Biodynamic Constituents in Ayahuasca Admixture Plants: An Uninvestigated Folk Pharmacopoeia

The Botany, Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Ethnobotany of Ayahuasca by Mckenna, Luna & Towers

Biodynamic Constituents in Ayahuasca Admixture Plants: An Uninvestigated Folk Pharmacopoeia

DENNIS J. MCKENNA, L. E. LUNA, AND G. N. TOWERS

From Ethnobotany Evolution of a Discipline. ISBN 0-931146-28-3. Copyright © 1995 by Dioscorides Press.
HTML version produced and published by Gnostic Garden

From 1960 to 1990 scientific knowledge of the botany and chemistry of plant hallucinogens has expanded enormously. This has been accomplished through the co-operative efforts of ethnobotanists, working to collect and identify the source-plants utilized by aboriginal peoples, and phytochemists, who have isolated and characterised the biodynamic constituents responsible for these properties (Schultes 1970; Schultes and Hofmann 1980). The number of higher plant species is estimated at between 400,000 and 800,000; of these, only an insignificant number-somewhat fewer than 100-are known to be exploited as hallucinogens, and fewer than 20 of these species may be described as major (Schultes and Hofmann 1980).

Nowhere else in the world has the knowledge and use of endemic hallucinogenic plants developed to the extent found in the western part of the Amazon basin of South America. And of various hallucinogens utilized by indigenous populations in that region, none is as interesting or as complex botanically, chemically, or ethnographically as the hallucinogenic beverage known variously as ayahuasca, caapi, or yage. Far from being simply" a hallucinogenic plant or preparation, ayahuasca (Quechua for "vine of the soul occupies an integral position in mestizo folk medicine.

Contemporary use of ayahuasca in Amazonian mestizo populations appears to be an amalgam of diverse tribal traditions. The large urban settlements have become melting pots; people of many different cultural backgrounds have migrated to these centres in search of employment in the lumber, petroleum, and other resource-based industries, bringing with them tribal traditions and belief systems (usually syncretically fused with Christianity due to prior contact with missionaries). The cultural background of these migrant labourers often extends to a knowledge of the medicinal plants valued in their own culture; over the years this drug-plant lore derived from diverse sources has gradually diffused through the larger mestizo society and become assimilated into mestizo folk medicine. This ethnomedical tradition is unique to the mestizo social class, although it incorporates elements of its diverse tribal origins.

This process of cultural assimilation has occurred over the same period of time in which the antecedents of mestizo folk medicine have disintegrated or disappeared from most tribal societies. As a result, mestizo folk medicine, as it is practiced in urban centres of the Amazon, is a living system of traditional medicine based on the ethnomedical lore of many cultures; in many cases these centres are the only places where such knowledge has been preserved. Hence it is important, even urgent, that mestizo folk medicine and the plants that form its basis be studied by investigators with backgrounds in medicine, pharmacology, phytochemistry, and botany while the opportunity still exists. This chapter presents phytochemical and ethnobotanical information on approximately fifty genera of medicinal plants utilized as ayahuasca admixtures in contemporary mestizo ethnomedicine.

Ethnomedical, Botanical, and Pharmacological Aspects of Ayahuasca

THE ROLE OF THE AYAHUASQUERO IN MESTIZO FOLK MEDICINE

In contemporary countercultural circles in Western society, hallucinogens are employed idiosyncratically; that is, they are usually self-prescribed and the individual consuming the drug does so outside the context of any magical, ritual, or metaphysical belief systems designed to accommodate the phenomenology of the drug experience. By contrast, the use of ayahuasca in mestizo folk medicine always takes place within a ritual and therapeutic context. Dispensation of the drug and the progress of the intoxication is under the control of the ayahuasquero, who uses various techniques, including singing, whistling, blowing of tobacco smoke, and making passes over the patient's body, to influence the content and course of his(1) patient's drug experience. By this means the set and setting of the ayahuasca experience is carefully controlled and manipulated by the ayahuasquero, and there is usually a specific purpose for consuming this drug-for divination, to discover the cause of an illness, or to communicate with the spirit world.

In traditional cultures, the boundaries between religion, magic, and medicine are not clearly delineated; the function of the ayahuasquero or traditional healer amalgamates the Western roles of priest, doctor, and psychotherapist; illness may be precipitated by physical, psychological, or supernatural causes, or a combination of these, and all are amenable to treatment with the methods available to the ayahuasquero. In this sense the trend in modern medicine toward "holistic" therapies is not that different from the therapeutic methods practiced by the traditional healer. Both proceed from the recognition that mind and body are an integrated unit, and that the most effective therapies are those directed at improving both physical and mental health. Thus it is not surprising that ayahuasca, which profoundly affects both the mind and the body, and affords access to and a certain degree of manipulation of [real or imagined] supernatural dimensions, should occupy such a prominent position in the pharmacopoeia of Indian and mestizo folk medicine.

