'Though more intense, it still fell shortofrhe stronger effect 30 mg DMT had given when accompanied by extracts of 4 g harmel seeds. I increased rhe dose again, to II7 mg harmine hydrochloride (=IOO mg harmine base; 1.25 mg/kg) with rhe standard 30 mg DMT base. This EXPERIMENT II again led to a rhreshold effect of DMT, still falling short of rhe effect of 30 mg combined wirh extracts of 4 g of harmel seeds. For EXPERIMENT 12, I increased rhe quantity of harmine hydrochloride to 141 mg (=120 mg base; 1.5 mg/kg), and ingested this alongwirh 35 mg DMT free-base (0.44 mg/kg). By 45 minutes after ingestion, it was obvious rhe dose was psychoptic, and I experienced a distinct DMT effect building to a peak at 1:05 after ingestion and maintaining a plateau until 1:50, wirh the effects largely dissipated by 3 hours after ingestion. This experience was of comparable intensity to EXPERIMENT 6 involving ingestion of a similar amount of DMT (30 mg; 0.38 mg/kg) wirh extract of 4 g of harmel seeds, and we may conclude that 120 mg of harmine (1. 5 mg/kg) will effect sufficient in vivo MAo-inhibition to render DMT active orally with a longer duration and abouthalfrhe potencyofinhaledDMTvapor. To confirm rhese results, I decided to make anorher experimentwirh rhe harmine/DMT combinations, slightly increasing rhe amounts ofborh compounds. Accordingly, I prepared a capsule containing 188 mg harmine hydrochloride (=160 mg harmine base; 2.0 mg/kg) and 40 mg DMT base (0.5 mg/kg). This capsule was ingested in EXPERIMENT 13 andindeedprovokedaproportio nally stronger DMT effect wirh rhe first effects felt in 20 minutes, building to a peak by 1:30 after ingestion wirh a plateau until 2:40, and clearly diminishing effects at 3:00 after ingestion. By 4:00 after ingestion there were no effects, nor after-effects. All in all, rhe experience was quite pleasant and similar to EXPERIMENT 3 in Ecuador with about 50 leaves of DMT-COntaining Psychotria viridis per dose, 'rhough somewhat less potent. A control EXPERIMENT '4 wirh 141 mg harmine HeL (=120 mg base; . 1.5 mg/kg) wirhour DMT evoked no perceptible effects, proving definitively rhat rhe visionary effects of rhe "ayahuasca capsules" were a result of DMT rendered orally active by simultaneous ingestion of an MAo-inhibitor. This mechanism, originally proposed by Holmstedt and Lindgren ('967) and by two groups in 1968 (Agurell et al I968B; Der Mard,rosian et al. 1968), and sixteen years later shown to be viable T I I AYAHUASCA POTIONS in in vitro experiments (McKenna et al. I984A), is rhus confirmed in a single human subject (Ott I992B; Ort 1993; Ott I994A). Bigwood's experiment with IOO mg each of DMT (LI8 mg/kg) and harmaline HeL (=86 mg harmaline base; 1.00 mg/kg) led also to psychoptic effects (Bigwood 1978), and while rhe ~-carboline dose there was somewhat lower rhan levels I found active, we must recall that McKenna's group found harmaline to be "slightly stronger" than harmine as an MAo-inhibitor (McKenna et al. I984A). Furthermore, Bigwood's DMT dose was five times rhe rhreshold level, and perhaps higher doses ofDMT can compensate for slight insufficiency of MAo-inhibitors. See Ott I994A for continuation of rhese psychonautic bioassays. Upon completing rhese bioassays, I received a communication from American neurochemist J. C. Callaway, who has been working on mammalian metabolism of tryptamines and ~-carbolines (Callaway 1994). Callaway described a self-experiment he conducted independently on the same day as my EXPERIMENT 12 (which was rhe first to give me an unequivocal ayahuasca-like effect wirh pure compounds). Callaway ingested IO mg of 5-Meo-DMT together wirh 70 mg harmaline expressed as freebase. Since 5-MeO-DMT is roughly 4 times rhe potency of DMTwhen inhaled as vapor (see Chapter 3), rhiswould be equivalent to roughly 40 mg DMT, or about 0.67 mg/ kg in Callaway's case; wirh rhe harmaline dose being about LI6 mg/kg, similar to rhe level Bigwood had found active. Callaway felt rhe first effects in 18 minutes and distinct psychoactive effectsat45 minutes, building to a peakbY1:25, alrhough rhere were no visual effects and slight nausea. By 1:58 effects were diminishing, alrhough there were persistent effects which Callaway likened to oral harmaline at 300 mg dose (Callaway 1992). This independent experiment confirms Bigwood's finding that harmaline appears to be more active that harmine as an MAo-inhibitor in ayahuasca, which rhe biochemical data seem to bear out (McKenna et al I984A). It funhermore suggests that 5-MeO-DMT can substitute for DMT as active tryptamine in ayahuasca-type potions, and would appear to be several times the activity of DMT, mirroring relative potencies ofborh compounds when inhaled (Shulgin in De Smet 1983). Anorher European researcher, M. Markus, found 5-MeO-DMT to possess "hallucinatQty effects" when combined with harmine, harmaline or6-Meo-harmal an in "ayahuasca capsules" (Leuner & Schlichtinp989). When rhe first edition of this book went to press, I received a brief summary of anorher series of experiments wirh "pharmahuasca" (Ott I994A; Ott I996B) using harmaline HeL as MAo-inhibitor. An independent researcher found IOO mg harmaline HeL (86 mg free-base, roughly 1.3 mg/kg) to be a threshold-level dose, wirh '50 mg (128 mg free-base or about 2 mg/ kg) more effective. Combined wirh IOO mg harmaline HeL, even 120 mg of DMT free-base (4-6 times threshold) was "very mild," suggesting an insufficiency of MAO- PHARMACOTHEON inhibition. On the other hand 150 mg harmaline HCL combined with 150 mg DET (roughly equipotent with DMT) was "definitely an overdosage.» The evidence seems to indicate that some 1.5-2.0 mglkg harmaline or harmine (expressed as the freebase) is the true threshold level for ayahuasca MAo-inhibition, with some 0.25-0.5 mg/kg DMT free-base representing the tryptamine threshold level. Since DMT is orally active in doses of 0.25--0.5 mg/kg in presence of 1.5 mg/kg harmine, it can be said that the quantities of DMT and ~-carbolines found by McKenna's group in a typical 60 ml dose of Pucallpa ayahuasca (36 mg DMT : 401 mg ~-carbolines) are sufficient to evoke psychoptic effects (McKenna etal. 198{A), even in a large 80 kg adult. Similarly, the quantities found in a 50 ml dose of Brasilian daime (26.5 mg DMT : 144 mg ~-carbolines) would also suffice to evoke visionary effects in an 80 kg adult (Liwszyc etal. 1992). Naturally, in more rypical60 kg South Americans, these ayahuasca doses would be well above threshold, and we must remember that children are also known to partake of daime in the Santo Daime churches (Prance 1970). On the other hand, the quantities of alkaloids reponed by Rivier and Lindgren in Rio Punis ayahuasca (25 mg DMT and 40 mg ~-carbolines in a large 200 ml dose), while adequate for visionary effects with respect to their DMT content, would appear to be sub-threshold with respect to the low content of~­ carbolines (Rivier & Lindgren 1972). There are some possible explanations for the discrepancy, not least of which is the obvious imprecision with which doses are measured in typical use. It is possible the Sharanabua and CulinaIndians Rivier and Lindgren observed are genetically more susceptible to MAo-inhibitors thin are Caucasians or Indian/Caucasian mestizos. The taking of multiple doses of ayahuasca in a single session has been widely observed and reported, and it may have been common for the Sharanahua and Culina to repeat the dose various times, in which case the relatively high amount of DMT would lead to powerful effects. Finally, it is common for shamans to take ayahuasca t\iVo or more days in succession, which might lead to a cumulative MAo-inhibitoty effect, and the potion in general is said to be more effective if used repeatedly. In the case of the single Cashinabua nixi pae potion analyzed by Der Marderosian' s group, the 30 mg DMT found in a typical2{o ml dose clearly represents psychoactive levels, while the 20 mg ~-carbolines re- . poned per dose is obviously insufficient. The age of the sample (kept 2 years sans refrigeration prior to analysis) and the failure of the authors ro report content of dleptaflorine (THH) may account for this anomalous finding (Der Marderosian et al. 1970). T.K. McKenna's reported optimum dose of ayahuasca based on 500 g fresh Banisteriopsis caapi and 85 g fresh Psychotria viridis would represent 425 mg to 3.12 g ~-carbolines per dose (according to analyses of the same source cultivars by brother I .1 AYAHUASCA POTIONS D.J. McKenna and assuming 50% water in fresh material) together with 43-67 mg DMT per dose (again assuming 50% water in fresh material; McKenna et al. 198{A; McKenna 1993). These levels are obviously well above threshold with respect to ~­ carbo lines, and are comfunably above threshold with respect to DMT, and my data would suggest that substantial reductions in Banisteriopsis caapi might be possible. Clearly, more research into ayahuasca pharmacology is needed, particularly into the chemically-obscure admixture plants, and the interactions of known additive-plant compounds like nicotine and tropane alkaloids with the MAo-inhibitors of Banisteriopsis species. In order to investigate the human pharmacology of ayahuasca analogues, for EXPERIMENT 15, I prepared ayahuasca borealis by grinding and extracting 4 grams of Peganum harmala seeds together with 27.6 grams of Desmanthus illinoensis root, calculated to contain 50 mg DMT according to literature reports (Thompson et al. 1987). The ground material was thrice extracted with roo ml of boiling 30% lime juice followed by filtrations. Ingestion of the resulting 250 ml