Camsripce, Massacuusetts, JUNE 25, 1969 
BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
DE PLANTIS TOXICARIIS E MUNDO 
NOVO TROPICALE COMMENTATIONES V 
Virola as an orally administered hallucinogen 
BY 
Ricuarp Evans SCHULTES 
In 1954, the source of a new hallucinogenic snuff from 
the northwest Amazon was identified as the resin of 
several species of the myristicaceous genus V7irola (17). 
The species employed amongst Indians of the Amazon- 
ian region of Colombia were Virola calophylla Warburg, 
V. calophylloidea Markgraf and probably also V’. elongata 
(Benth.) Warburg. 
Additional but often rather vague reports seemed to 
indicate that this same kind of snuff was prepared and 
utilized in the headwaters of the Orinoco in Venezuela 
(15, 27, 29) and to the north of the Rio Negro of Brazil 
(4,8,9, 14,27). Eventually, specimens and photographs 
documented the use of Virola-bark for this purpose in 
that part of Brazil (24). Finally, in 1968, a detailed 
ethnotoxicological study of these myristicaceous snuffs 
(23) showed that the species employed, apparently to 
the exclusion of others, by diverse groups of Waika In- 
dians of northern tributaries of the Rio Negro in Brazil 
is Virola theiodora (Spr. ex Benth.) Warburg. 
In the absence of phytochemical analysis of the snuff 
or of the resin from which it was made, the identity of 
the active principle of Virola calophylla and V. calo- 
[ 229 ] 