The ayahuasquero employs ayahuasca as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool to uncover the causes of illness, rather than as a palliative for specific ailments. Through the interpretation of his own or his patient's visions, the ayahuasquero feels he is able to divine the source of the illness or misfortune which has precipitated the patient's visit; he is then able to recommend appropriate remedies. In some cases this may require the neutralisation of malevolent supernatural forces directed to the patient by a sorcerer or brujo, and in other instances it may entail pharmacological intervention involving the use of various medicinal plants. In most instances, both magical and medicinal remedies will be employed. This use of ayahuasca in contemporary mestizo folk medicine has been previously described (Dobkin de Rios 1970,1972).

Besides functioning as an important diagnostic tool in the medical practice of the ayahuasquero, use of the drug is also an intrinsic part of his shamanic training. As in most shamanic traditions, the apprentice ayahuasquero must undergo an initiatory period of training. During this time, which lasts for a minimum of six months but may extend for several years (depending on the degree of power he wishes to acquire), the ayahuasquero consumes ayahuasca frequently while adhering to a strict diet in which no salt, sugar, fat, alcoholic or cold beverages may be consumed; sexual abstinence is also a requirement. During this initiatory period the ayahuasquero acquires the magical songs, objects, and helping spirits which he will later use in curing ceremonies; he also learns the properties and uses of numerous medicinal plants, often by consuming them in the form of admixtures to ayahuasca. The assertion is nearly universal among ayahuasqueros that this shamanic knowledge is transmitted directly by ayahuasca and other "plant-teachers"; it is not acquired through instruction by an elder ayahuasquero or other human teacher. Luna (1984) has provided a detailed account of the initiatory training and practices of ayahuasqueros in Iquitos, Peru (Luna 1984,1986,1992).

The system of ethnomedicine practiced by the mestizo healer can in some sense be regarded as an alternative health-care system. The urban mestizo who is poor, barred by economic factors from all but the barest access to health-care based on Western medicine, looks to the ayahuasquero and his magical and botanical remedies for medical, psychiatric, and spiritual support. Although the health-care system of the ayahuasquero incorporates magical, religious, and psychotherapeutic elements, it also is largely based on pharmacology because of its reliance on numerous biodynamic plants. In that respect it is more akin to Western medicine than to other shamanic, quasi-medical systems of traditional healing.

BOTANY, CHEMlSTRY, AND PHARMACOLOGY OF AYAHUASCA

Botanical sources of ayahuasca. The liana Banisteriopsis caapi (Malpighiaceae) forms the basis of ayahuasca. Although B. caapi is used normally, B. inebriens, B. quitensis, and Tetrapterys rnetlzystica have all been reported as sources of the drink (Schultes 1957). On rare occasions ayahuasca is prepared from the boiled bark or stems of one of these malpighiaceous species without the addition of any other botanical ingredients. More commonly, however, the leaves or bark of various admixture plants are added to the brew to strengthen or modify the effect (Pinkley 1969). The admixtures used most frequently are Diplopterys cabrerana (Cuatrecasas) (formerly known as Banisteriopsis rusbyana) and the rubiaceous species Psychotria viridis and Psychotria carthaginensis. Solanaceous admixtures are also common, including tobacco (Nicotiana species), Brugmansia species, and Brunfelsia species.

Chemistry and pharmacology of ayahuasca. The most detailed chemical study to date of ayahuasca and its botanical ingredients is that of Rivier and Lindgren (19?2). Using GC/MS (gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer) analysis, these investigators found that the major active constituents of ayahuasca are the beta-carboline alkaloids harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine, and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT). The beta-carbolines are constituents of Banisteriopsis caapi (Rivier and Lindgren 1972), while DMT has been isolated as a constituent of Diplopterys carbrerana (Agurell et al.1968) and has also been detected in Psychotria viridis and P. carthaginensis. (Rivier and Lindgren 1972). The compound DMT is a potent hallucinogen and is probably responsible for the hallucinogenic activity of ayahuasca. A peculiarity of the pharmacology of DMT is that it is not orally active, possibly due to oxidative deamination in peripheral tissues by the enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO). The beta-carbolines, although having some limited hallucinogenic activity themselves (Naranjo 1967), are extremely active, reversible inhibitors of MAO and thus may protect the DMT from degradation and render it orally active. This mechanism was postulated (Pinkley 1969; der Marderosian et al.1968; Schultes 1972) to underlie the oral activity of ayahuasca long before it was experimentally investigated (McKenna et a 1.1984).

