aside in a hut, with only the damp earth for floor, and 
remained there many months, when my triend Senhor 
Henrique Antoni of Manos... succeeded in redeem- 
ing them and getting them sent to the port of Para. 
When Mr. Bentham came to open them in England, 
he found the contents somewhat injured by damp and 
mould, and the sheets of specimens near the bottom of 
the boxes quite ruined. The bundle of the caapi would 
presumably have quite lost its virtue from the same 
‘cause, and I do not know that it was ever analyzed 
chemically ; but some portion of it should be in the Kew 
Museum at this day.” 
In an address at the [IT International Pharmacologi- 
‘al Congress in Sio Paulo, Brazil, in 1966, one of the 
authors (2, 2a) said: *‘One of the most interesting exer- 
cises that I can imagine would be the analysis of a small 
portion of this original Spruce material—if, indeed, it is 
still preserved at) Kew—with our modern improved 
chemical techniques. The active principles of caapi (har- 
mine type alkaloids) might not have deteriorated with 
the mildew, and it is possible that even in this more than 
a century of storage, the alkaloids would be intact.” 
In later discussions of this interesting experiment, we 
resolved to try to follow it up. Accordingly, on Decem- 
ber 21, 1967, we wrote to Sir George Taylor, Director 
of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and requested a 
small amount of the stem material of Banisteriopsis Caapi 
to which Spruce had referred, if it still existed. Shortly 
thereafter, Sir George and Dr. Patrick Brenan, Keeper, 
located this valuable historical collection and, on April 
26, 1968, sent a letter informing us that some of this 
material would be made available for chemical study. 
Also enclosed were notes on the material from the entry 
book for 1854. The label on the specimens states: 
“Stems of Banisteria sp. used with the roots and leaves 
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