seeds are narcotic, dulling the senses and understanding, and they 
are occasionally administered with evil intent as a powder in food. 
Some natives assert that there are those who have gone mad 
merely by lying down to sleep in the shade of these trees. 
Datura Stramonium L. Sp. Pl. (1753) 179. 
(tonco-tonco; chamico) 
This plant is known in Peru as chamico because of the criminal 
use that the Indians are accustomed to make of it: to intoxicate 
each other when they feel that they have been wronged or when 
they are overtaken by jealousy in their love affairs. This practice 
has given rise to the common Peruvian adage: “Esta chamicado 
fulano o fulana.” (So—and- is under the influence of chamico.) 
—applied whenever a person is either pensive, taciturn, absent- 
minded or else too tipsy from drink or from other causes. Whilst 
Ruiz and his group were in Hudnuco, a boy of ten gave a 
schoolmate of his own age powdered seeds of chamico in bread. 
Within a few hours, it began to exercise its narcotic effects, as 
though the boy had taken wine. Dombey (the French botanist 
accompanying Ruiz) was called in by the boy’s parents to 
administer a remedy; but, notwithstanding the emetics and other 
medicines that Dombey prescribed, the boy was rendered perma- 
nently stupid and silly. Before the poisoning, he had been 
intelligent, keen, mischievous and full of fun in boyhood games, 
but his former personality was lost forever. 
The natives apply the crushed leaves and seeds in a poultice to 
treat piles, and the effects are excellent. Some people are 
accustomed to drink an infusion of a few leaves to relieve pains in 
urinating and irritations of the skin caused by bitter and strong 
purgatives. The use of the crushed leaves, mixed with vinegar, is 
frequently made as a poultice for the spine or kidneys, in order to 
lower fevers and to lessen rheumatic pains and reduce the swelling 
of hernias. 
Fabiana imbricata R. et P. Fl. Peruv. 2 (1799) 12, t. 122. 
(pichi) 
Plentiful on sandy banks of estuaries and rivers, this plant is 
believed to possess wondrous anthelmintic properties for curing 
sheeps and goats of pirguin, an ailment that wipes out whole 
flocks. This is why farmers take affected animals to pastures 
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