potion (the color of unfiltered apple juice) led to slight subcthreshold excitation from the DMT present, evidenrly in quantities insufficient for a full-blown psychoptic effect. Accordingly, I prepared another potion for EXPERIMENT 16, consisting of the same quantity of Peganum harmala seeds, 4 g, together with 56.2 g Desmanthus illinoensis root. This potion produced distinct visionary effects of DMT commencing at 30 minutes (first signs detected at the 12 minute point), building to a peak by 1:05 with a 30 minute plateau. By 2:00 effects had noticeably diminished, and had all but disappeared by 3:00 after ingestion. The effects were mild but unmistakable, with tinnitus, euphoria and mild visual phenomena (see Ott 199{A for further anahuasca experiments). Monoamine oxidase-inhibitors are widely used medicinally as anti-depressants, normally with cluonic, long-term, daily administration. I decided to combine oral doses of DMT with the pharmaceutical MAo-inhibitor isocarboxazid (5-methyl-3-isoxazole carboxylic acid 2-benzylhydrazide), known under the trade-nameMarylan. The compound is ordinarily administered in a dosage of 30 mg daily (as a single dose, or three ro mg doses) and the anti-depressant effect (which results from an increase in neurotransmitters like serotonine in the brain; see Chapter 3, Note 5) follows a latency period of a few days to a few months and persists for several weeks after ceasing administration of the drug. Occasional euphoric reactions to the drug are considered to be an adverse side-effect. I administered 30 mg Marylan in three doses of ro mg at 9:00 AM, 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM, and one hour after the third dose ingested 30 mg DMT free-base in a capsule. This EXPERIMENT 17 provoked mild DMT effects commencing 35 minutes after ingestion and building to a peak by l:ro, with 253 PHARMACOTHEON a plateau to 1:40, diminishing over the next hour. Thus it is possible to provoke an ayahuasca-like effect using an artificial MAo-inhibitor used in medicine, which appears, furthermore, to be several times the potency of the natural MAo-inhibitors found in Banisteriopsis caapi and other plants (Ott "993; Ott 1994A). It is evident that ayahuasca is presently the entheogen en vogue among aficionados in the United States and other countries. One result has been a proliferation of "ayahuasca tourism" to Brasil, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia (Ott "994A; Ott 1995B). Unfortunately, while this interest has helped draw some attention to the ecological plight of Amazonia, and may funnel some small amounts of needed money to underdeveloped zones of Third World countries, it has also lead inexorably to additional ecological and cultural disruption of affected areas, brought disease to urummunized Indians, and attracted the wrong kind of attention to ayahuasca (see Chapter I and Valadez 1986, for a discussion of similar problems associated with ''peyotl tourism"). Again, those interested in ayahuasca would be wise to stay home and cultivate their own source plants for ayahuasca analogues. I hope the dissemination of the anahuasca or ayahuasca-analogue technology in the overdeveloped world will curtail ayahuasca tourism, which can only lead to further ecological and cultural destruction in Amazonia, and could possibly result even in the illegalization of ayahuasca by the authorities in PerU, Ecuador or elsewhere (Ott 1994A). Since the publication of this book inAugustI993, the vogue in ayahuasca has increased, thanks in some measure to additional publications, such as my Ayahuasca Analogues: Pangd!an Entheogens (Ott 1994A). There was also a recent reprint ofAyahuasca Visions (Luna & Amaringo 1991); whereas interest in the Spanish-speaking world was stimulated by the I994 publication of a translation ofCaralan ethnographer J .M. Fericgla's Els ]ivaros, Caradors deSomnis (The ]ivaros, Hunters of Dreams; Fericgla I994A) , and the Spanish translation of Pharmacotheon (Liebre de Marzo, Barcelona, I996). Happily, the focus has increasingly shifted to anahuasca, and Italian researchers proudly concocted all-European analogues, and made extensive phytochemical analyses of Phalaris species andArundo donax, both potential tryptamine sources (Festi & Samorini I993). Problems with toxicity, perhaps a human version of the "Phalaris staggers" affecting livestock, have cooled enthusiasm for use of these grasses in anahuasca, while Mimosa tenuiflora has emerged as the leading source of anahuasca DMT. False statements about purported potentiation of DMT by f:l-carbolines (Turner I994) have occasioned a potentially hazardous fixation on MAo-inhibitors as supposititious pan-potentiators of entheogens (Ott 1995A; Ott I996B). Finally, renewed scientific interest in entheogens led to the first systematic human pharmacological studies of DMT (Strassman & Qualls '994; Strassman et at. I994). 254 AYAHUASCA POTIONS NOTES 1 When British botanist Richard Spruce first described his discoveries of Amazonian psychoactive drugs, he referred to them in his title as "remarkable narcotics" (Spruce 1873). Ernst Freiherr von Bibra had already published one of the first studies of psychoactive drugs, which he entitled Die Narkotischen GenuJSmittel und der Mensch ("Narcotic Dainties and Man" Bibrar855). Mordecai Cubitt Cooke made the same association in his pioneering study of psychoactive dsugs, The Seven Sisters of Sleep. Popular History of the Seven Prevailing Narcotics of the WOrld (Cooke I860), although both he and von Bibra included the stimulant coca in their studies. The word narcotic (and its cognates narc6tico in Spanish and Portuguese, Narkotikum in German, narcotique in French) derive from the Greek word vapl(Crn'lI(-VV, "to benumb, to stupefy." The earliest use in English was by Geoffrey Chaucer in a 1385 poem: "The narcotykis & opijs ben so strange" and the following year in his incomparable Tales ofCaunterbury, in the Knyghtes' Tale, describing a potion to facilitate a jailbreak: "For he hadde yeve his gailler drynke solOf a clarree maad of a certeyn wyn,lWith nercotikes and opie of Thebes fyn,lThat al that nyght, thogh that men wolde him shake,lThe gailler sleep, he myghte nat awake;" (Pratt I966). These quotations, and others, support the definition: "a substance which when swallowed, inhaled, or injected into the system induces drowsiness, sleep, stupefaction, or insensibility, according to its sttength or the amount taken" (OxfordEnglishDictionary, Compact Edition, p. 1895). No other meaning is given, and the adjective narcotic has the same meaning: "of substances or their qualities: Having the effect of inducing stupor, sleep. or insensibility," as have all other forms of the word, viz. narcosis, narcotical, narcotism, etc. The Heritage Illustrated Dictionary of the English Language gives the meaning of narcotic as: "any drug that dulls the senses, induces sleep, and with prolonged use becomes addictive," this gratuitous reference to "addictive" being a modern sense, clearly deriving from the association of the term with the opiate drugs (KapOOrI995; Small & Lutz 1932; alkaloids of opium, the dsied exudate of incised, unripe capsules of the poppy Papaver somniferum; specifically morphine and codeine, as well as their numerous semi-synthetic derivatives such as diacetyl-morphine [heroin, Diamorphine], oxycodone, oxymorphone, etc.; and artificial analogues, such as Meperidine, Methadone, etc.). Indeed, from the very first uses by Chaucer, narcotic was related specifically to opium and any other drugs with like effects, inducing "drowsiness, sleep, stupefaction or insensibility." This meaning is very clear, and there is no question the opiate drugs are correctly designated narcotics. Spruce's use of the term to describe entheogens like ayahuasca, however, is etymologically questionable. While ayahuasca prepared without additives may have some soporific effects, and whileBrugmansia plant admixtures might indeed enhance the soporific qualities of such potions, ayahuasca prepared with r;hacruna and chagropanga, DMT-rich admixtures, is very definitely a stimulant, and incorrectly designated a narcotic. The same can be said for virtually all of the classic entheogenicdrugs-mescaline, LSD, psilocybine, ibogaine-these compounds are most decidedly stimulants, sleep being quite out of the question when under their influence. Louis Lewin recognized this semantic problem when he published his I924 treatise on psychoactive drugs, Phantastica: Die Betiiubenden undErregenden GenufJmittel ("Phantastica: Stupefying and Stimulating Pleasure Drugs") using von Bibra's GenuJSmittel 255 PHARMACOTHEON (literally, "means of pleasure") but avoiding the use of the adjective narcotic, narkotisch (Lewin 1924). Indeed, Lewin introduced no fewer than five categories of psychoactive drugs: r) Euphorica or Seelenberuhigungsmittel (euphoriants or "anodynes for the spirit") of which the opiates were the prototypes, but including, paradoxically, coca and cocaine (Escohotado '990; HastorfI987; Holmstedt etal. 1978; Mariani ,890; Martin '970; MorrimerI90I; Plowman '979; Schultes 198,); 2) Phantastica or Sinnestiluschungsmittel (phantastica or "sensory illusion agents") with peyotl, Cannabis indica,Amanita musearia, various nightshades-'-Hyosryamus spp., Datura spp., and Duboisia hopwoodii-as well as Banisteriopsis caapi; 3) Inebriantia or Berauschungsmittel (inebriams or intoxicants) including alcohol, andother solvents such as chloroform, ether and benzene; 4) Hypnotica or Schlaf mittel (hypnotics or "sleep agents·') such as chloral hydrate. barbital, paraldehyde, sulfonmethane, bromal