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Ayahuasca is an entheogenic drink prepared from segments of the vine Banisteriopsis caapi. Sections of vine are boiled with leaves from any of a large number of other plants (such as Psychotria viridis or Diplopterys cabrerana) yielding a brew containing the powerful hallucinogenic alkaloid N,N-dimethyltryptamine, combined with an MAOI, such as harmaline, harmine, d-tetrahydroharmine from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine. The potency of this brew varies radically from one batch to the next, both in strength and psychoactive effect, based mainly on the skill of the shaman producing it, as well as other admixtures sometimes added.
Other names:
- "caapi" (or more usually "Daime") in Brazil, where it has religious use
- "yage" or "yaje" in Colombia
- "ayahuasca" in Brazil, Ecuador and Peru ("vine of the dead" or "vine of souls": in Quechua aya means "spirit," "ancestor," or "dead person," while huasca means "vine" or "rope")
Nowadays, the term ayahuasca also means analogous concoctions made with other plants that contain the two main components, an MAOI and DMT, or one of its analogues. The DMT is the main "active ingredient", causing the desired effects. The MAOI is necessary for DMT to be active orally. However some actual shamans object to this and state that the Banisteriopsis vine is the only defining ingredient, everything else being of secondary importance.
- Acacia maidenii (Maiden's Wattle) - bark
- Acacia phlebophylla
- Anadenanthera peregrina, A. colubrina, A. excelsa, A. macrocarpa
- Banisteriopsis caapi - vine stem sections
- Diplopterys cabrerana (Chaliponga, Banisteriopsis rusbyana) - leaves
- Mimosa hostilis (Jurema) - root bark
- Phalaris arundinacea (Reed Canary Grass)
- Phalaris tuberosa (Phalaris aquatica, Harding Grass)
- Psychotria viridis (Chacruna) - leaves
Some plant sources of MAOI:
In Brazil there are a number of religious movements based on the use of Ayahuasca, the most famous of them called Santo Daime, usually in a animistic context that may be Shamanistic or, more often, mixed with Christian imagery.
Ayahuasca was made more widely known by Terrence and Dennis McKenna's experiences with Amazonian tribes as detailed in the book Invisible Landscape, they co-authored. Dennis later extensively studied the pharmacology, botany, and chemistry of ayahuasca and oo-koo-he, which were the subjects of his master's thesis.
External links
Books
- Heavenly Highs: Ayahuasca, Kava-Kava, Dmt, and Other Plants of the Gods] (2004) ISBN 1579510698
- Ayahuasca: The Visionary and Healing Powers of the Vine of the Soul (2003) ISBN 0892811315
- The Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience (2003) ISBN 0199252939
- Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters with the Amazon's Sacred Vine (2000) ISBN 0907791328
- Ayahuasca: Human Consciousness and the Spirits of Nature (1999) ISBN 1560251603
- Forest of Visions: Ayahuasca, Amazonian Spirituality, and the Santo Daime Tradition (1999) ISBN 089281716X
- Ayahuasca Visions (1999) ISBN 1556433115
- Ayahuasca Analogues (1994) ISBN 0961423455
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