Pharmakon Complexes Ayahuasca Complex

CEREMONIAL · ETHNOBOTANICAL · RELIGIOUS COMPLEX

Ayahuasca Complex

Ayawaska · Yagé / Yajé · Natem · Oni · Nixi pae · Uni · Daime · Hoasca · Vegetal

ASSOCIATION Harmine + DMT in Bolivian ritual bundle, c. 1000 CE · WRITTEN RECORD Jesuit reports, western Amazon, 17th century · RELIGIOUS FORMATION Santo Daime, 1930s · UDV, 1961

cover image — awaiting commission Vine, patterned world and collective sacrament: ayahuasca is simultaneously a preparation family, a technology of knowledge and a plurality of living ritual institutions.

Ayahuasca is not one drink travelling unchanged through history. It is a vine and a family of preparations; a diagnostic instrument, teacher, medicine and dangerous power; a discipline of songs, diets, tobacco, breath, pattern and bodily ordeal; a medium of interethnic diplomacy and conflict; and, since the twentieth century, the Eucharist of Brazilian religions and a global therapeutic–spiritual economy. “Ayahuasca” is itself a Quechuan regional term now made planetary. Siona yajé, A’ingae yagé, Shuar natem, Shipibo-Konibo oni, Huni Kuin nixi pae, Santo Daime Daime and União do Vegetal Hoasca are not local labels for an otherwise identical universal object. Each names a relation among particular plants, persons, territories, songs, beings and regimes of authority. This page therefore treats the Ayahuasca Complex as a braided historical field: north-western Amazonian yagé traditions, western-Amazonian ayawaska and vegetalismo, and the Brazilian Daime–Hoasca religions—now transformed again through Indigenous revival, tourism, diaspora, prohibition and clinical science (Langdon, 2017; Labate and Cavnar, 2014; Gearin and Calavia Sáez, 2021; Favaron, Williams and Bédard, 2026).

5 plants indexed Banisteriopsis caapi · Psychotria viridis · Diplopterys cabrerana · Nicotiana rustica · Brugmansia suaveolens

Constituents & preparation

The common botanical architecture

The globally dominant vine–leaf pairing is shown at full scale. Smaller cards indicate regional co-principals, occasional admixtures and medicines belonging to the surrounding ritual pharmacopoeia.

Core plant · botanical and cultural anchor

Banisteriopsis caapi

ayawaska · yagé · jagube · mariri · caapi

The vine is not merely an activating reagent. In many traditions it is the medicine, teacher or organising intelligence itself; the term “ayahuasca” may name the vine before it names the finished preparation.

Primary roleVine · foundation of the preparationCompoundsHarmine · tetrahydroharmine · harmalineDistributionNorth-western and western Amazon; cultivated far beyond its probable domestication centres

Core companion · most widespread DMT-bearing leaf

Psychotria viridis

chacruna · chacrona · rainha · kawa

The principal companion leaf across much of Peru, Brazil and the global diaspora. It is especially central to western-Amazonian preparations and the Brazilian churches, but is not the universal leaf of every yagé tradition.

Primary roleLeaf · visionary companion to caapiCompoundN,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT)ProminenceAyawaska / oni · Santo Daime · Barquinha · União do Vegetal · global ceremonies

Regional alternatives, secondary admixtures and ritual companions

Regional co-principal · DMT leaf

Diplopterys cabrerana

chagropanga · chaliponga · oco-yagé

Prominent in Colombian and Ecuadorian yagé; culturally primary in those formations rather than a minor substitute for chacruna.

Regional companion leaf

Psychotria carthagenensis

amiruca · samiruka

Reported in regional preparations; identity and alkaloid content require specimen-level care and cannot be assumed from a vernacular name.

Protection · diagnosis · smoke

Nicotiana rustica

mapacho · tobacco

Blown, smoked or otherwise used to cleanse, protect, summon and diagnose. Commonly integral to the rite without necessarily entering the decoction.

Occasional admixture · high hazard

Brugmansia spp.

toé · maikoa · floripondio

Tropane-bearing plants may intensify or redirect the ordeal but introduce a distinct anticholinergic, delirious and potentially fatal toxicity.

