Botanical Museum Leaflets 

 Summer 1985 



Vol. 30, No. 3 



DE PLANUS TOXICARIIS 

 E MUNDO NOVO TROPICAL 

 COMMENTATIONES XXXVI. 



A NOVEL METHOD OF UTILIZING 

 THE HALLUCINOGENIC BANISTERIOPSIS 



Richard Evans Schultes 



The hallucinogen so widely employed in the western Amazon 

 and along the Pacific coastal region of Colombia — variously 

 known as ayahuasca, caapi, natema, pinde or yaje — is almost 

 exclusively prepared as a drink (Schultes: Bot. Mus. Leafl., 

 Harvard Univ. 18 (1957) 1 -56). The basic ingredient is the bark 

 of either Banisteriopsis Caapi or B. inebrians, two forest lianas 

 of the Malpighiaceae which have psychoactive /3-carboline alka- 

 loids: harmine, harmaline and tetrahydoharmine. Frequently 

 other plants are used as additives — a number of species in 

 sundry families, some of which are known to contain various 

 psychoactive principles (Rivier, L. et J.-E Lindgren: Econ. Bot. 

 26 (1972) 101 -129). There are two plants, however, that are 

 added to the drink over a wide area to increase and lengthen the 

 intoxication: the leaves of Diplopteris Cabrerana (formerly 

 known as Banisteriopsis Rusbyana) of the Malpighiaceae and 

 the leaves of the rubiaceous Psychotria viridis (Schultes et Hof- 

 mann: The Botany and Chemistry of Hallucinogens (Ed. 2, 

 1979) 163-185; der Marderosian, A., H. V. Pinkley et M. F. 

 Dobbins; Am. Journ. Pharm. 140(1968) 137-147). 



This malpighiaceous narcotic preparation has been studied by 

 scores of botanists, ethnobotanists, anthropologists, pharma- 

 cologists and phytochemists and its use reported by many tra- 

 vellers and explorers for more than a century since the 

 identification by the British plant explorer Richard Spruce who 

 collected the type material of Banisteriopsis Caapi in 1851 



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