(Clavo Huasca - Blanca) Dried Vine.
Used almost exclusively by shamans to facilitate healing of others. Quality
import from Peru.
Indigenous names - yagé, huasca, rambi, shuri, ayahuasca, nishi oni,
natema, iona, mii, nixi, pae, ka-hee, mi-hi, kuma-basere, etc
Taxonomy - Malpighiaceae (liana family)
Comments - The Banisteriopsis vine is a Malpighiaceous jungle liana found throughout
Amazonian Peru, Equador, Colombia, Bolivia, western Brazil, and in portions
of the R'Orinoco basin. It is employed across the Amazon basin for the treatment
of disease and to access to the visionary or mythological world that provides
revelation, blessing, healing, and ontological security (Dobkin De rios 1972,
Andritsky 1984). Banisteriopsis caapi constitutes the common base ingredient
of Ayahuasca, where it is 'married' with other plants, such as Psychotria viridis
(chacruna) or Diplopterys cabrerana (chagropanga, chaliponga, oco-yage). Banisteriopsis
caapi contains beta-carbolines that exhibit sedative, hypnotic, entheogenic,
anti-depressant and monoamine oxidase inhibiting activity (McKenna DJ, Callaway
JC, Grob CS 1996). Furthermore, the tea constitutes a complex and diverse indigenous
pharmacopia, with many other plants added depending on specific medicinal or
spiritual intentions. These include Brugmansia suaveolens (Toe), Brunfelsia
grandiflora (Chiric sanango), Tynnanthus panurensis (Clavohuasca), Cyperus (Piripiri),
Petivaria alliacea (Mucura, Anamu), and Mansoa hymenaeamanilkara (ajos sacha)
among many others.
The use of Ayahuasca may well be primordial, its use extending back to the
earliest aboriginal inhabitants of the region (Schultes and Hofman 1992). The
oldest known object thought to relate to the use of ayahuasca is a ceremonial
cup, hewn out of stone, with engraved ornamentation, which was found in the
Pastaza culture of the Ecuadorean Amazon from 500 B.C. to 50 A.D (Naranjo, 1979,
1986). The patterning of traditional textiles, pottery and body art of various
tribes can also be partially attributed to the visionary form constants of shamanic
perceptions. The abundance of myths describing the origin of Ayahuasca as deeply
intertwined cosmologically with the creation of the universe, earth, and tribal
people, suggests a long history of human use. "The diverse indigenous groups
all believe that the visionary vine is a vehicle which makes the primordial
accessible to humanity." (Luna, 2000). Ayahuasca is the most revered and
respected sacred medicine of the New World.
'Used with permission from www.lila.info'
