LEGUMINOSAE 
Anadenanthera Spegazzini 
Historically, the most important South American hallucino- 
genic snuff is yopo orniopo, now used almost exclusively in the 
Orinoco basin of Colombia and Venezuela. 
The earliest report of what undoubtedly must have been this 
snuff dates from observations made in 1496 (Safford, 1916). 
The Taino Indians of Hispaniola called the snuff cohoba. They 
inhaled it to communicate with the spirit world. It was, accord- 
ing to anearly writer, **. . . so strong that those who take it lose 
consciousness; when the stupefying action begins to wane, the 
arms and legs become loose and the head droops .. . and 
almost immediately they believe that they see the room turn 
upside-down and men walking with their heads downwards.” 
Because of the almost complete disappearance of Indians from 
the Caribbean, the use of the cohoba snuff no longer exists in 
the Antilles. For many years, cohoba was thought to have been 
tobacco-snuff, in spite of the clearly very different effects 
noted in this earliest observation. 
In 1916, the American ethnobotanist William E. Safford 
definitely identified the cohoba of the West Indies as the same 
intoxicating snuff as yopo of the Orinoco (Safford, 1916). Point- 
ing out that the intoxication caused by yopo of the Orinoco was 
very similar to that described for cohoba, Safford suggested 
that the two must be one snuff under different names. He 
reasoned that, since the West Indian islands were populated by 
several invasions of Indians from northern South America, the 
custom of using this snuff — as well as the source plant itself — 
had been introduced to the Caribbean Islands from the Orinoco 
basin. The pattern of distribution of this tree in the West Indies 
does indeed suggest that it is an introduction. 
The snuff was mentioned by the early Jesuit explore of the 
Orinoco region, José Gumilla, in his book E/ Orinoco Ilustrado 
of 1741. 
The earliest botanical report of yopo appears to be that of the 
German naturalist-explorer Baron Alexander von Humboldt 
who, in 1801, identified the source as Acacia Niopo — an early 
name for the plant now known as Anadenanthera peregrina 
oy 