Ayahuasca admixtures. The utilisation of admixture plants in conjunction with ayahuasca has reached a rather high degree of botanical and pharmacological sophistication. Besides the rubiaceous admixtures almost always included in ayahuasca, a virtual pharmacopoeia of admixtures is used occasionally, depending on the magical, ritual, or medical purposes for which the drug is being made and consumed (Schultes 1957; Pinkley 1969; der Marderosian et al.1968; Rivier and Lindgren 1972; Schultes 1972; Luna 1984; McKenna et al.1984). Many of these admixtures have not been botanically identified, much less chemically characterised, but of those identified, many of them are known to contain biodynamic constituents.

Phytochemical data on ayahuasca admixtures. The extant chemical information on plants in approximately fifty genera utilized as admixtures to ayahuasca has been compiled in Table 1 with its accompanying references (see end of chapter). This information was assembled from a computer search of the Biological Abstracts database and the American Chemical Society database, covering the years 1970 to the present. The references are not intended to be exhaustive but rather to be indicators of the existence or non-existence of information regarding biodynamic constituents in the genera listed. The chemistry of certain genera (e.g., Alchornea, Erythrina, Ficus, Maytenus, Ocimum, Tabebuia, Tabernaemontana, and Uncaria) has been extensively investigated, and the number of available references runs well into the thousands; in these instances only a limited number of key references are cited. In the many instances where phytochemical data are not available on a particular species used as an admixture to ayahuasca, the references cited refer to closely related species in the same genus.

The contribution of most of these admixtures to the pharmacological activity of ayahuasca is, at this time, a mystery and an area well deserving of further- investigation by ethnopharmacologists. Information can be found in the literature on the chemical or bio- dynamic properties of about half the genera listed in the table; the corollary to this is that virtually nothing is known about the pharmacologically active constituents in the remaining genera listed. These uninvestigated genera form part of a neglected folk pharmacopoeia that potentially is of great interest to Western science. Because many of these genera have long been valued as medicinal agents by the traditional mestizo healers who employ them, and because a high proportion of these traditional medicines has yielded biodynamic compounds of medicinal value, there seems a strong likelihood that further biochemical investigations of thes&127; admixtures will more than repay the efforts involved.

Uses of Admixture Plants in Mestizo Folk Medicine

The idea that certain plants, animals, and inanimate objects, such as mountains, lakes and rivers, have a spirit, is implicit in the cosmology of many Amazonian people, including that of mestizo practitioners of the Peruvian Amazonas. These spirits, sometimes called the madres ("mothers") of the corresponding plants, animals, or objects (Deltgen 1978-197H; Chevalier 1982; Chaumeil 1983) may be contacted for the purpose of acquiring from them knowledge or certain powers. Intelligence is not considered to be a prerogative of the human species. Being in constant contact with nature, local people have learned to respect and fear certain species of plants and animals as well as natural phenomena.

Reality for these people has a twofold character, a secular and a sacred one. These two aspects are not divorced from each other, however. Some of the qualities attributed to the "spirit" of certain plants or animals are in fact based on accurate observation and experimentation. Much can be learned about the Amazonian people's knowledge of the natural world by studying their cosmological and religious ideas.

There is no doubt that nonliterate people possess an impressively comprehensive, scientifically accurate knowledge of their environment. Taxonomic recognition of species may be extremely sophisticated (Berlin and Berlin 1983). Knowledge of the effect on the human organism of certain species of plants and animals seems to be at least as important as the recognition of morphological differentiation. In the context of an animistic world view, it is not strange that plants possessing biodynamic compounds are considered to have particularly strong mother spirits, and those with psychotomimetic constituents are regarded as powerful plant-teachers.

Dietary prescriptions, which might also have symbolic connotations (Chevalier 1982) probably reflect accurate observations of the incompatibility of ingesting specific foods together with certain plants. It is well known, for instance, that when ingesting chuchuhuasa, a beverage made of the bark of Maytenus ebenifolia and alcohol, one should avoid eating peccary (Gunther Schaper, pers. com.). The combination produces an intermittent high fever, similar to malaria. Compatibility and incompatibility of plants is often explained in terms of friendship or enmity between the spirits of the plants.

