Traditional Amazonian Ayahuasca brews are made with Banisteriopsis Caapi or a related vine, and often one or more admixture plants, usually plants containing DMT. The most common admixture plants (used in different regions, and hence rarely combined) are Chacruna (Psychotria viridis) and Chaliponga (Diplopterys cabrerana).
An Ayahuasca analogue is a brew made with a substitute for the B. Caapi vine to fulfill the function of MAO inhibitor. The Caapi substitute most often used is Peganum harmala (Syrian Rue).
Admixture plants vary widely in the Amazon (and not all contain DMT). The one constant is the Ayahuasca vine. Virtually all native names for the brew (Ayahuasca, Yage, Natema, Caapi, etc) are also names for the vine, and vice versa.
The following is excerpted from the 1976 book The Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants (out of print but posted in its entirety on Erowid) written by the late Richard Evans Schultes, the Harvard professor considered the father of modern ethnobotany. Schultes spent seventeen years exploring the Upper Amazon in the 1940s and 1950s, visiting more different Ayahuasca-using tribes than anyone ever has before or since and carefully observing and recording their use of Ayahuasca and other plants. (He also did fieldwork among entheogen-using cultures in Mexico.) He is considered the greatest authority in history on the cross-cultural use of Ayahuasca, and did more than any other individual to bring Ayahuasca to scientific attention.
AYAHUASCA and CAAPI are two of many local names for either of two species of a South American vine: Banisteriopsis caapi or B. inebrians. Both are gigantic jungle lianas with tiny pink flowers. Like the approximately 100 other species in the genus, their botany is poorly understood. They belong to the family Malpighiaceae.
An hallucinogenic drink made from the bark of these vines is widely used by Indians in the western Amazon — Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Other local names for the vines or the drink made from them are dopa, natema, pinde, and yaje. The drink is intensely bitter and nauseating.
In Peru and Ecuador, the drink is made by rasping the bark and boiling it. In Colombia and Brazil, the scraped bark is squeezed in cold water to make the drink. Some tribes add other plants to alter or to increase the potency of the drink. In some parts of the Orinoco, the bark is simply chewed. Recent evidence suggests that in the northwestern Amazon the plants may be used in the form of snuff. [Note: this is probably Anadenanthera, not Ayahuasca.] Ayahuasca is popular for its “telepathic properties,” for which, of course, there is no scientific basis.
EARLIEST PUBLISHED REPORTS of ayahuasca date from 1858 but in 1851 Richard Spruce, an English explorer, had discovered the plant from which the intoxicating drink was made and described it as a new species. Spruce also reported that the Guahibos along the Orinoco River in Venezuela chewed the dried stem for its effects instead of preparing a drink from the bark. Spruce collected flowering material and also stems for chemical study. Interestingly, these stems were not analyzed until 1969, but even after more than a century, they gave results (p. 103) indicating the presence of alkaloids.
In the years since Spruce’s discovery, many explorers and travelers who passed through the western Amazon region wrote about the drug. It is widely known in the Amazon but the whole story of this plant is yet to be unraveled. Some writers have even confused ayahuasca with completely different narcotic plants.
CEREMONIAL USES of ayahuasca are of major importance in the lives of South American Indians. In eastern Peru, medicine men take the drug to diagnose and treat diseases. In Colombia and Brazil, the drug is employed in deeply religious ceremonies that are rooted in tribal mythology. In the famous Yurupari ceremony of the Tukanoan Indians of Amazonian Colombia — a ceremony that initiates adolescent boys into manhood — the drug is given to fortify those who must undergo the severely painful ordeal that forms a part of the rite.
The intoxication of ayahuasca or caapi among these Indians is thought to represent a return to the origin of all things: the user “sees” tribal gods and the creation of the universe and of man and the animals. This experience convinces the Indians of the reality of their religious beliefs, because they have “seen” everything that underlies them. To them, everyday life is unreal, and what caapi brings them is the true reality.
