CoLomsBiA: Comisaria del Vaupés, Rio Vaupés, Cachivera de Tatu. “Tree 45 
feet. Flowers green.” October 10, 1966. R. E. Schultes, R. F. Raffauf et D. 
Soejarto 24377. 
All parts of this plant tested very positive for alkaloids with 
Dragendorff reagent. 
Guatteria dura R. £. Fries in Acta Horti Berg. 12 (1939) 499. 
CoLomBIA: Comisaria del Vaupés, Rio Kuduyari. “Tree 18 feet. Flowers 
yellow-green, cauliforous.” October 10, 1966. R. E. Schultes, R. F. Raffauf et 
D. Soejarto 2439]. 
The Kubeos formerly employed this plant in a formula for 
making curare. 
With Dragendorff reagent, the bark tested highly positive for 
alkaloids, the leaves slightly positive. 
Several alkaloids have been reported from the genus Guatteria 
(Raffauf: loc. cit. (1970)). 
Unonopsis veneficiorum (Mart.) R. E. Fries in Acta Hort. Berg. 
12 (1939) 238. 
CoLomBIA: Comisaria del Vaupés, Rio Piraparana. Right tributary of Rio 
Macu-parana. June 1-8, 1970. P. Silverwood-Cope 11.— Rio Apaporis basin, 
Rio Pacoa. February 7-12, 1952. R. E. Schultes et I. Cabrera 15269. 
The nomadic Maku Indians of the Rio Piraparana have an 
extensive ethnopharmacopoeia. They indicate that Unonopsis 
veneficiorum is employed as an antifertility agent. Its name in 
Maku —we-wit-kat-ku ’— means “no children medicine.” No 
further information, unfortunately, is available concerning 
method of preparation and use. 
The Barasana Indians of the Apaporis basin employ the root 
and bark of the lower stem in the preparation of an arrow poison. 
This report (Schultes: Bot. Mus. Leafl., Harvard Univ. 25 (1977) 
114) represents apparently the third concerning the role of the 
plant in curare. The Puinaves, a number of whom migrated into 
the Rio Apaporis area, were not aware of this use of Unonopsis 
veneficiorum, even though they know the plant and look upon it 
as “dangerous”; the Puinave name is choon. 
This annonaceous species apparently is rather widely utilized 
in the Colombian Amazon as the basis of a curare. The first 
report was published by von Martius (Spix, J. B. et K. F. D. 
Martius: Reise in Brasilien (1831) 1237) who stated that Indians 
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