States National Herbarium and in the Library of Eco- 
nomic Botany, Botanical Museum of Harvard Univer- 
sity) has written: 
**T, myself, as well as three students who accompanied me on my 
exploration to the upper Rio Putumayo, have taken yoco on different 
occasions, and we were able to state that this happened in every de- 
tail: in a whole day of walking (20-25 kilometers) not only have we 
felt no hunger, but we have felt no fatigue... .In the regions men- 
tioned one never finds an Indian making a long trip by land or by 
canoe without taking along a branch of this vine, which is his food 
and keeps him from feeling the fatigues of his journey.’’ 
In 1906, Zerda Bayon (loc. cit.) wrote (translated): 
They take it to acquire strength, vigor and agility for their long 
canoe-paddlings, for hunting trips, and for their tiring trips through 
the jungles; and in order not to feel hunger. Their breakfast is in- 
fallibly a draught of yoco.... 
In addition to its use as a stimulant, yoco is employed, 
in larger dosages, as an anti-malarial febrifuge and as a 
medicine in the treatment of a bilious disease which is 
frequent in the Putumayo. I found these uses prevalent 
among the Inga, Siona, Kofain and Coreguaje Indians. 
The same uses have been reported by several investiga- 
tors who have been in other parts of the Putumayo and 
Caqueta. Klug (loe. cit.), for example, reports: 
. this liana has the property, perhaps chiefly antibilious, of curing 
the malarial fevers in this region... 
It is with pleasure that I express herewith my appre- 
ciation of the assistance given me during my ethnobo- 
tanical investigations in the Putumayo by the Colombian 
Ministerio de Guerra and the Capuchin Mission of the 
Putumayo and Caqueta. Special thanks are tendered to 
Colonel Gomez-Pereyra, commander of the base at Cau- 
‘aya; to Captain Rojas-Scarpeta, commander of the gun- 
boat ‘‘Cartagena,’* and to the Reverend Padres Gaspar 
de Pinell and Marcelino de Castellvi. 
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