Cuatr. var. /aevis Cuatr., B. quitensis, Ndz. Mascagnia glan- 
dulifera Cuatr., Tetrapteris methystica R. E. Schult., 7. mu- 
cronata Cav. (Schultes, 1957: Friedberg, 1965; Schultes, 1975; 
Cuatrecasas, 1958). 
The study of the botany and chemistry of this narcotic have 
been complicated by the discovery that many other plants in 
sundry families are frequently employed as additives, primar- 
ily to alter the effects of the drug. Botanical investigations have 
been made more difficult by the lack of taxonomic understand- 
ing of the Malpighiaceae until recently and chemical analyses 
have suffered from both this lack of botanical precision and 
from the usual absence of voucher specimens on which exact 
identification of the vegetal material might be authenticated. 
The earliest report of ayahuasca appears to be that of the 
Ecuadorian geographer Manuel Villavicencio who, in 1858 
stated, without citing botanical material, that the source of the 
drug, was a vine employed by the Zaparo, Angatero, Mazan 
and other tribes of the Rio Napo (Villavicencio, 1858). 
Seven years earlier, however, in 1851, Spruce had dis- 
covered Tukanoan Indians along the Rio Uaupes of Amazo- 
nian Brazil using a liana known as caapi, but his observations 
were not published until later (Spruce, 1874, 1908). He pre- 
cisely identified caapi as a new malpighiaceous species, which 
he named Banisteria Caapi. Recent botanical studies have 
shown that the concept is more correctly accommodated in the 
related genus Banisteriopsis. Spruce made an ample collection 
of the liana in full flower — specimens taken from the same vine 
from which the drink was prepared. He was so far ahead of his 
time, actually, that he collected stems for chemical analysis — 
material that was not chemically studied until 1969 (Schultes, 
Holmstedt and Lindgren, 1969). 
Later, in 1853, Spruce met with the use of caapi amongst the 
Guahibos of the Orinoco where, he reported, the Indians “‘not 
only drink an infusion, like those of the Uaupes, but also chew 
the dried stem”’ (Spruce, 1908). Again, in 1857, he encountered 
the Zaparos of Ecuador taking ayahuasca, and he considered it 
to be ‘‘the identical species of the Uaupés, but under a different 
name’ (Spruce, 1908). 
In the century that followed Spruce’s remarkable work, 
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