in eastern Peru and adjacent parts of Colombia, Morton 
indicated that at least three species are employed in this 
region: Banisteriopsis Caapi, B.inebrians and B.quiten- 
sis; and that Banisteria longialata Ruiz ex Ndz. and 
Banisteriopsis Rusbyana (Ndz.) Morton may enter cer- 
tain of the narcotic preparations as additional ingredients. 
Several reports on chemical studies of caap? published 
during the late 1920’s and the 1930's considered the bo- 
tanical identification of the intoxicant under investiga- 
tion. 
Reutter, reporting in 1927 (72) that he had isolated 
yageine and yagenine from the vegetal parts of yajé or 
ayahuasca, accepted Rouhier’s ‘‘identification’’ as Pres- 
tonia amazonica, stating that some tribes add to their yajé 
drink Banisteriopsis Caapi or ‘‘Datura arborea 1..”’ 
Lewin, a year later (44), wrote that ayahwasca was ‘‘a 
member of the Malpighiaceae.”’ 
In 1929, Keller and Gottauf (38) worked with material 
of ayahuasca from Bolivia and Peru, referring it to ‘‘a 
Banisteria,’’ (although they had no leaves nor flowers 
available) and isolated a harmine-like alkaloid. 
Costa and Faria (18,14) held that yajé, ayahuasca and 
caapt were the same narcotic and were derived from Bani- 
steriopsis Caapt. Three years later, Chen and Chen (8) 
summarized briefly the literature references and indicated 
their belief that caapi, yajé and ayahuasca represented 
Banisteriopsis Caapi, ‘‘a woody climber that attains a 
height of 8 to 4 metres and attaches itself to the trunks 
of large trees’’ or that is ‘‘grown in the North-western 
regions of South America.’’ Chen and Chen identified 
the alkaloids telepathine, yajeine and banisterine with 
harmine from Peganum Harmala, corroborating experi- 
mentally the earlier suggestions of Wolfe and Rumpf 
(104). The real importance of Chen and Chen’s paper, 
however, lies in the chemical study, apparently for the 
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