BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS VoL. 28, No. 3 
SEPTEMBER 1980 
DE PLANTIS TOXICARIIS E MUNDO NOVO 
TROPICALE COMMENTATIONES XXIX. 
A SUSPECTED NEW AMAZONIAN HALLUCINOGEN 
RICHARD EVANS SCHULTES 
I 
During my ethnobotanical studies in the northwestern Ama- 
zon of Colombia, I gathered ethnopharmacological data on 
many plants employed by the numerous tribes of the area. It was 
not always possible to investigate thoroughly certain reports— 
especially an occasional report of a medicine man or practitioner 
of curing through the use of mind-altering agents. 
In previous publications, I have indicated that further work of 
an ethnobotanical nature in the northwest Amazon is urgently 
needed before acculturation obliterates much of the local and 
traditional folk lore and the practices of medicine men. I have 
also stated my belief that there are minor hallucinogenic plants 
left to identify and study which are still in use in the remote 
fastnesses of this jungle area. 
One such problem, for example, concerns the identification of 
a forest liana with a milky latex—probably a member of the 
Apocynaceae—utilized in Amazonian Colombia in special cere- 
monies as a kind of caapi which is the name of the widely used 
hallucinogenic drink prepared from Banisteriopsis Caapi. (Spr. 
ex Griseb.) Morton. 
II 
There are, however, other fascinating leads which the ethno- 
botanist must follow while there is yet time. These leads concern 
members of the rubiaceous genus Pagamea, especially the shrub 
P. macrophylla Spruce ex Bentham. 
This plant, found growing in the white sand caatinga vegeta- 
tion which is very common in the basin of the Rios Apaporis 
and Vaupés and their tributaries, is esteemed by medicine men 
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