of the Barasana and Makuna tribes of the Rio Piraparana of 
Colombia. I did not witness its use during my field research 
amongst these Indians, but I did obtain what may be valuable 
reports concerning the plant. 
The Barasana are heavily habituated to the use of coca. Aged 
men of this tribe frequently suffer from stomach or intestinal 
bleeding, a condition which, although it might have sundry 
causes, they attribute—and probably quite correctly—to the 
long and excessive use of coca powder. In an effort to alleviate 
this trouble, they recommend a hot tea of the leaves and bark of 
Pagamea macrophylla, which they call ma-nu-su-ka-ta ( Schultes 
et Cabrera 17581). This use represents a popular and probably 
frequent medicinal application of the plant. The nomadic Makus 
of the Rio Piraparana, who know this species as ma-na-shu-ke- 
ma, recognize that the plant has toxic properties but do not use 
it. 
There is, however, another—and perhaps much more impor- 
tant—use of Pagamea macrophylla. The leaves are pulverized 
and aspirated in the form of a snuff by medicine men during 
ceremonies of divination. Does this plant product have hallu- 
cinogenic properties? Does it merely tranquilize the medicine 
man? Is it a stimulant? Or is it simply a ceremonially significant 
use with no biochemical basis? 
Pagamea macrophylla Spruce ex Bentham in Journ. Linn. 
Soc. 1 (1857) 110. 
Tree, usually 10-20 feet tall. Branches thick. Leaves sub- 
coriaceous, ovate to oblong-elliptic, short-acuminate, mostly 
16-22 cm. long. Stipules membranaceous, acuminate, up to 3.5 
cm. long, deciduous. Panicle thrysoid, trichotomous, densely 
flowered. Flowers rather large, sessile: calyx cupuliform, up to 4 
mm. long; corolla greenish, 4-fid, lobes densely villose within; 
anthers linear, stipitate; style filiform, semi-2-fid. 
CoLomsiA: Comisaria del Vaupés Rio Piraparana Cafio Paca, “Small 
treelet.” September 19, 1952 Richard Evans Schultes et Isidora Cabrera 17581. 
The only genus of the Rubiaceae known to be hallucino- 
genically used in Psychotria, the leaves of several species of 
which contain tryptamines and are used as additives to the 
narcotic drink caapi or ayahuasca. This ethnobotanical reference 
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