BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, SEPTEMBER 1980 VoL. 28, No. 3 
INDOLE ALKALOIDS IN AMAZONIAN 
MYRISTICACEAE: 
FIELD AND LABORATORY RESEARCH 
B. Hoimstept,! J. E. LINDGREN,! T. PLOWMAN,? L. RIVIER,! 
R. E. SCHULTES} AND O. Tovaré 
BOTANICAL CONSIDERATIONS 
Indians of the Amazon—especially of the northwest Amazon 
—and of adjacent parts of the Orinoco have employed various 
species of the myristicaceous genus Virola for many years as the 
bases of hallucinogenic preparations. A resin-like liquid of the 
inner bark of the trees is elaborated into an intoxicating snuff 
and is prepared in pellets for oral consumption; it is even on 
occasion ingested raw without any preparation. 
Although undoubtedly a custom of great age, discovery of the 
use of Virola as an important hallucinogen is recent. In the early 
part of this century, the German anthropologist Theodor Koch- 
Griinberg reported that the Yekwana Indians of the Orinoco of 
Venezuela were utilizing an intoxicating snuff prepared from the 
“bark of a tree.” He wrote that, when the bark was “pounded up, 
it is boiled in a small earthenware pot, until all the water has 
evaporated and a sediment remains at the bottom of the pot. 
This sediment is toasted in the pot over a slight fire and is then 
1. Karolinska Institutet, STOCKHOLM, Sweden. 
2. Field Museum of Natural History, CHICAGO, III. 
3. Botanical Museum of Harvard University, CAMBRIDGE, Mass. 
4. Museo de Historia Natural, LIMA, Peru. 
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