collector (Heinrichs 496/) states that the roots are employed in 
Ecuador as a fish poison. 
BRUNFELSIA GRANDIFLORA AS A MEDICINE 
Collectors of the species frequently mention the effect of 
cold or chills produced when the ground bark or root is taken 
(Cuatrecasas 11275, Mexia 6444, Pinkley 43, 202, 444, 450, 
457, Plowman 2019). Other reports indicate that the roots are 
employed against rheumatism (Mexia 6444, Plowman 2494, 
Woytkowski 6170). Still other workers have stated that the 
plant is used against fevers (Juajibioy 277; Pérez Arbelaez 688; 
Plowman 2040), against snakebite (Scolnik 1495) or simply that 
it is medicinal (Woytkowski 5525). 
My field work and that of others in the Amazon basin have 
served to substantiate these often vague claims of physiologi- 
cal activity. In the region around Iquitos, Peru, and probably 
throughout most of the Peruvian Amazon, Brunfelsia grandi- 
flora is one of the most important medicines against rheuma- 
tism and arthritis. One informant, a Kokama Indian from the 
Rio Ucayali, provided the following recipe for preparing the 
drug (Tina, 1969): 
“The root is scraped and placed in cold water or chicha de 
maiz. This is then taken in wineglassful doses. To increase the 
dose, the bark of other trees may be added, including remocaspi 
(Pithecelobium laetum Benth.), chuchuhuasi (Heisteria pallida 
Engl.) and Auacapurana (Campsiandra laurifolia Benth.). The 
root of chiric sanango may also be prepared with aguardiente 
(cane alcohol). About S50 grams of scraped root and bark are 
added to one liter of alcohol. A small glass is then drunk before 
meals until four liters have been consumed.”’ 
Pinkley, who worked extensively on the ethnobotany of the 
Kofan tribe of Ecuador and Colombia, found that the lowland 
Quechuas on the Rio Napo in Ecuador also utilize Brunfelsia 
grandiflora as a remedy for rheumatism: 
They take it if they have a burning in the lower part of their 
back. They place their hands in the area of the kidneys. Upon 
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