hydrate, and the Polynesian potion kava (Piper methysticum); and 5) Excitantia or Erregungsmittel (excitants or stimulants) including camphor, betel (Areca catechu), kat (Catha edulis, source of cathinone; Elmi 1983; Getahun & Krikorian '973; Kennedy 1987; Krikorian & Getahun '973; Nordal 1980; Szendrei 1980; Zegler et aL 1980; recently alleged to have been a sacred plant in ancient Egypt; Muses 1989), the caffeinecontaining drugs coffee, tea, cola nuts (Cola nitida), mate (flex paraguariensis; to which Lewin would surely have added flex guayusa and 1 vomitoria or yaupon), and guarand (Paullinia cupana var. sorbilis; with which Lewin would have grouped yoco or Paullinia yoco; Erickson et al 1984; Henman 1982; Patifio 1968; Schultes 1942; Schultes 1979F; Schultes 1986A; Schultes '987B; Shemluck 1979), plus cacao, tobacco and paricd snuff (Anadenanthera peregrina). The corresponding modern categories would be: r) narcotics; 2) entheogens; 3) intoxicants; 4) hypnotics; and 5) stimulants, to which Hofmann added a sixth of "neuroleptic sedatives" (which I dubbedNeuroleptica; Ott 1995B) such as chlorpromazine and meprobamate, with the natural prototype Rauvoljia serpentina, which contains reserpine (Hofmann 197oA; Woodson et al. 1957). I would remove paricd snuff from the stimulants and reclassifY it as an entheogen, and transfer coca and cocaine from the narcotics to the stimulants, but otherwise would agree with Lewin's classification. Of course, Lewin's Euphorica (opiates), fnebriantia (intoxicant solvents) and Hypnotica could all be designated narcotics, but Lewin was correct to separate them into three classes (in modern terminology, narcotics, solvents and hypnotics), and he was quite right in insisting that the entheogens and stimulants belonged in different categories entirely. Indeed, how can potent antagonists to sleep like LSD, cocaine and amphetamine be designated narcotics? Yet some specialists in ethnopharmacognosy, notably the dean of the field Richard E. Schultes, have used ,the term narcotic to describe the entheogens like ayahuasca and other DMT-containing drugs, among other plants (see for example Schultes 1961; Schultes 1979D). Schultes explained his use of the term thus: "the term narcotic, coming from the Greek vapK'OVV, to benumb, etymologically refers to a substance which, however stimulating it may be in one or more phases of its activity, terminates its effects with a depressive state on the central nervous system" (Schultes & Hofmann 1979). Botanist William Emboden uses the term narcotic in the title of his bookNzrcotic Plantsto embrace "hallucinogens, stimulants, inebriants' and hypnotics," admitting "the term 'narcotic' is obviously a misnomer" (Emboden 1972B); but explaining that "I will use the term narcotic as it has been used by the United States Public Health Service to include those plan~s AYAHUASCA POTIONS that are psychoactive regardless of the manifestation of this activity" (Emboden 1979). This usage has also appeared in the title of two anthologies, Sacred Narcotic Plants a/the New World Indians (Schleiffer 1974) and Narcotic Plants a/the Old World (Schleiffer 1979). G. Reichel-Dolmatoff' s interesting study The Shaman and the Jaguar (R.eichel-Dolmatoff 1975) was subtitled A Study a/Narcotic Drugs among the Indians a/Colombia. I consider Schultes' and Emboden's reasoning quite unpersuasive, and respectfully disagree with their use of the word narcotic. I reserve the term for the opiate drugs, and have already explained my reasoning behind my use of the word entheogen in lieu of psychedelic or psychotomimetic (see Chapter I, Note I). Psychoactive and psychotropic are precise, etymologically-correct terms to embrace all classes of drugs with effects on consciousness, as opposed to other categories of drugs, such as antimicrobials, diuretics, etc. I might mention in closing that a further problem with narcotic is that it prejudices people against the entheogens~since the word has acquired the meaning of "addictive" and since its legal meaning is "an illicit substance"; whereas, fortunately, many entheogens remain quite legal, and they are decidedly not addictive. See Eliade (1951) for an example of the pejorative use of narcotic in reference to shamanic inebriants. 2 I will outline some of the errors and incongruities in the Flattery-Schwartz theory which leave me unconvinced (see also Chapter 6, Note II). I will present my comments on respective sections in the order in which they appear in the book. In §7, Flattery took issue with Wasson's theory regarding the existence of Soma urine: "none of the data presented by Wasson on the subject of urine drinking has any relevance for soma." But Flattery ignor~d and/or suppressed Wasson's commentary on the section from the Mahabharata in which the amrta is offered in urine to Uttanka by Indra posing as an outcaste. "Come Uttanka, and accept this water from me. I feel great pity for you, seeing you so overcome by thhst." The urine ("and Uttanka saw copious streams of water flowing from his lower parts ") was offered to slake the thirst ofUminka by Krsna, who had promised him a boon. Uttanka was revolted and outraged and refused the drink. Krsna appeared to Uttanka and explained: "for your sake I said to Indra, 'Give the amrta to Uttankain the form of water.'" But Indra objected saying "a mortal should not become immortal; give some other boon to him" (translation by W. Doniger from Wasson 1968). There is no question that this amrta (cognate with Greek ambrosia) is the Soma potion, here clearly represented in the form ofIndra's urine. It was this passage from the Mahabharata that suggested to Wasson thatAmanita muscaria might be Soma-it shows the Soma potion in the form of urine being offeredas a drink which would make the imbiber immortal Flattery ignored this inconvenient fact for, as he said, "if evidence could be found that the urine of soma drinkers was itself . drunk, this would strongly support Wasson's identification." Flattery then incorrectly stated, and contrary to ~ndy Doniger's testimony (Doniger 1990; Doniger O'Flaherry 1982), that "Wasson's reason for suspecting that the urine of soma drinkers was consumed comes from an ostensible reference to this practice not in the Rg Veda but in an Iranian source ... " handily diverting the argument away from the primary Indian literature where he is not at home and into Iranian literature. As Wendy Doniger noted, however, "itwas only when I casually mentioned to RGwrhe urine-drinking, Soma-drinking episode in the Mahabharata that he thought of Amanita muscaria as a possible identity for Soma" (my 257 PHARMACOTHEON emphasis). Furthermore, given the reference in the RgVeda, that men would "piss the flowing Soma," and that Indra would "Drink Soma, as much as you wish.lPissing it out day by day" (Wasson 1972B), plus rbe passage in the Mahabharata in which Soma urine is offered by Indra to be drunk by a thirsty person, it is ludicrous to suppose, as did Flattery. that urine drinking in India derived from practices in twentieth-century Arkansas! Several prominent Vedists, including W Doniger, EB.]. Kuiper, L. Renou and KF. Gddner have considered the existence of Soma urine to be incontrovertible and of importance in rbe identification of rbe plant (Doniger O'Flaheny 1982; Wasson 1972B). Since, as Flattery and Schwartz conceded, urine drinking is also a feature of present-day Zoroastrian ceremonies (or did this also derive from Arkansas?), where does this leave their theory for Peganum harmala as Somal Haoma? Where is the evidence that drinkers of a potion based on P. harmala piss out the active principles, the harmane alkaloids? In §8 Note 5. Flattery seized as given truth EB.]. Kuiper's opinion that Santal putka and Sanskrit putika are not etymologically rdated (see Chapter 6, Note II), alrbough Kramrisch had rbe opposite opinion (Kramrisch 1975). Flattery glossed over Kramrisch's contrary opinion, and he did not inform us that Professor Kuiper, his unimpeachable authority here, had tentatively accepted Wasson's identification of Soma as Amanita muscaria (Kuiper 1970). Similarly, 'though Schwartz leaned on details of some of his arguments, he failed to mention that I. Gershevitch. an Iranianist, also tentatively accepted Wasson's Soma: mushroom theory (Gershevitch 1974). This is especially significant, in rbat Gershevitch concluded from rbe Iranian literature that "if one knew nothing ofMr. Wasson's book and the controversy, one could still, by cool reasoning, have arrived at a hallucinogenic mushroom" (for the identity of Haoma; Gershevitch 1974). In §)8-42, Flattery committed the crucial error in rbe book, saying rbat he would "regard the psychopharmacological data.on yageas chiefly reflecting the properties of the harmala alkaloids" and argue that Peganum harmala was Somal Haoma because it contains the same alkaloids as Banisteriopsis caapi, and the ethnographic data on the latter plant paint a picture of a drug resembling SomalHaoma! This is an extremely weak line ofargurnent, to say the least. In §39, Flatteryproceeded to quote Claudio Naranjo at lengrb on rbe effecrs of yage and harmaline. fu we will see in rbe following footnote, however, and in the section "Chemistry ofAyahuasca and Pharmacology of beta-Carbolines," it has been well established that harmaline is a trace constituent in ayahuasca brews, and does not contribute significandy to ayahuasca pharmacology. I will let D.]. McKf:nna and colleagues, cited by Flattery. speak on this point: "harmaline ... is essentially a trace component in ayahuascaand probably does not contribute significantly torbeMAo inhibition which rbisdrugelicits" (McKennaetal. 