identification to be in error. On the other hand, the ad- 
dition of leaves of Banisteriopsis Rusbyana to the bark 
and wood of B. Caapi is a well known practice (38), and 
this species ranges from Colombia to Bolivia, including 
the region in Peru from which Hochstein and Paradies 
obtained their materials. It is wholly possible, then, that 
this indole analogue of serotonin is present in B. Rus- 
byana. Dimethyltryptamine is known to have psycho- 
tropic action in man (37). 
N, N-dimethyltryptamine has been isolated also from 
the seeds of the mimosoid legumes Anadenanthera pere- 
grina(L.) Speg. (syn. : Piptadenia peregrina L. ; 2) and 
A.colubrina var. Cebil (Griseb.) v. Reis (syn. : P. macro- 
carpa Benth. ; 2), from which the narcotic snuff cohoba, 
vilca or yopo is prepared over a wide area in South Amer- 
ica (13, 34). Pachter et al. (27) recovered the same tryp- 
tamine from another related legume, Mimosa hostilis 
Benth., used by the Pancurt of northeastern Brazil to 
prepare their psychotropic drink, vinho de Jurumena. 
Holmstedt (77) finds this alkaloid, as well as two of its 
analogues, in epend, an intoxicating snuff used by the 
Waica in northwestern Brazil. The wood anatomy of 
this drug source indicates a species of Virola (Myristi- 
caceae). 
IV 
Recent biochemical and pharmacological studies of 
the harmala alkaloids bring us toward an understanding 
of Banisteriopsis intoxication. Udenfriend et al. (42) 
showed harmaline to be one of the most potent, but re- 
versible, inhibitors of monoamine oxidase (M AQ) activ- 
ity, and Pletscher et al. (37) extended this finding to the 
other methoxy-harmanes, harmine and tetrahydrohar- 
mine, using murine brain in vivo. Harmaline’s inhibition 
of MAO in rat brain was seen to last for from twelve to 
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