BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS VoL. 25, No.3 
DE PLANTIS TOXICARIIS E MUNDO NOVO 
TROPICALE COMMENTATIONES XV 
Desfontainia: a new Andean hallucinogen 
RICHARD EVANS SCHULTES 
In 1965, Dr. Carlos Mariani Ramirez (Témas de Hipnosis, 
362-363, tab. 23, Editorial Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile) pub- 
lished a most interesting report which stated that the leaves of 
Desfontainia spinosa var. Hookeri are employed in Chile as a 
narcotic and stomachic. He further maintained that the leaves 
are as bitter as gentian and that the local Mapuche Indians use 
them as a source of yellow dye in their textiles. The vernacular 
names of this shrub in Chile are taique, chapico, michai blanco 
and trautrau. Anexcellent drawing of the plant accompanied the 
report in lieu of a voucher specimen. 
On the basis of this Chilean record, Desfontainia has recently 
been included in several books on hallucinogenic plants 
(Schultes, R.E., Hallucinogenic Plants (1976) 150-151, Golden 
Press, New York; Schultes, R.E. in[B.M. DuToit, Ed.] Drugs, 
Rituals and Altered States of Consciousness (1977) 48, 263, A. 
A. Balkema, Rotterdam; Schultes, R. E. in [P. T. Furst, Ed.] 
Flesh of the Gods (1972) 52, Praeger Publishers, New York; 
Schultes and Hofmann, The Botany and Chemistry of Hal- 
lucinogens (1973)219; W. A. Emboden, Jr., Narcotic Plants 
(1972)76, tab. 63. Macmillan Co., New York). 
During my years of ethnobotanical studies in Colombia, I was 
able twice to collect Desfontainia spinosa with annotations con- 
cerning its use as a native hallucinogen. In both cases, the use 
was centered in the Valle de Sibundoy, a mountain-girt valley at 
6700 feet, east of the Colombian city of Pasto. The valley is the 
abode of Kamsa and Ingano Indians and is an area where native 
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