Stimulant · cleanser · regional associate

Ilex guayusa

guayusa

Caffeine-rich Amazonian holly used for waking, emesis and cleansing; its place varies between everyday social drink, preparation and ritual sequence.

Dieta medicine · healing associate

Calliandra angustifolia

bobinsana

A master-plant medicine associated with diets, song and emotional or social healing; association with ayahuasca does not mean routine inclusion in the pot.

Scale indicates frequency and structural importance within the wider complex, not pharmacological potency. “Secondary” does not mean culturally trivial, and “associated” does not necessarily mean brewed.

Assembly principle	Banisteriopsis caapi is the principal vine and the plant most consistently named as the medicine itself. Psychotria viridis is the most widespread companion leaf, while Diplopterys cabrerana is a regional co-principal in north-western Amazonian yagé. The presence of a DMT-bearing leaf is common but not taxonomically or ritually universal (Rivier and Lindgren, 1972; McKenna, Towers and Abbott, 1984; Kew Science, 2026a–c).
Associated compounds	Caapi supplies the β-carbolines harmine, tetrahydroharmine and usually lower concentrations of harmaline. Chacruna and chagropanga supply N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT); minor alkaloids and concentrations vary with taxon, cultivar, tissue, provenance and preparation (Callaway, Brito and Neves, 2005; Santos et al., 2020; Rodríguez et al., 2022).
Regional names	Ayawaska / ayahuasca (Quechuan); yagé / yajé (Colombia–Ecuador); natem (Shuar and related Jivaroan languages); oni (Shipibo-Konibo); nixi pae (Huni Kuin); uni (Yawanawá and related Panoan use); kamarampi (Asháninka); caapi (Rio Negro usage); Daime (Santo Daime); Hoasca or Vegetal (UDV). Translations such as “vine of the soul” are suggestive but should not replace local usage.
Defining preparation	Vine and companion foliage are selected, cleaned, comminuted and repeatedly decocted under rules that may regulate who harvests, pounds, tends the fire, sings, prays and serves. Santo Daime feitio, UDV preparation and Indigenous or vegetalista cooking are distinct collective technologies, not interchangeable recipes.
Boundary of the complex	The complex includes vine-only medicines, DMT-bearing vine–leaf preparations, wider medicinal admixture systems and the ceremonial institutions that make them intelligible. Preparations using rue, Acacia, Mimosa or isolated compounds belong primarily to the linked Ayahuasca Analogues Complex, not automatically to this one.

Three internal formations

Yagé / yajé traditions

Siona · A’ingae / Cofán · Inga · Kamsá · Tukanoan neighbours

Centred on the Putumayo, Caquetá, Napo and adjoining Colombia–Ecuador borderlands.
D. cabrerana is a prominent companion; differentiated yagé types are selected for training, healing and forms of vision.
The pinta is cultivated perception: colour, pattern, beings and ordered worlds become knowledge under a trained taita (Langdon, 2017).

Ayawaska, oni and vegetalismo

Shipibo-Konibo · Kichwa/Lamista · Asháninka · Shuar/Achuar · mestizo lineages

Often caapi with P. viridis, embedded in larger pharmacopoeias of tobacco, purgatives, perfumes and master-plant diets.
Song is an operative technology: rao bewa, ikaros, breath, smoke, whistling and leaf-bundle rhythm shape diagnosis and healing.
Vegetalismo is an interethnic Amazonian formation, not a degraded copy of a single Indigenous original (Luna, 1986; Beyer, 2009).

Daime, Hoasca and Vegetal

Santo Daime · Barquinha · União do Vegetal

Founded among rubber-frontier workers, Afro-Brazilian and migrant communities in Acre and Rondônia during the twentieth century.
Caapi becomes jagube/mariri; chacruna becomes rainha/chacrona; the drink becomes a Christian–Spiritist sacrament.
Hymn, doctrine, uniform, dance, hierarchy and collective concentration create experiences distinct from vegetalista curing (Labate, Rose and Santos, 2009).