1984A).1n §40Flatterycited G. Reichel-DoImatoff describing the Tukano Indian use of yaji and in §41 quoted M. Harner's description of]ivaro (Shuar) Indian use of yaje. What he left out is significant. however. In the second paragraph of the quote from Harner, there is a lacuna in Flattery's extract in which Harner mentioned the addition to the yajeof"the leaves ofa similar vine" which we now -know to have been Diplopterys cabrerana, and stated that the beverage contained, besides the harmala alkaloids, "quite possibly N,N-dimethyl-tryptamine (DMT)" (Harner 1973B). Similarly, the Tukano Indians described by Reichel-Dolmatoff don't take ayahuascastraight. but are known to use the same additive as the Shuar; DMTrich Diplopterys cabrerana, and that the practice of these Indians is that "considerable r I I AYAHUASCA POTIONS amounts of tobacco rape are taken alternately with yage (Banisteriopsis caapi) and coca" (Wilbert 1987). The Shuar likewise "drink tobacco juice alternately wirb ayahuasca" (Wilbert 1987). In orberwords, borb rbe Shuar and Tukano Indians, whose experiences were cited by Flattery as evidence for the psychopharmacology of the harmane alkaloids, commonly brew their yaje with DMT -rich plants, and take it along with tobacco juice and snuffs. As we will see in the section on "Pharmacology ofJ3-Carbolines," the chemical Studies cited by Flattery in §38 (McKenna et aL 1984A; Rivier & Lindgren 1972) found rbat Peruvian ayahuasca potions contained subthreshold doses ofharmane alkaloids, and that their psychotropic properties were due to the DMT they contained, the harmane alkaloids serving only as :MAD-inhibitors, to render the DMT active orally. We !mow nothing of the interaction of the tobacco nicotine with harmane alkaloids, but, being a potent entheogen in its own right, tobacco effects surely influenced the experiences of the Shuar and Tukano Indians cited by Flattery. Contrary to what Flattery states, it is not at all "justifiable to regard rbe psychopharmacological data on yageas chiefly reflecting the properties of rbe harmala alkaloids." Rather, given the limited data at hand, it seems justifiable to regard the psychopharmacological data on yaje as chiefly reflecting the properties of DMT. nicotine and scopolamine, as well as other, unlmown active compounds in chemically-obscure admixture plants. Flattery's strained equivalence between Peganum harmala andyajewon't hold up-the visionary effects of the latter are not due to the harmane alkaloids but to DMT, scopolamine. and other active principles (see section "Chacruna, Chagropanga and Other Ayahuasca Admixtures"); 'though Flattery thereby convinced one would-be Soma expert (Rudgley 1994). Making rbis specious equivalence between harmel and yaji, Flattery essentially backed himself into a corner and began to suggest use of plant admixtures to Peganum harmala and to SomalHaoma (for which, I hasten to add, there is absolutely no evidence)! Toward rbe conclusion of his part of rbe book, in §I55 Note 5, he began to grasp at straws. to look for Indian chacruna and chagropanga-potential DMT-rich additives to Somal Haoma! He suggesed particularly Desmodium gangeticum in the Leguminosae faniily. noting it is known as saumya or as amsumat "rich in soma juice." He then went out on another shaky limb claiming "it appears the only way Desmodium species could have been effectively consumed as psychoactive drugs in India would have been by ingesting rbern with extracts of Peganum harmala, rbe one local source of rbese alkaloids"! While he was correct in noting DMT is inactive orally. requiring mixture with some :MAo-inhibiting compounds like harmane alkaloids to render it orally-active, he failed to note two crucial points. First, Desmodium gangeticum, like D. gyrans and D. pulchellum, itselfcontairu ~-carboline alkaloids, as Flattery should have known by consulting one of his references (Banerjee & Ghosal 1969; see also Ghosal 1972; Ghosal etal. 1972). D. pulchellum contains some six different ~-carbolines, including harman and N-merbyl-6-merboxy-tetrahydro- ~-carboline, known MAD-inhibitors (Buckholtz & Boggan 1977; McKenna et aL 1984A). Second, not only Desmodium species, but many other Indian plants contain J3-carbolines (Allen & HoImstedt 1980). "Peganum harmala, rbe one local source ofrbese alkaloids" ... hardly! See Ott 1994A for a list of plants containing MAD-inhibiting ~-carboline alkaloids, and Allen & Holmstedt's paper for a list of~-carboline alkaloid-containing plants. Even Wasson's candidate for Soma, Amanita muscaria, has been reported to contain a J3-carboline alkaloid (Matsumoto et al. 1969). In animal tests, moreover. Ghosal found concen259 PHARMACOTHEON trated extracts of Desmodium pulchellum "only feebly active" (Ghosal 1972). There exist many other flaws in Flattery's arguments to which I could point, but I will cease in the . interest of brevity. I cannot conclude, however, without taking issue with Flattery's repeated misuse of the word intoxicant, as in: "sacred intoxicant." The word means literally "to stupefY, render unconscious or delirious, to madden or deprive of the ordinary uses of the senses or reason, with a drug or alcoholic liquor." It can also mean "to 'poison'; to corrupt morally Or spiritually" (Oxford English Dictionary, Compact Edition, p. r471). Is Flattery so insensitive to the uses oflanguage that he would speak of a "sacred intoxicant"? This is an oxymoron. Might I suggest he speak instead of a "sacred inebriant"? The meaning given to inebriation in the Oxford English Dictionary (Compact Edition, p. 423) is appropriate: "extravagant exhilaration, excitement or emotion" and the first use of the word (1526) was apposite: "this inebriacyon or heuenly dronkennesse of the spiryte." In a book dealing with entheogens, and in which the bulk of the argument turns on the meanings of words, there is no place for such insensitive use of the English language. After publishing the first edition of this book in 1993, I offered Flattery a chance to rebut these devastating criticisms in Integration. He has declined ... does this mean he is conceding? :3 There has been an unfortunate confusion in the literature between yaje and harmaline, and between harmaline and harmine. In '973 C. Naranjo published a paper on "Psy_ chologicalAspects of the YtzgeExperience in an Experimental Setting" (Naranjo 1973B). As mentioned in the section "Modern Interest in Ayahuasca and Harmel," this paper in reality had nothing to do with experimental use of yaje, it rather involved previously described (Naranjo 1967) experiments with harmaline, incorrectly stated by Naranjo to be "the active alkaloid of yagi" (Naranjo 1973B). As detailed in the section "Chemistry ofAyahuasca and Pharmacology of beta-Carbolines," however, harmaline is at best a trace constituent in the ayahuasca potions analyzed to date-McKenna's group found only 25 mg h~maline i~ a 60 ml dose of ayahuasca from Pucallpa, which contained 437 mg total alkalOIds, of which the great bulk (376 mg) was harmine and d-Ieptaflorine (TetraHydroHarmine or THH) in roughly a 3:1 ratio (McKenna et aL 1984A). In an earlier analysis of Peruvian ayahuasca samples, a 200 ml dose contained on average only traces of harmaline, and 40 mg of the 60 mg total alkaloids again was harmine plus d-Ieptaflorine (THH) in roughly a 3:1 ratio (Rivier & Lindgren 1972). A recent analysis of a daime potion found only traces of harmaline, and 144 mg of the 170 mg total alkaloids in a 50 ml dose consist~d of roughly equal amounts of harmine and d-Ieptaflorine or THH (Liwszyc eta!' 1992). In the case o~ all three potions, the psychoptic ingredient was DMT, with the ~-carboline alkaloids harmine and d-Ieptaflorine (THH) being present in doses far too low for psychoactive effects, as Naranjo's own studies showed (Naranjo 1967). Rather, the ~-carbolines in these potions serve as MAo-inhibitors (see section on "Pharmacology of[3-Carbolines") to render the DMT orally-active. Even in this respect, harmaline, being a trace constituent "probably does not contribute significantly to the MAO inhibition which the drug elicits" (McKenna et al '984A). Clearly, Naranjo's '973 paper had nothing to do with the pharmacology of yaje, and should have been entitled "Psychological Aspects of the Harmaline Experience in an Experimental Setting." Besides this misrepresentation by Naranjo, there have been at least six publications which have confused harmaline with harmine, effect260 T AYAHUASCA POTIONS ively claiming incorrectly that harmaline was the principal alkaloid of ayahuasca, rather than harmine. In his excellent 1975 srudy The Shaman and the jagnar, Reichel-Dolmatoff made aslip on page 40, seeming to suggest that harmine and harmaline were synonymous: "the principal psychotropic substance contained in Banisteriopsis seems to be harmine (harmaline)," although on the next page he qualified this, saying quite correctly "Banisteriopsis caapiwas found to contain-besides harmine-two other beta-carboline derivatives: harmaline and d-tetrahydroharmine" (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975). In his 1980 book The Marriage of the Sun and Moon, Andrew Weil mixed up harmaline and harmine: "when German scientists first isolated the main alkaloid from the plant (Banisteriopsis caapi), they called it telepathine. (It is now known, less interestingly, as harmaline.)" (WeiI1980). Of course, Colombian scientist Fischer Cardenas' telepatina or telepathine, is now known as harmine, not harmaline, whose