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Ayahuasca
Maya Ethnobotanicals specifically does not intend to popularize or promote Ayahuasca use. We provide this shamanic tool for those who know what they need and how to prepare it, and more importantly, know about and respect it`s inherent powers. We strongly discourage anyone without knowledge about the subject, or without ever having encountered Ayahuasca before, to use it without prior extensive research on the subject. Therefore, we provide basic historical information in our descriptions, with minimal detail about preparation, effects or experiences. It is in our opinion impossible and unethical to compress the subject Ayahuasca into a "kit" with a "manual" and simply define its use and effects in a thousand words. It is too complex. The many excellent links that we provide, will certainly encourage those interested in Ayahuasca, in doing their own research, to learn about all the aspects on the subject.
It is important to know that although the plants that are used for making Ayahuasca are legal, some of their chemical components are not. N,N dimethyltryptamine, present in Ayahuasca admixture plants, is a substance included in Schedule I of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances. However, no plants (natural materials) containing N,N dimethyltryptamine are at present controlled under the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Consequently, preparations (e.g. decoctions) made of these plants, including Ayahuasca are not under international control and, therefore, not subject to any of the articles of the 1971 Convention. See also: Freedom of Religion versus the Psychotropic Substance Treaty - Court Case in Holland against the use of Ayahuasca
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Ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi)
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The Ayahuasca brew is considered by the Amazon's tribes as one of the masters "teacher plants". It has been used by shamans of the Peruvian Andes and Amazon jungle for centuries as an essential part of their traditional medicine, their cultural identity, and as a way of expanding consciousness. In Quechua, the term "Aya" means "Spirit" or "Soul", while "Huasca" means "rope" (the soul's rope). Banisteriopsis caapi is a vine, connecting the earth with the heavens. The plant and the usage has first been described by the botanist Richard Spruce who came across it in the Amazon in 1851 and 1853. The working-mechanisms of Ayahuasca, however, have been unclear until the 1980's. |
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Chacruna (Psychotria viridis)
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Psychotria viridis is a shrub from the Coffee family. It is the most common admixture to the Ayahuasca brew used in South and Central America. It has many local names, including Chacruna and Chacrona (from Quechua "chaqruy", "to mix"). The Brazilian Ayahuasca church, Santo Daime, holds that Banisteriopsis caapi, the primary component of Ayahuasca, provides "force" to the tea, whereas Chacruna provides "light". Psychotria viridis contains N,N dimethyltryptamine, which is orally acitve only if taken with monoamine oxidase inhibitors, such as the beta-carbolines found in the Banisteriopsis caapi vine. |
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Chaliponga (Diplopterys cabrerana)
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Diplopterys cabrerana is a liana from the tropical parts of South America. This liana looks like the Ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) and was formerly known as Banisteriopsis rusbyana. Diplopterys is favored by Ayahuasca shamans in Amazonian Ecuador and western Colombia, whereas in Brazil and Peru, Chacruna (Psychotria viridis) is the preferred admixture plant. The leaves of Diplopterys are known as Chagropanga and Chaliponga and commonly used as an additive to Ayahuasca brews. The brew with Diplopterys is generally known as Oco-yage, (water-yage). The leaves of Diplopterys cabrerana contain tryptamine alkaloids. The Sionas, for example, use this species to "enhance the visions" to "bring them into focus and bring about longer duration". |
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Jurema (Mimosa hostilis)
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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. |
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Syrian Rue (Peganum harmala)
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Syrian Rue (Peganum harmala) is thought to have been traditionally used for psychoactive effects. (Stafford, 1995) This species belongs to the Zygophyllaceae family. Seeds from the Syrian Rue contain compounds known as harmala alkaloids. Syrian Rue has a long history of use as a psychoactive drug. It has been used as an entheogen in the Middle East for thousands of years, and in modern Western culture, it is often used as an analogue of Banisteriopsis caapi to create an ad-hoc Ayahuasca. Syrian Rue however has distinct aspects from Banisteriopsis caapi and a unique entheogenic signature. |
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Virola (Virola peruviana)
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Trees of the genus Virola, are widely used by groups in wet tropical forests of South America. These tribes include the Waika of the upper Orinoco area in Venezuela and northern Brazil and the Paumarí from near the Rio Purus in Amazonian Brazil. Depending on locality, the snuff made from Virola carries the general names applied to all snuffs, such as Ebene, Epena, Viho, Parica, Yakawana, and Nyakwana, among others. The Tukano, for example, see this sacred snuff as the "semen of Father Sun", obtained by his daughter with whom he had incest. Thus the Tukano received this sacred snuff from the sun’s semen and keep it in containers called "muhipu-nuri", or "penis of the sun". |