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Written by The Wraith
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Tuesday, 21 December 1999 |
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Page 4 of 16
When the pellets are not for immediate consumption, they are usually coated with a “salt,” as the natives say, prepared from any numerous plants. The “salt” is always made by the same process.
The plant material is first burned and the ashes are placed in a crude funnel made of leaves or bark. Water seeps slowly through the ashes, dripping out through a hole at the bottom to be collected beneath. The filtrate is then boiled down until a gray-white residue or “salt” remains.
The pellets of sticky resin are rolled in this powder.
There is apparently a large assortment of plants employed for this “salt,” which the Witoto call Le-sa. The lecythidaceous Gustavia poeppigiana is a common source of the ashes for filtration.
In the same family, the bark of the huge tree Eschweilera itayensis is valued. An unidentified tree of this family, known to the natives as Cha-pe-na, is used. The woody stump of a species of Carludovica or Sphaeradenia of the Cyclanthaceseae is reduced to ashes for this purpose. The leaves and fragrant inflorescence of the aroid Spathiphyllum cannaefolium give an ash which leaches out a high quality of “salt.” The bark of a wild species of Theobroma, or several small palms, probably species of Genoma and Bactris, are similarly used.
The Bora of Peru strip pieces of bark, only from the lower 4-8 ft of the trunk. The hard, brittle outer layer of bark is chipped off, leaving only the softer inner phloem. This later quickly turns brown from congealed oxidized “resin” and is vigorously pounded on a log with a mallet, until it is shredded. These shredded sections are soaked in water with occasional kneading for half an hour or more, when the pot is brought to a vigorous boil for another half-hour. The bark material, squeezed dry, is then removed, and the remaining liquid is boiled with constant stirring until only a thick paste remains.
Small pellets for ingestion are then made from this paste. Fewer plants are used by the Bora for preparing the “salt” for coating the pellets: the leaves and stump of a species of Carludovica and a palm of the genus Scheelea.
The hallucinogenic principles appear to be present mainly in the almost colorless exudates from the inner surface of the bark, which appears as soon as the bark is stripped from the tree. This resin-like substance quickly turns reddish in a typical oxidase-type reaction and then darkens, drying to a hard, glossy mass. In specimens dried for chemical study, it appears as a sticky, dark reddish brown gummy material. This material in many species contains tryptamines and other indolic hallucinogens. Observation of the process indicates that the reason for scraping the surface of the bark is to obtain all traces of the cambial layer that adheres to it.
The drug is prepared from the cambial sap, which is quickly boiled, causing coagulation of protein and possibly polysaccharides, and then simmered slowly to reduce the volume to near dryness.
The whole process resembles that used for isolation of natural produces from the cambium of other trees, coniferin from gymnosperms, for example, except that ethyl alcohol or acetone is now used, rather than heat, to destroy enzyme activity, which might otherwise act adversely on the desired product.
The “resin” of Virola plays an important role in everyday native medicine: several species are valued as antifungal medicines. The resin is spread over infected areas of the skin to cure ringworm and similar dermatological problems of fungal origin which are so prevalent in the humid tropical rainforests.
Only certain species are chosen for this therapeutic use-- and the choice seems not to have any relationship to the hallucinogenic properties of the species.
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