AYAHUASCA

Ayahuasca analogues are plant combinations that mimic the chemical mechanism of Ayahuasca, namely the MAOI - DMT interaction. The Banisteriopsis Caapi vine and the admixture plants are unique to the Amazonian rainforest, but their chemical mechanism can be re-created with a number of plants from other parts of the world.

In its basic form, Ayahuasca is a mixture of the Banisteriopsis Caapi vine the and leaves of the Psychotria Viridis (Chacruna). Often, a range of other psychoactive plants is added to the brew. Using admixture plants requires knowledge and skill, so that the addition of other plants enhances the overall energy of the brew. As ayahuasca is often used for healing ceremonies, particular plants that support the healing process might be added by the „curandero“, the shaman.

This brew, also called yage, or yaje, in Colombia, ayahuasca in Ecuador and Peru (Inca "vine of the dead, vine of the souls," aya means in Quechua "spirit," "ancestor," "dead person," while huasca means "vine," "rope") caapi in Brazil, is prepared from segments of the vine Banisteriopsis Caapi. Sections of vine are boiled with leaves from any of a large number of potential admixture plants (such as but not limited to; Psychotria viridis or Diplopterys cabrerana) resulting in a brew that contains the powerful hallucinogenic alkaloids harmaline, harmine, d-tetrahydroharmine, and often N,N-dimethyltryptamine. This medicine has been used for millennia in order to enter the sacred supernatural world, to heal, divine, and worship.