CHEMICAL STUDIES of the two ayahuasca vines have suffered from the botanical confusion surrounding them. However, it appears that both species owe their hallucinogenic activity primarily to harmine, the major ,B-carboline alkaloid in the plants. Harmaline and tetrohydroharmine, alkaloids present in minor amounts, may also contribute to the intoxication. Early chemical studies isolated these several alkaloids but did not recognize their identity. They were given names as “new” alkaloids. One of these names — telepathine — is an indication of the widespread belief that the drink prepared from these vines gave the Indian medicine men telepathic powers.
PLANTS ADDED TO AYAHUASCA by some Indians in the preparation of the hallucinogenic drink are amazingly diverse and include even ferns. Several are now known to be active themselves and to alter effectively the properties of the basic drink. Among these are Datura suaveolens [now renamed Brugmansia suaveolens] and a species of Brunfelsia — both members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae, and both containing active principles.
Two additives, employed over a wide area by many tribes, are especially significant. The leaves (but not the bark) of a third species of Banisteriopsis — B. rusbyana [Note: now reclassified as Diploptrerys cabrerana, aka Chaliponga or Chagropanga] — are often added to the preparation “to lengthen and brighten the visions.” Called oco-yajé in the westernmost Amazon region of Colombia and Ecuador, the liana is cultivated for this purpose, along with B. caapi and B. inebrians.
Over a much wider area, including Amazonian Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, the leaves of several species of Psychotria — especially P. viridis — are added. This 20-foot forest treelet belongs to the coffee family, Rubioceae. Like B. rusbyana, it has been found recently to contain the strongly hallucinogenic N. N-dimethyltryptamine.
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DMT-containing plants are not the only plants used as admixtures to Ayahuasca. Two other common admixtures — although they are not recommended without expert shamanic guidance because of their danger or toxicity — are Brugmansia (also known as Tree Datura, Toe, Wanduk, Maikua, and Angel’s Trumpet) and Nicotiana rustica (Mapacho, a very strong species of Tobacco).
Many other plants are used as admixtures to Ayahuasca. Here is a partial list of Ayahuasca additives that we have compiled from various sources. Note that for many or most of these plants, the purpose of adding them to a brew is not for the plant to enhance the effects of Ayahuasca, but rather for the Ayahuasca to enhance the effect of the other plant, and to make it possible to communicate with the spirit of the other plant and understand its medicinal properties. Ayahuasca is considered the “mother of all plants” and the greatest teacher of plant medicines.
* ACANTHACEAE
o Teliostachya lanceolata
* AMARANTHACEAE
o Alternanthera lehmannii
o Iresine sp.
* APOCYNACEAE
o Himatanthus sucuuba
o Malouetia tamaquarina
o Mandevilla scabra
o Tabernaemontana sp.
* AQUIFOLIACEAE
o Ilex guayusa
* ARACEAE
o Montrichardia arborescens
* BIGNONIACEAE
o Mansoa alliacea
o Tabebuia heteropoda
o Tabebuia incana
o Tabebuia sp.
o Tynnanthus panurensis
* BOMBACACEAE
o Cavanillesia hylogeiton
o Cavanillesia umbellata
o Ceiba pentandra
o Chorisia insignis
o Chorisia speciosa
o Quararibea “ishpingo”
* BORAGINACEAE
o Tournefortia angustifolia
* CACTACEAE
o Epiphyllum sp.
o Opuntia sp.
* CARYOCARACEAE
o Anthodiscus pilosus
* CELASTRACEAE
o Maytenus ebenifola
* CYCLANTHACEAE
o Carludovica divergens
* DRYOPTERIDACEAE
o Lomariopsis japurensis
* DRYOPTERIDACEAE
o Erythroxylum coca
* ERYTHROXYLACEAE
o Erythroxylum coca
* EUPHORBIACEAE
o Alchornea castaneifolia
o Hura crepitans
* GNETACEAE
o Gnetum nodiflorum
* GUTTIFERAE
o Clusia sp.
o Tovomita sp.
