doctors employ it; but in Brazil the intoxicant is taken by all 
adult males in excess, either individually at any time or ritually 
at endocannibalistic ceremonies amongst the Waikas. The resin, 
which is boiled, dried, pulverized, and occasionally mixed with 
powdered leaves of a Justicia species and bark-ashes of Theo- 
broma subincanum Mart. or Elizabetha princeps Schomb. ex 
Benth., acts rapidly and violently. Effects include excitement, 
numbness of the limbs, twitching of facial muscles, nausea, 
hallucinations, and finally a deep sleep; use is frequent and it 
enters into Waika beliefs about the spirits resident in the drug. 
Contemporary investigations indicate that the snuff prepared 
from Virola theiodora contains normally up to 8% 5-methoxy- 
N,N-dimethyltryptamine, with lesser amounts of N,N-dimethyl- 
tryptamine (Agurell et al. 1968b; Holmstedt 1965). There is 
appreciable variation in alkaloid concentration in different parts 
(leaves, bark, root) of V. theiodora, but the content in the bark 
resin may reach as high as 11%. Two new f-carbolines have 
likewise been found in V. theiodora (Agurell et al. |968b). 
Of other species of Virola investigated, V. rufula (Mart. ex 
A.DC.) Warb. contains substantial amounts of tryptamines and 
V. calophylla, one of the species employed in the preparation of 
snuff in Colombia, contains high amounts of alkaloids, appar- 
ently in the leaves alone. V. multinervia Ducke and V. venosa 
(Benth.) Warb. are almost devoid of alkaloids (Agurell et al. 
1968b). Recently, a number of hallucinogenic substituted tryp- 
tamines have been isolated from V. peruviana (A.DC.) War- 
burg, a suspected South American hallucinogenic plant (Lai et 
al. 1973). 
The Witotos, Boras, and Muinanes of Amazonian Colombia 
utilize the resin of a Virola, now identified as V. theiodora, 
orally as an hallucinogen (Schultes 1969e; Schultes arid Swain 
1976). Small pellets of the boiled resin are rolled in a “salt” left 
following evaporation of the filtrate of bark ashes of Gustavia 
Poeppigiana Berg ex Mart. and other plants and ingested to 
bring ona rapid intoxication, during which the witch doctors see 
and speak with “the little people”. There are suggestions that 
Venezuelan Indians may smoke V. sebifera Aubl. as an intoxi- 
cant (Schultes 1969e). 
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