only known synonym is harmidine (Chen & Chen 1939). Again, in their 1983 book Chocolate to Morphine, Weil and Winifred Rosen stated of" Yage": "the plant owes most of its activity to harmaline" (corrected to read "harmine" in a revised edition), whereas quantitative analyses of various Banisteriopsis caapi cultivars have found harmine to be the principal alkaloid (McKenna et al 1984A; Rivier & lindgren 1972). While McKenna's group did find one of six cultivars assayed to have slightly more harmaline than harmine, the average for the six was harmine, just over 50% of the ~-carboline fraction; harmaline, 24.5% (McKenna et at. 1984A). Moreover, in the ayahuasca brews assayed, harmine represented 65% of the alkaloidal fraction, d-Ieptaflorine or TetraHydroHarmine (THH) 22%, DMT 8%, and harmaline only 6%, suggesting harmaline is rather inefficiently extracted into the brews, or that some of the harmaline present in the plant is oxidized to harmine during the at times lengthy cooking process (Fischer 1899). As mentioned above, analyses of several ayahuasca brews by Rivier and Lindgren (1972) detected only trace amounts of harmaline, as did a recent analysis of daime from a South American Christian church (Liwszyc et at. 1992). In any case, harmine is the chief alkaloid of B. caapi, not harmaline, and harmine and d-Ieptaflorine (THH) represent 87% of the alkaloidal fraction of typical DMT-containing ayahuasca potions, and more than 93% of the ~-carboline component (McKenna et al. 1984A). Again, in Peter Stafford's Psychedelics Encyclopedia, there are made repeated confusions between harmine and harmaline (Stafford 1983). On page 333-4, Stafford wrote: "in what follows, ayahudSca refers to the psychedelic [sic] species of Banisteriopsis,yagero the drink made from their outer bark and harmaline to the primary psychedelic [sic] compound in the bark." Again, harmine, not harmaline, in the "primary psychedelic [sic] compound in the bark."Then, on pages 335- 6, Stafford explained: "in 1923, Fischer assayed yage, isolating an alkaloid that he named telepathine. The same year, Barriga-Villalba and Albarracin isolated two alkaloids from this drink; they called these yajeineand yajeinine [sic}. In 1928, Lewin isolated banisterine. Shortly afterward, Wolfes, as well as Rumpf and Elger, asserted that all these alkaloids were identical: they were harmaline ... " (Stafford 1983). Again, telepathine, yajiine and banisterinewere determined by Elger (1928) and by the group ofWolfes and Rumpf (1928) to be harmine, and not harmaline. There are several trivial errors in this sentence as well: I) yajinine, misspelled by Stafford, was apparently different from yajiine, and probably was not harmine but another alkaloid; 2) Barriga Villalba, no hyphen necessary, did hIS work two years after Fischer Cardenas, and both were working with plant material {which Staf- PHARMACOTHEON ford said he would call ayahuasca; whereas here Stafford says the isolation was from yage, bywhich he means the beverage); 3) Rumpfwasworkingwith Wolfes in Germany, whereas Elger worked alone; 'though Stafford's wording makes itsound as though Rumpf and Eiger were a team and Wolfes independent. Stafford again trips up in the next sentence: "this conclusion was in doubt for some time, until Chen and Chen, working with dearly identified botanicals, demonstrated that all these substances were harmaline." Again, Stafford here means to say harmine. Fortunately, on arriving at his section on chemistry, Stafford gets the names right on his diagrams, but gives pride of place to harmaline at the head of the page, and the chapter is entided ''Ayahuasca, Kige and Harmaline," giving undue emphasis to harmaline rather than the main component harmine. Stafford trips up one last time on page 355, saying "Lewin tried harmaline clinically on mental patients in the late I920S." Once again, it was harmine with which Lewin experimented in the twenties (Lewin 1928; Lewip 1929). In their 1981 book on psychotherapeutic use of "hallucinogens," which is full of similar errors, especially with regard to phytochemistry and ethnopharmacognosy, Roquet and Favreau also confuse harmine and harmaline (Roquet & Favreau 1981). These authors list harmaline and d-1,2,3A-tetrahydroharmaline [sic] as the active agents of ayahuasca-harmaline, of course, is only a trace constituent, and it is 3A-dihydroharmine. In reality the active agents are harmine and d-I,2,3,4-tetrahydroharmine. Finally, as already mentioned, Flattery and Schwartz erred in naming their book Haoma and Harmaline, since again, harmine is the principal alkaloid of Peganum harmala and Banisteriopsis caapi, subjects of their book. In section §93, Note 27, we find: "the report of clinical studies by C. Caller Iberica (1941) in which small doses of harmaline were found to have pronounced effects directly on sexual organs ... " when in reality Iberico experimented with ayahuasca "in small doses, equivalent to 5 mg. ofbanisterine or harmine" (Iberico 1941). See Note 2 above for review of more serious errors in this book. 4 The following species of plants have been found to contain harmine: Amsonia tabernaemontana (Apocynaceae); Calycanthus occidentalis (Calycanthaceae); Knchia scoparia (Chenopodiaceae); Carex brevicollis (Cyperaceae); Banisteriopsis muricata (=B. argentea), B. caapi, B. inebrians (=B. caapi), B. lutea (=B. nitrosiodora), Cabi paraensis (=Callaeum antifebrile, Mascagnia psilophylla var. antifebrilis; Malpighiaceae); Passiflora incarnata (Passifloraceae); Peganum harmala, Tribulus terrestris, and Zygophyllum fobago (Zygophyllaceae). Besides Banisteriopsis species and Peganum harrnala, Passiflora incarnata is the only other known source of harmaline, and the rubiaceous Leptactinia densiflora is the only other currently-mown source of TetraHydroHarmine (in racemic form), likewise called leptaflorine (Allen & Holmstedt 1980). Besides Peganum harmala and Banisteriopsis species, the following 62 plant species have been found to contain known MAo-inhibiting ~-carbolines (Allen & Holmstedt 1980; Buckholtz & Boggan '977; McIsaac & Estevez 1966; McKenna et aL 1984A): Coriolus maximus (Agaricaceae); Amsonia tabernaemontana, Apocynum cannabinum, Ochrosia nakaiana (Apocynaceae); Calycanthus occidentalis (Calycanthaceae); Hammada leptoclada, KDchiascoparia (Chenopodiaceae); Guierasenegalensis (Combretaceae); Carex brevicollis (Cyperaceae); Elaeagnus angustifolia, E. hortensis, E. orientalis, E. spinosa, Hippophae rhamnoides, Shepherdiaargentea, S. canadensis (Elaeagnaceae); Arundo donax, Festuca arundinacea, Lolium perenne (Gramineae); Acacia baileyana, A AYAHUASCA POTIONS complanata, Burkea africana, Desmodium pulchellum, Mucu~a prurier:s' Petalostyl~ labicheoides, Prosopis nigra (Leguminosae); Strychnos usambar~nsts (Lo~l~ceae); Cabz p'araensis (=Callaeum antifebrile; Malpighiaceae); Virola cusp,data (Mynstlcaeae); Passiflora actinea, P. alata, P. alba, P. bryonioides, P. caeru/ea, P. capsularis, P. decaisneana, P. edulis, 1'. eichleriana, 1'. flaida, 1'. incarnata, 1'. quadrangularis, 1'. aff. ruberosa, 1'. subpeltata, 1'. warmingii (Passifloraceae); Calligonum minimum (Polygonaceae); Leptactinia densifl.ora, Nauclea diderrichii, Ophiorrhiza japonica, Pauridiantha callicarpoides, P. dewe~ret, ~ lyalli, P. viridiflora, Simira klugii, S. Tubra, Uncaria attenuata, U canescens, U. orzentalzs (Rubiaceae); Chrysophyllum lacourtianum (Sapotaceae); Symplocos racemosa (Symplocaceae); Fagonia cretica, Tribulus terrestrisandZygophyllum fobago (Z ygophyllaceae). Amushroom recently found to contain the ~-carbolines infractin, 6-hydroxy-mfra~tin an~ mfraO:l~,lcnn, Cortinarius inftactus (Steglich et al. 1984), has been alleged to be hallucmogemc (Azema 1987; Giacomoni 1987), a dubious proposition in absence of human psychonauttc bioassay or other pharmacological data (Samorini 1993A). 5 Botanical "voucher specimens" are pressed, dried and mounted samples of a collection of plants to be studied chemically (or otherwise), complete with a label giving as much information about the collection as possible--date, place, elevation, collector's name and collection number, comments on the geology and ecology of the .collection site (i.e. ~oil type, climate zone, other cammon plants found nearby etc.) and partlcularlyethnobo;arucal information (local names and their meaning, economic uses, folklore assocIated WIth the plant, etc.)-which are then deposited in a recognized herbariu~. Ideally, the voucher specimen will include reproductive parts of the plant (flowers, frUlts, seeds) as well as representative leaf and stem material. Often the reproductive parts are necessary to be able to identifY the plant. The voucher specimen is thus availabl.e for later inspecti~n to v:rify or vouch for the identification of any plant which, after bemg analyzed cherrucally, IS to be reported in the scientific literature to contain one or anoth:r c~m~ound (Bye 198?B; Schultes 1962; Schultes 1966). The editorial boards of most sCIentIfic Journals reporong the results of phytochemical analyses or ethnobotanical studies now righclyinsist that papers include references to voucher specimens for all species ~alyzed, in the event doub.ts arise in the future as to the identification of the plant matenal. In the case ofHochstem and Paradies' reporting of DMT in Prestonia amazonica, specialists today doubt the ~denrification of the source material, since DMT is not mown from the Apocynaceae family,. nor is P. amazonica known from the area in which the collection supposedly was made. Smce all of the collection was presumably ground up and analyzed, and no voucher specimen was deposited in an herbarium (indeed, the authors apparently saw only an aqueous extract ofleaves and not the source plant), we today have no way of unravelling the mys~ery of this collection. For information on a basic field kit for botanical specimen collectIon, and photographs of pressed specimens, see the articles by Rob Montl?omery and "Veriditas" in the Fall 1989 Whole Earth Review (Montgomery 1989; Vendltas 1989). 