* LABIATAE
o Ocimum micranthum
* LECYTHIDACEAE
o Couroupita guianensis
* LEGUMINOSAE
o Acacia hostilis
o Acacia tenuiflora
o Bauhinia guianensis
o Caesalpinia echinata
o Calliandra angustifolia
o Campsiandra laurifolia
o Cedrelinga castaneiformis
o Erythrina glauca
o Erythrina poeppigiana
o Mimosa apodocarpa var. hostilis
o Mimosa cabrera
o Mimosa hostilis
o Mimosa limana
o Mimosa maracasensis
o Mimosa nigra
o Mimosa ophthalmocentra
o Mimosa tenuiflora
o Mimosa verrucosa
o Pithecellobium laetum
o Sclerobium setiferum
o Vouacapoua americana
* LORANTHACEAE
o Phrygilanthus eugenioides
o Phtirusa pyrifolia
* MALPIGHIACEAE
o Anthodiscus pilosus
o Banisteriopsis ceduciflora
o Banisteriopsis cornifolia
o Banisteriopsis cristata
o Banisteriopsis ferruginea
o Banisteriopsis heterostyla
o Banisteriopsis inebrians
o Banisteriopsis laevifolia
o Banisteriopsis leiocarpa
o Banisteriopsis leptocarpa
o Banisteriopsis longialata
o Banisteriopsis lucida
o Banisteriopsis lutea
o Banisteriopsis martiniana
o Banisteriopsis metallicolor
o Banisteriopsis muricata
o Banisteriopsis nigrescens
o Banisteriopsis nitrosiodora
o Banisteriopsis nutans
o Banisteriopsis oxyclada
o Banisteriopsis padifolia
o Banisteriopsis peruviana
o Banisteriopsis pubipetata
o Banisteriopsis quitensis
o Diplopterys cabrerana
o Diplopterys involuta (=Mezia includens)
o Heteropterys argentea
o Lophanthera lactescens
o Mascagnia glandulifera
o Mascagnia psilophylla (var. antifebrilis = Cabi paraensis; Callaeum antifebrile)
o Stigmaphyllon fulgens
o Tetrapterys methystica
o Tetrapterys muconata
o Tetrapterys styloptera
* MARANTACEAE
o Calathea veitchiana
* MENISPERMACEAE
o Abuta grandifolia
* MORACEAE
o Coussapa tessmannii
o Ficus insipida
o Ficus ruiziana
o other Ficus sp.
* MYRISTICACEAE
o Virola surinamensis
o other Virola sp.
* NYMPHIACEAE
o Caboma aquatica
* PHYTOLACCACEAE
o Petiveria alliaceae
* PIPERACEAE
o Piper sp.
* POLYGONACEAE
o Triplaris surinamensis
o Triplaris surinamensis var. chamissoana
o Triplaris americana
o Triplaris poepiggiana
* PONTEDERIACEAE
o Pontederia cordata
* RUBIACEAE
o Calycophyllum spruceanum
o Capirona decoriticans
o Guettarda ferox
o Psychotria carthaginensis
o Psychotria horizontalis
o Psychotria leiocarpa
o Psychotria marginata
o Psychotria poeppigiana
o Psychotria psychotriaefolia
o Psychotria viridis
o Psychotria “amiruka”
o Psychotria “batsikawa”
o Psychotria “nai kawa”
o Psychotria “pishikawa”
o Rudgea retifolia
o Sabicea amazonensis
o Uncaria guianensis
* SAPINDACEAE
o Paullinia yoco
* SCHIZAEACEAE
o Lygodium venustum
* SCROPHULARIACEAE
o Scoparia dulcis
* SOLANACEAE
o Brugmansia insignis
o Brugmansia suaveolens
o Brunfelsia chiricaspi
o Brunfelsia grandiflora
o Brunfelsia grandiflora subsp schultesii
o Capsicum sp.
o Iochroma fuchsioides
o Juanulloa ochracea
o Nicotiana rustica
o Nicotiana tabacum
* VERBENACEAE
o Cornutia odorata
o Vitex triflora
* VIOLACEAE
o Rinorea viridiflora
Local names of some admixture plants:
Abuta
Chuchuhuasi
Cumala
Camalonga
Clavo Huasca
Remo Caspi
Renaco
Uña de Gato
Tahuari
Tangarana
Almendra
Cuma Ceba
Chiric Sanango
Cariñito
Larcarto caspi
Palo Sangre