Mimosa hostilis / Jurema / Leguminosae (Pea family)

Information

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Other Names

Mimosa, Jurema, Jurema preta, Vinho da Jurema.

Description

In North-eastern Brazil, this plant is called "Jurema", a common flowering Leguminous tree. Most of them are American, although some occur in Africa and Asia. Jurema is native only to the dry regions of eastern Brazil. Jurema has been used as an entheogenic beverage since time immemorial. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, "Vinho da Jurema" was reported several times. Later, its use was thought to be extinct. It evidently went underground, although truly indigenous tribes using Jurema probably also became extinct as its use has later only been reported among "mixed" populations. In 1964 Mimosa hostilis was identified as the source of Jurema. Especially the inner root-bark has a high tryptamine content.

Contents

N,N Dimethyltryptamine was originally isolated from the bark of M. hostilis in 1946. However the authors then named it nigerine after the entheogenic beverage made from the plant. In 1959 nigerine was actually discovered to be N,N Dimethyltryptamine (Pachter et al, 1959). Other compounds found in Mimosa tenuiflorae which is believed to be another name for M. hostilis include yuremamine, a new type of phytoindole. This compound may be responsible for the supposed oral activity of cold water infusions of this plant unlike Ayahuasca brews which involve Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor plants in combination with DMT containing plants (Vepslaainen et al 2005). The bark of M. tenuiflorae also contains tannins and triterpenoidal saponins. These compounds are believed to be responsible for the antimicrobial and wound healing properties of the plant bark. "Recently, clinical studies performed at Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) hospitals with a standardized tannin content extract obtained from Mimosae tenuiflora bark showed excellent therapeutic properties on being applied in the treatment of skin venous leg ulcerations," (Rivera-Arce et al, 2007).

Historical

The Jurema brew the Indians drink is not Mimosa Hostilis, but the root bark from Mimosa Verrucosa. Different tribes will call Mimosa Hostilis, the Jurema Negra and Mimosa Verrucosa, the Jurema Branca, while other tribes call Mimosa Verrucosa, the Jurema Negra. This means that when an Indian says that they drink Jurema Negra, it does not necessarily mean they are drinking Mimosa Hostilis, but Mimosa Verrucosa which is called both: Jurema Branca and Jurema Negra. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there were a number of reports from North-eastern Brazil of the use of an inebriating beverage called Vinho da Jurema (Goncalves de Lima 1946), a use said to be extinct today (Schultes and Hofmann 1980) but evidently continuing underground (Da Mota 1987). In 1964, the botanical source of Vinho da Jurema was identified as the roots of Mimosa Hostilis.

Plant Description

Mimosa tenuiflora is a perennial evergreen shrub native to the northeastern region of Brazil and found as far north as southern Mexico. It is one of scores of Mimosa species and cognates. The white, fragrant flowers occur in loosely cylindrical spikes. The fern-like branches have leaves that are finely pinnate, growing to 5 cm long. The brittle fruits average 3 cm long. The plant itself grows to 4 meters in height.

Legal Remarks

This product is illegal or somehow problematic to send to the following countries. Click on the country link for further information.

• Poland
• Reunion
• Bulgaria
• Lithuania
• Ukraine
• France

References

- I.J. Pachter, D.E. Zacharias, O. Ribeiro, "Indole Alkaloids of Acer saccharinum (the Silver Maple), Dictyloma incanescens, Piptadenia columbrina, and Mimosa hostilis", J. Org. Chem. 24
- Vepsalainen, JJ; Auriola, S; Tukiainen, M; Ropponen, N; Callaway, JC, Isolation and characterization of yuremamine, a new phytoindole
- Rivera-Arce, E (Rivera-Arce, E.); Gattuso, M (Gattuso, M.); Alvarado, R (Alvarado, R.); Zarate, E (Zarate, E.); Aguero, J (Agueero, J.); Feria, I (Feria, I.); Lozoya, X (Lozoya, X.), Pharmacognostical studies of the plant drug Mimosae tenuiflorae cortex, JOURNAL OF ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY
- Mimosa, Erowid
- Peter Stafford, Psychedelics Encyclopedia
- Jonathan Ott, Pharmacotheon

Articles

Any information provided about products on this website, including any links to external websites, is purely intended for historical, scientific and educational purposes and should never be interpreted as a recommendation for a specific use of the products.

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