6 & pointed out in Chapter 2, Note 13, animal experiments are of lit~e value in p~ytochemical studies of entheogens, having proven useless in attempts to Isolate the actIve fractions of the peyotl cactus and the teonandcatl mushrooms. Only through the use of PHARMACOTHEON human experimentation were scientists able to isolate the entheogenic principles of these plants. As emphasized in Chapter 2, Note 15, and in Chapter 3, Note 2, however, it is highly unethical to use as research subjects imprisoned human "guinea pigs." It doesn't make any difference whether they are called prisoners (having been convicted of a crime, and sentenced to a penal institution) or euphemistically designated "patients" in a "mental hospital" or "addiction research center hospital" (people who have not been convicted of any crime, and given an indefinite, perhaps life, sentence; some of them having been accused of a crime, but judged mentally incompetent to stand trial). Whether called prisoners, convicts, addicts or patients, all such individuals are incarcerated against their wills, and it is unethical to use them as research guinea pigs. The Nfunberg War Crimes Tribunal concluded as much in the process of sentencing German physicians to the gallows for experiments little different in kind from those conducted bymen like Turner and Merlis (Annas & Grodin 1992). If animal experiments are worthless, and experiments on prisoners and mental "patients" are unethical ... what aboutemployingvolunteers?Technically, this is acceptable, but it would still be unethical to convince another person to ingest something one would not oneself be willing to ingest, what one had not already ingested oneself. In short, in order to conduct this sort of research, one must be willing to be a psychonaut, to use oneself as primary research subject, later employing other volunteer human beings when basic safety and dosage have been established. The efficient and ethical procedures for conducting this research have been admirably well worked out and explained in Alexander Shulgin's and Ann Shulgin's wonderful bookPIHRAL~A ChemicaLLoveStory (Shulgin & Shulgin I99I), which details the synthesis and human testing of I79 novel compounds. See Ott 1995A for ethics of human vs. animal testing of entheogens. 7 On examining Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs (Efron et al I967), the proceedings of the 1967 conference organized during the administration of LB. Johnson, I note with sa~ess the extent to which the government of the United States has degenerated in the intervening 25 years. In 1967, even in the midst of widespread social unrest and a spreading so-called "drug plague" involving the use of marijuana and LSD by students and other elements of society, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a division of the Public Health Service in the former Department of Health, Education and Welfare, organized and financed an important international symposium dealing primarily with entheogenic drugs. Thirty-two scientists from eight countries (Argentina, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States and the ex-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) were invited to San Francisco by D.H. Efron of the "Psychopharmacology Research Branch" of the NIMH to present and discuss the latest research on psychoactive drugs (vide: Efron 1970). There were six sessions: I) Piper methysticum (kava); 2) phaImacology of kava; 3) Myristica ftagrans (nutmeg); 4) Sourh American snufF;; 5) ayahuasca, caapi,yage; and 6) Amanita muscaria (fly-agaric). There was open and frank discussion of the law (Freedman 1967), with conference co-organizer and co-editor of the proceedings Nathan S. Kline opining: "we probably should not, and in any case can not effectively, legislate against exploration of these otherworlds" (italics in the original; Kline 1967). The three editors (Americans Efron and Kline and Swede Eo Holmstedt) compiled a superb volume of proceedings of the symposium, produced by the U.S. GovernAYAHUASCA POTIONS ment Printing Office in a utilitarian, hardcover edition, which was sold at the bargain price of $4.00 per copy. The book was 468 pages in length, with 6 maps, 27 tables, 47 graphs, ?-TId 98 illustrations including rare photographs of indigenous use of South Arnerican snuffs, of antique snuff-related artifacts, chemical structures of active compounds, and photographs and botanical illustrations of many entheogenic plants, including Anadenanthera peregrina, Banisteriopsis caapi, Brunfelsia latifolia, Brunfelsia maritima (later identified as B. grandiflora; Plowman 1977), Lophophora williamsii, Salvia divinorum, Tetrapterys methystica, Trichocereus pachanoi and Virola calophylloidea. I consider the $4.00 price to be a bargain by comparing it with the 1964 edition of Weston La Barre's The Peyote Cult which came our ar $7.50 (260 pages in length) and the I967 edition of Hoffer and Osmond's The Hallucinogens, which cost $I5.00 (626 pages long). This book was the most complete study of kava hitherto published, and one of the most thorough studies of South American snuffs in print. It summarized the state of knowledge in 1967 on chemistry and pharmacology of nutmeg-related compounds, of the ~-carbolines of ayahuasca and of isoxazole compounds from Amanita muscana. This book has a good index and all of the papers have bibliographies. In short, our government in 1967 produced a valuable and useful book on psychoactive drugs, and made it available at an artificially low price. I found it to be one of the books in my library most frequently consulted during the writing of rhis book, and its value is further attested by the fact that, although the Superintendent of Documents of the U.S. Government Printing Office had not seen fit to keep the book in print, a commercial reprint edition of the uncopyrightedbook was brought out by Raven Press in 1979. And what has happened in the intervening 30 years? Federal and state governments now spend more than $ID billion per year on a quixotic "War on Drugs" (Nadelmann I989). How curious rhar the phrase 'War on Drugs" was borrowed verbatim from the tide of a magazine published by one of right-wing extremist Lyndon La Rouche's cover organizations, once beyond the pale politically and now part of official policy (BerIet 1981; Crawford I982)! Since waging war is one of the few activities which the United States government does more or less competently and with enthusiasm, we presently have "wars" on drugs, AIDS, poverty (invoking images of napalm attacks on the ghettos), cancer etc. and former President Carter called the energy/occological crisis "the moral equivalent of war" in order to get the public's attention (then Carter failed to WIn reelection principally because he neglected to sate the public appetite for real wars!). In former President George Bush's fiscal 1991 budget for the "National Drug Control Strategy," 71% of the funds were for interdiction and law-enforcement efforts, only 29% for "demand reduction" (Goldstein & Kalant 1990). "Demand reduction" includes education and research activities. Unfortunately, U.S. government drug "education" consists mainly of anti-drug propaganda, and, especially since the election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency, "drugabuseology research" has consisted mainly of a search for scientific rationalizations to support the prohibition of marijuana, cocaine and the entheogens. For someone today in the federal bureaucracy to organize a symposium, such as the one D.H. Efron organized in 1967, would be the "kiss of death" for her or his career ... for a contemporary researcher to question the drug laws in a U.S. government publication, as N.S. Kline did in 1967, would today be tantamount to self-destruction~to automatic disqualificat~on from further governmental research support, besides guaranteeing that the study PHARMACOTHEON would neither be printed nor disseminated. Imagine government employees today trying to publish a book like Ethnophannacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs! In an era in which there was an immediate hue and cry by the conservative element of the body politic over a proposed sex survey as part of the ''War on AIDS," and in which the government has immediately caved in and canceled research or publications which the conservatives found objectionable, it would be unthinkable for such a publication to appear. A book with illustrations of illegal drugs lacking the appropriate captions ("Dangerous and Addieting Narcotics") just won't pass muster ... a bookwith photographs of Indians snuffing (and enjoying) coca and DMT-containing snuffs, then dancing naked around the maloca (comml>nal dwelling) !A book with several photographs of adult males depictingfoll frontal nudity ... one cannot contemplate such a thing in I996 without the fiery, smoking spectacle of bureaucratic careers going down in flames! 