Access to the sacred dimension of reality happens through consumption of psychotropic plants and the dietary prescriptions mentioned above. The initiation occurs usually through the mastering of the use of tobacco and ayahuasca. The personal disposition of the individual and his ability to stand the hard training and the dangers involved in the shamanic initiation will determine the degree of his development. He may continue to add new additives to the basic ayahuasca brew or consume other plant-teachers to increase his knowledge and abilities. Each plant taken means entering a new dimension where the initiate encounters beings who give him new powers to manipulate the environment, often through magic melodies or icaros and incantations. Each plant has its cluster of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic spirits with which it is associated. By establishing contact with these beings, the shaman acquires more knowledge and power.

The use of these plants is not without dangers. The vegetalistas are aware that sometimes they are dealing with very powerful, even highly toxic compounds. Dosage is then of crucial importance. Another important factor is the strict observation of the diet, which seems to have at least two functions: to "cleanse" the organism so that the initiate is able fully to experience the effect of the plants, and to protect the initiate against the adverse effects of certain foods when consuming some of these plants.

Practitioners often claim that some of these plants are very "jealous" (Dobkin de Rios 1973). The sexual continence and the diet should not be broken, as the person may be "punished" by the spirits of the plants with sickness or even death. This is the case of such plants as Brunfelsia grandiflora subsp. schultesü (chiric sanango), Capirona decorticans (capirona negra), Chorisia speciosa (lupuna), Couroupita guianensis (ayahuma), Hura crepitans (catahua), Tabebuia species (tahuari) and others, although symbolic ideas are also important. Chevalier (1982), for example, claims that the reason for the strict diet is the ritual transformation of the patient into a plant spirit. Most probably, however, there are reasons of a biological nature for most of these prescriptions. The possibility that through the diet the initiate is capable of maintaining the effect of the psychotropic plants for a longer period of time should not be excluded a priori.

By ingesting these plants and keeping the prescribed diet, the initiate is supposed to be in the appropriate state of consciousness for learning the body of knowledge necessary for his future shamanistic practices. These plants "open the mind" of the initiate, so that he can effectively explore the flora, fauna, and geographical setting which surrounds him and will be able to remember it all in the future. Much of this learning process takes place in dreams, which are said to be especially vivid during the period of initiation.

At the same time, these plants strengthen the body of the initiate by giving him some of the physical qualities of the plants: for instance, the ability to withstand heavy rains, winds, and floods. Plant-teachers or doctores, as these plants are known, have a twofold aspect: they give both "strength and wisdom." Vegetalistas, when asked why they consume plant-teachers, say that they do it to "cure" (curarse) themselves. This implies that they consume plant-teachers not only to heal themselves of illness or to recover the energies of their youth, but also to "awaken" their minds.

Some of these plants, such as Couroupita guianensis (ayahuma), are also given to dogs, with the same aim: to make them stronger and to increase their hunting abilities. The idea that certain plants are teachers is even found in highly syncretic, modern rural-urban cults. In Brazil, in the state of Acre, there are groups that use the beverage prepared of Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis under the name Santo Daime (Monteiro 1983), because it is believed that these plants heal both the body and the soul and teach the doctrine of Jesus Christ.

Adding admixtures to the ayahuasca beverage is a way of studying their properties, so that some ayahuasqueros continually are expanding their pharmacopoeia. Similar findings were made by Bristol (1966) among the Sibundoy Indians of southwestern Colombia and by Chaumeil (1983) among Yagua Indians. The latter use psychotropic plants with specific goals; some plants make you "see," others make you travel, teach you how to heal or to harm, give you strength, and so forth (Chaumeil 1983).

Our informants believe that the spirits of these admixtures present themselves either during the hallucinations elicited by the beverage or in the dreams following the intoxication, and that they disclose to the initiate their pharmacological properties. Our informants also recognise the synergistic effect that sometimes occurs when several plants are taken together. This concept is based on the idea that these plants "know each other" or "go well together," while other plants "do not like each other."

Each of the admixture plants is associated with a magic melody or icaro, which is individually revealed to the initiate when taking the ayahuasca beverage with that specific admixture. The number and quality of the magic chants increase when the diet is prolonged and new admixtures are added, one at a time, to the ayahuasca beverage. The madre spirit of these plants may be called by singing or whistling the appropriate icaro. New knowledge is first of all expressed through magic melodies (Luna 1992). A similar idea has been found among the Sharanahua (Siskind 1973).

NOTES

1. Although the masculine pronoun is used here, ayahuasqueros can be, and frequently are, women.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This chapter was translated from the original "Ingredientes biodinamicos en las plantas que se mezclan al ayahuasca. Una farmacopea tradicional no investigada." America Indigena 46, no.1 (1986). Published with the permission of Interamerican Indian Institute, Mexico.

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