8 Furthermore, Lamb's choice of the word wizardin the title ofWimrdoJthe Upper Amazon is inappropriate and unfelicitous. The original meaning of "philosopher, sage," perhaps intended by Lamb, has been lost, is obsolete, according to The Heritage Illustrated Dictionary of the English Language (1979, p. 1471). While the OxfordEnglish Dictionary (Compact Edition, p. 38°5) gives this as the first meaning, but it is accompanied by the legend "onen contemptuous, obsolete." The Oxford English Dictionary gives as a third meaning "a witch-doctor or medicine man," but the second meaning is "masculine correlative of witch," like the first meaning in The Heritage Illustrated Dictionary~" a male witch." We cannot overlook the fact that the word, owing to the success of the film The Wizard oJOz, has acquired the modern sense of "charlatan, imposter." A typical image conjured by the word is the graybeard buffoon with a pointy hat depicted in The Heritage IllustratedDictionary. In any case, this term, in Lamb's usage, is at best equivalent to "witch-doctor," evidently the intended meaning, as a pre-publication excerpt in Fate was entitled 'Witch Doctor of the Upper Amazon" (Horowitz 1992). "Witch doctor" is a pejorative and denigrating epithet having no place in a supposedly anthropological work. Or did Lamb have in mind The Wizard of Oz? 9 Details of the life of Mestre Raimundo Irineu Serra and the history of Santo Daime can be found in Edward MacRae's new book (published on the lOoth anniversary of the birth of Mestre Irineu) Guiado Pela Lua: Xamanismo e USo Ritual daAyahuasca no Culto do Santo Daime {MacRae 1992). Mestre Irineu (1892-1971) came into contact with Cashinahuaand other Indian groups who employed ayahuasca traditionally while he worked as a rubber tapper and later as an official of the Brasilian government agency demarcating the border with Bolivia and Peru. He also met Antonio andAndre Costa, two brothers who had been introduced to ayahuasca by Peruvian shaman Don Crescencio Pizango, and who later founded the circulo de Regeneracrao e Fe (CRF) early in the 19208. It was evidently during Mestre Irineu's association with CRF that he was initiated into the use of ayahuasca, and _ the CRF is considered to be the precursor to Santo Daime. Mestre Irineu had a falling-out with the Costa brothers, and soon founded his own church, the centro de Iluminacrao cristaLuz universal (C1CLU), commonly known as "Alto Santo," in Rio Branco, Acre state, around 1940. As early as 1930, Mestre Irineu began to attract disciples to his eclectic 266 r I I AYAHUASCA POTIONS ayahuasca church, which adopted ever more elements of Christianity, in an effort to avoid persecution under an 1890 federal law which illegalized practice of medicine without a license, curanderismo, and "poisonous substances" (i. e. ayahuasca and other shamanic inebriants). Mestre Irineu became a famous curandero and around1930 began to callayahuasca "Daime" from invocations such as "Da-me amor, luz, forcra" ("grant me love, light, power"). Daimewas the solar, masculine aspect in his doctrine, while the lunar, feminine aspectwas Nossa Senhora da Conceicrao or Rainha da Floresta. We know that at least as early as 193I, Mestre Irineu was leading public ayahuasca sessions and teaching his doctrine, and that his church was affiliated with the Rosicrucian Order and other Christian esoteric groups. The Santo Daime doctrine emphasizes a series of dualities-sun/moon; father! mother; God/Our Lady; man/woman; cipo or mariri or jagube (Banisteriopsis caapi)/ folha or rainha or chacrona (Psychotria viridis). The most successful of Mestre Irineu's many disciples was Sebastiao Mota de Melo or Padrinho Sebastiao, who became a disciple at Alto Santo in 1965, after Mestre Irineu cured him of a liver ailment and in the process introduced him to ayahuasca. Mestre Irineu authorized Padrinho Sebastiao to produce daime at the latter's ranch Colonia 5000 near Rio Branco, with the understanding that one-half of the production would go to Alto Santo. When Padrinho Sebastiao split with Mestre Irineu over political differences, Colonia 5000 became an independent group, which began to incorporate use of Cannabis (known as Santa lvfaria or maconha in Brasil) and other entheogens into the Daime liturgy. This led in October 198I to a raid on Colonia 5000 by federal police, who destroyed the Cannabis gardens. This provoked negative publicity, which ultimately led to the illegalization of ayahuasca in Brasil in 1985. Padrinho Sebastiao's group dropped the use of Cannabis and moved deeper into the forest in January 1983, two days' journey by canoe from the nearest town. The new colony was called Ceu do Mapia, and was located on a tributary of the RCo Purus, near traditional territory of Culina and Sharanahua Indians, whose ayahuasca was among the first to be studied chemically by Rivier and Lindgren in 1972. The cult grew and attracted outsiders-at first hippies in search of shamanic inebriants. In 1982 the first Daime church outside of Amazonia was founded in Rio de Janeiro, the Chamou-se centro Eclectico Fluente LUZ universal sebasti'o Mota de MElo (CEFLUSME), called Cou do Mar for short. The cult rapidly spread to other urban areas of Brasil. Meanwhile, an independent group called Centro Espfrita Beneficente uniao DO vegetal (UDV), founded in 1961 in Rondonia state by Jose Gabriel da Costa, began to spread in urban areas of Brasil, becoming today the largest ayahuasca church, later moving its headquarters to Brasilia, the new Brasilian capital, in the 19705. Other ayahuasca-using groups flourished, such as the Centro Espuita Culto de Oracrao Casa de Jesus Fonte de Luz (later called Centro Espirita Daniel Pereira de Matos; then Centro Espirita e Obra de Caridade Principe Espadarte Reino da Paz, or "a Barquinha"), centro Eclectico de correntes da LUZ universal (CECLU) and Centro Esplrita Fe, Luz, Amor e Caridade, all of Acre state and derivatives of Alto Santo. This rapid expansion frightened the Brasilian authorities, under pressure from the United States government and the United Nations to join the ''War on Drugs." In 1985 the Brasilian D1visao deMEDicamentos do Ministerio da Saude (Dimed) and the cONselho Federal de ENtorpecentes (Confen) added Banisteriopsis caapi to the controlled substances list. The UDV petitioned Confen to annul the ban, which they did on 26 August 1987. A government commission PHARMACOTHEON appointed to study the issue found no evidence of social disruption after six decades of sacramental use of daime and chd hoasca, and noted that the ethical and laboral behavior of members of the ayahuasca churches was above reproach. The commission based its conclusions on two years offield work among UDV and Santo Daime groups in Amazonia (Colonia 5000, Alto Santo, au do Mapia) and in urban areas (ceu do Mar and others). Members were interviewed, ritual use of daimeand hoascawas observed, and commission members, to their credit, themselves tried the sacrament in a ritual setting. The official report concluded that hoasca was an "hallucinogen," was little suited to ludible use owing to side-effects and that its use was well controlled by the rimal context of self-discovery and spiritual development. The I987 removal of Banisteriopsis caapi from the Brasilian controlled substances list effectively legalized its sacramental use in Brasil, and a meeting of disparate Daime church groups in May 1989 at ceu do Mapia led to the organization of a central church, centro Ech~ctico de Fluente Luz universal Raimundo rrineu serra (CEFLURIS), with the late Padrinho Sebastiao as head. Plantations of Banisteriopsis caapi andPsychotria viridis-have been established in Amazonia to supply the urban groups with the sacrament. Unfortunately, in 1988 there was an anonymous denunciation of Santo Daimeto Confen in Rio de Janeiro. The preposterous (and cowardly, given its anonymity) complaint alleged there were IO million "fanatics" of the ayahuasca sects, the bulk of whom were "toxicomaniacs or ex-guerillas" (here the right-wing political motivation of the complaint becomes manifest), who were given to smoking Cannabis and ingesting' lSD during the rites. Adepts were alleged to have been enslaved by the cults (an apparent attempt to play on fe~s kindled by the mass-suicides in Jonestown). Once again, Confen appointed a commission to study ayahuasca churches, which once again received a clean bill of health. Besides reaffirming the 1987 decree legalizing ritual use of hoasea in Brasil, the commission recommended permanent exemption of the potion frpm controlled substances laws, in spite of the fact that a review of the scientific literature had disclosed correctly that the potions contained DMT and harmine, both of which had already been officially proscribed in Brasil by Dimed. Commission member Isaac Karniol courageously and sensibly concluded that prohibition of sacramental use of ayahuasca would cause much more harm than any pharmacological action of the potion ever could. Six decades of sacramental use of the potion in Brasil had produced many positive effects, with no serious side-effects, and church members had learned adequately to regulate use without interference from the state, interference which could only provoke problems. Thanks to the legal status of hoasca in Brasil, attempts have been made to export the church to other countries. Although in the United States the church has not yet fared well, it appears to be establishing itself in Spain, Catalunya and other European countries. There has even been some door-to-door canvassing by Santo Daime members in Spain, attempting to solicit recruits to attend weekend retreats at which ayahuasca potions are served! The UDV has also established the church in other countries, even obtaining tax-exempt status in a few states in the U.S. With the 1994 federal legalization of the peyotl-using Native Ame1ican Church, and various federal court rulings extending religious freedom in the matter of genuine sacraments to non-Indians (Ott I995B), it would appear the door is open to establishment of the ayahuasca churches in the United States. However, the tenuous legal status of UDV in the U.S. has more to do with ignorance than tolerance by U.S. officials. ?hR T ! AYAHUASCA POTIONS TABLE 3 AYAHUASCA ADDITIVE PLANTS* ACANTHACEAE Teliostaehya lanceolata Nees var. crispa Nees' (Schultes 1972C) AMARANTHACEAE Alternanthera lehmannii Hieronymus' (Garcia Barriga 1958; Schultesl957A) Iresine sp. (Schultes & Hofinann 1979) APOCYNACEAE Himatanthus sucuuba (Spruce ex Mueller-Argoviensis) Woodson (Luna 1984B) Malouetia tamaquarina (Aublet) DC. (Pinkley 1969; Schultes 1957A; 1960) Mandevilla seabra Schumann (Luna & Arnaringo 1991) Tabernaemontana sp. (Luna 1984A; Luna 1984B; Pinkley 1969; Schultes 1972C) AQUIFOLIACEAE Ilex guayusa Loesne1' (Furst 1976; Schultes 1972D; Schultes & Raffauf 1990) ARACEAE Montriehardia arboreseens Schott (Luna 1984A) Spathiphyllum sp.' (Luz 1995) BIGNONIACEAE Mansoa alliaeea (Lamarck) A. Gentry (Luna 1984B) Tabebuia heteropoda (DC.) Sandwith (McKenna et at. 1986) Tabebuia incana A. Gentry (Luna 1984A) Tabebuia sp. (Luna 1984B) "Fynnanthus panurensis (Burman) Sandwith (Luna 1984B) BOMBACACEAE Cavanil1esia hylogeiton Ulbrich (Luna & Amaringo 1991) Cavanillesia umbellata Ruiz et Pav6n (Luna & Amaringo 1991) Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaertne1 (Luna 1984B) Chorisia insignis Humboldt, Bonpland et Kunth (Luna 1984B) Chorisia speciosa Humboldt, Bonpland et Kunth (McKenna et at. 1986) Quararibea "ishpingo" (Arevalo Valera 1986; Wassen 1979) CACTACEAE Epiphyllum sp. (Pinkley 1969; Rivier & Lindgren 1972) Opuntia sp.' (Rivier & Lindgren 1972) CARYOCARACEAE Anthodiscus pilosus Ducke (McKenna et at. 1986) CELASTRACEAE PHARMACOTHEON May tenus ebenifolia Reiss (Luna 1984A; Luna 19841') CYCLANTHACEAE Carludovica diver gens Ducke (Luna 1984A) CYPERACEAE Cyperus digitatus Roxburgh (McKenna et al 1986) Cyperus prolixus Humboldt, Bonpland et Kunth (McKenna et al 1986) Cyperus sp. (Pinkley 1969; Rivier & Lindgren 1972) DRYOPTERIDACEAE Lomariopsis japurensis (Martius)]. Sm. (Pinkley 1969; Rivier & Lindgren 1972) ERYTHROXYLACEAE Erythroxylum coca Lamarck var. ipadu Plowman' (Wilbert 1987) EUPHORBIACEAE Alchornea castanaefolia (Willdenow) Just. (Luna 1984A; Luna 1984B) Hura crepitans L. (Luna 1984A; Luna 1984B) GNETACEAE Gnetum nodiflorum Brongniart (Schultes & Raffauf 1990) GUTTIFERAE Clusia sp. (Rivier & Lindgren 1972; Schultes & Raffauf 1990) Tovomita sp. (Luna 1984B) Vismia guianensis (Aublet) Choisy (Luz 1995) LABIATAE Ocimum micranthum Willdenow (Pinkley 1969) LECYTHIDACEAE Couroupita guianensis Aublet (Luna 1984A; Luna 1984B) LEGUMINOSAE Bauhinia guianensis Aublet (Luna & Amaringo 1991) Caesalpinia echinata Lamarck (Luna 1984A) Calliandra angustifolia Spruce ex Bentham (Luna 1984B) Campsiandra laurifolia Bentham (Luna 1984A) Cedrelinga castaneiformis Ducke (Luna 1984B) Erythrina glauca Wuldenow (Luna 19841') Erythrina poeppigiana (Walpers) Cook (McKenna et al. 1986) Pithecellobium laetum Bentham (Luna 1984B) Sclerobium setiferum Ducke (McKenna et al 1986) Vouacapoua americana Aublet (Luna 1984B) LORANTHACEAE Phrygilanthus eugenioides (L.) HBK (Pinkley 1969; Rivier & Lindgren 1972) I i I , AYAHUASCA POTIONS Phrygilanthus eugenioicles (L.) HBK var. robustus Glaz. (McKenna et al. 1986) Phthirusa pyrifolia (HBK) Eichler (Luna 1984A; Luna 19841') MALPIGHIACEAE Diplopterys cabrerana (Cuatrecasas) Gates' (Agurell et al 1968B; Der Marderosian et al 1968; Pinkley 1969; Poisson 1965; Schultes 1972C) Diplopterys involuta (Turc2aninow) Niedenzu =Mezia includens (Bentham) Cuatrecasas4 (Schultes 19.83B) Mascagnia psilophylla (Jussieu) Grisebach vat. antifebrilis Niedenzu' =Cabi paraensis (Jussieu) Grisebach; Callaeum antifebrile (Grisebach) Johnson (Schultes 1957A) MARANTACEAE Calathea veitchiana Veitch ex Hooker fil (Schultes 1972C) MENISPERMACEAE Abuta grandifolia (Martius) Sandwith (Luna 1984B) MORACEAE Coussapoa tessmannii Mildbread (McKenna et al 1986) Ficus insipida Willdenow (Luna 1984B) Ficus ruiziana Standley (McKenna et al 1986) FicUs sp. (Luna 1984B) MYRISTICACEAE Virola sp. (Luna 1984B) Virola surinamensis (Roland) Warburg (Luna 1984A; Luna 1984B) NYMPHIACEAE Cabomba aquatica Aublet (McKenna et al 1986) PHYTOLACCACEAE Petiveria alliacea L. (Luna 1984B) PIPERACEAE Piper sp. (Schultes & Raffuuf 1990) POLYGONACEAE Triplaris surinamensis Chamisso (Luna 1984A; Luna 1984B) Triplaris surinamensis Cham. var. chamissoana Meissner (McKenna et al. 1986) PONTEDERIACEAE Pontecleria cordata L. 4 (Schultes 1972C) RUBIACEAE Calycophyllum spruceanum (Bentham) Hooker fil. ex Schumann (Luna 1984A) Capirona decorticam Spruce (Luna 19841') Gnettarda ferox Standley (McKenna et al 1986) PHARMACOTHEON Psychotria carthaginensis Jacquin' (Luna 1984A; Pinkley 1969; Schultes 1972C) Psychotria psychotriaefolia (Seemann) Standley (Pinkley 1969; Prance 1970) Psycho tria "batsikawa" (Der Marderosian et al. 1970; Rivier & Lindgren 1972) Psychotria "nai kawa" (Der Marderosian et al. 1970) Psychotria ''pishikawa'' (Rivier & Lindgren 1972) Psychotria viridis Rulz et Pav6n' (Luna 1984A; Pinkley 1969; Prance 1970) Rudgea retifolia Standley (Schultes 1985C; Schultes & Raffauf 1990) Sabicea amazonensis Wernharn (Hugh-Jones 1979; Schultes 1985C; Schultes & Raifauf 1990; Schultes & Raifauf 1992) Uncaria guianensis (Aublet) Gmelin (McKenna et al. 1986) SAPINDACEAE Paullinia yoco Schultes et Killip' (Langdon 1986) SCHIZAEACEAE Lygodium venustum Swartz (Pinkley 1969; Rivier & Lindgren 1972) SCROPHUlARlACEAE Scoparia dulcis L. (Luna 1984B) SOLANACEAE Brugmansia insiguis (Barbosa-Rodrigues) Lockwood ex Schultes' (Schultes & Raifaufr990 ) Brugmansia suaveolens (Humb. et Bonpl. ex Willd.) Berchtold et Presl' (Dobkin de Rios '970B; Luna 1984A; Luna 19848; Rivier & Lindgren 1972) Brunftlsia chiricaspi Plowman' (Plowman 1977) Brunftlsia grandiflora D. Don' (Plowman '977; Schultes & Raifauf 1990) Brunftlsia grandiflora D. Don subsp. schultesii Plowman' (Luna 1984B; Pinkley 1969; Plowman '977; Schultes & Raifauf 1990) Capsicum sp. (Rivier & Lindgren 1972; Schultes & Raffaufr990) Iochroma fuchsioides (HBK) Miers' (McKenna et al. 1986) Juanulloa ochracea Cuatrecasas 4 (Schultes 1972C) Nicotiana rustica L.' (Luna 19848; Wilbert 1987) Nicotiana tabacum L.' (Luna 1984B; Schultes 1972C; Wilbert 1987) VERBENACEAE Cornutia odorata (Poeppig et Endlicher) Poeppig (McKenna et al. 1984A) Vitex triflora Vah\ (McKenna et al. 1986) VIOLACEAE Rinorea viridiflora Rusby 4 (Schultes & Raifauf 1990) 272 AYAHUASCA POTIONS NOTES 1 These ayahuasca additives are lrnown entheogenic plants, many of which are at times-used alone for their psychoptic effect, in absence of ayahuasca. 2 These ayahuasca cohorts are known stimulants, used alone and as ayahuasca additives. In the latter case, their function appears to be counteracting the marked soporific effects of ayahuasca, so shaman or patient will not fall asleep during the session. Both flex guayusa and Paullinia 3'0CO are known to be abundant sources of the stimulant caffein~ (Lewis et aL 1991; Schultes '986A; Schultes & Raffauf 1990). and Erythroxlum coca var. ipadu is a known source of the stimulant cocaine (Holmstedt et aL 1971; Plowman 1981). 3 It was recently reported that a species of Spathiphyllum is burned and the ash leached with water to yield a powder for coating "edible" pellets ofVirola resin used by the Witoto Indians of the Colombian Amazon (Schultes & Raffauf 1990). See: Chapte1 3, "Chemistry ofEntheogenic Virola Snuffs." 4 These species have not been reported to be used as ayahuasca additives, but are presumed to have been so used, because they are sometimes known by the name ayahuasca or chacruna or are otherwise somehow related to the famous potion (Schultes 1972C; Schultes 1985C; Schultes & Raffuufr990). * This Table lists plant species reportedly used as additives or "admixtures" to entheogenic ayahuasca potions in Amazonia. In many cases, the additives are said to "heighten and lengthen" the visionary properties of the brews (Schultes & Hofmann 1980). In other cases, additive plants are stimulants whose effect counteracts the soporific properties of the simple extracts of Banisteriopsis caapi (Furst 1976; Schultes & Raffauf1990). Finally, some additives appear to be therapeutic (Luna 1984A; Luna 1984B; Luna & Amaringo 1991; McKenna et al. 1986) and probably do not exert psychoactive effects. Many of the plants listed here are simply unknown chemically and the rationale for their use in ayahuasca is obscure. Certainly some of these unknown plants will prove to be psychoactive. The chemistry of 56 sp-ecies of ayahuasca additive plants has recently been reviewed by D.}. McKenna and colleagues, who aptly characterize the Amazonian ayahuasca complex as a "traditional pharmacopoeia" (McKenna et a1. 1986). There may be some duplication in this table. For example, Luna (1984<\) reported a 1ilbebuiaspecies as ayahuasca additive, then two-years later reported Tabebuia heteropoda as additive (McKenna et al 1986). The Cyperus species reported as ayahuasca admixture two decades ago (PinkleYl969; Rivier & Lindgren 1972) may be either C. prolixus Ot C. digitatus reported subsequently (the former in the English version and thelarter in the Spanish of McKenna et aL 1986). Similarly, the Ficus species Luna (19848) reported may be F. ruiziana he reported two years later (McKenna et al. 1986). . 273