Preparation families and their social logic

Preparation family	Typical botanical emphasis	Ritual and interpretive emphasis
North-western yagé	Caapi types with D. cabrerana; regional plants may differentiate preparations.	Training graded through strength and colour; pinta, jaguar power, diagnosis, communal protection and political–territorial authority.
Peruvian ayawaska / oni	Caapi with P. viridis, within a much larger plant-medicine system.	Darkened healing session, tobacco, songs, blowing/sucking, perfumes, chakapa, extraction and restoration.
Shuar/Achuar natem	Caapi-based preparations, composition varying with local practice and purpose.	Vision, ancestral encounter, warfare/history, diagnosis and the acquisition or interpretation of power; not reducible to tourist “self-healing.”
Santo Daime	Jagube + rainha, collectively prepared in the feitio.	Hymns, miração, geometrical dancing, uniforms, prayer, firmness and the “Empire of Juramidam.”
Barquinha	Daime within a highly elaborated Afro-Brazilian, Catholic and Spiritist cosmology.	Marine navigation, charitable healing, mediumship, entities, altars and visionary “works.”
União do Vegetal	Mariri + chacrona = Hoasca / Vegetal.	Seated, hierarchical sessão; spoken doctrine, questions, calls and disciplined burracheira rather than a universal demand for spectacular vision.

Admixture is pharmacopoeia, not garnish

Tobacco commonly cleans, protects and carries prayer; Brugmansia may intensify or radically alter a preparation but introduces dangerous tropane pharmacology; guayusa can modify wakefulness; bobinsana, chiric sanango, ajo sacha and many other plants may enter diets or healing sequences without necessarily entering the pot. Ethnobotanical lists that flatten every associated plant into an “ingredient” erase the distinction between brew, dieta, bath, perfume, smoke, purge and protective charm (Luna, 1986; Beyer, 2009).

Combination pharmacology

DMT taken orally is rapidly metabolised by monoamine oxidase-A. Harmine and harmaline reversibly inhibit MAO-A, increasing DMT bioavailability; DMT then acts chiefly as a serotonergic psychedelic, including partial agonism at 5-HT_2A receptors. THH has a different pharmacological profile and the β-carbolines are not inert “keys”: caapi has central, experiential and potentially neurobiological effects of its own (McKenna, Towers and Abbott, 1984; Riba et al., 2003; Santos et al., 2022).

SAFETY

Composition varies substantially. Ayahuasca may interact dangerously with serotonergic, sympathomimetic or MAO-active medicines and drugs; Brugmansia admixture adds anticholinergic toxicity. Cardiovascular and psychiatric screening, informed consent, sober support and emergency planning cannot be replaced by claims of “traditional authenticity” (Bouso et al., 2022; dos Santos and Hallak, 2025).

Culture

Peoples and territories

Ayahuasca knowledge crosses language families and political borders. The following territories are nodes in a much wider and historically mobile field; none is a complete list of “ayahuasca tribes,” and participation inside each people varies by generation, gender, community and historical moment.

Putumayo–Caquetá–Napo

Siona · A’ingae / Cofán · Inga · Kamsá · Secoya

Yagé mediates healing, shamanic apprenticeship, interethnic relations and contemporary political revival. Among Siona, visionary narratives and performance reproduce a specifically Siona shamanic world, even as taitas enter national and global circuits (Langdon, 2017).

Ucayali and middle Amazon

Shipibo-Konibo-Xetebo · neighbouring Panoan and riverine communities

Oni sits inside systems of rao plant knowledge, dieting, song, kinship and design. Women are central creators and transmitters of kené; male and female onanyabo practise healing, despite tourist stereotypes of the exclusively male shaman (Gonzalez et al., 2021; Favaron, Williams and Bédard, 2026).

Peruvian upper Amazon

Kichwa / Lamista · Cocama · mestizo and urban curanderismo

Vegetalismo developed through Indigenous knowledge, missionisation, rubber-era mobility and town–forest exchange. The healer’s power comes through relations with plants established in diets, not from drinking ayahuasca alone (Luna, 1986; Beyer, 2009).

Pastaza–Marañón

Shuar · Achuar · Shiwiar · Kichwa

Natem and related visionary practices concern ancestral power, diagnosis, conflict, hunting and life-course formation. Their historical meanings cannot be captured by the global therapeutic script of trauma release.

Acre–Purus–Juruá

Huni Kuin · Yawanawá · Asháninka · Shawãdawa · Katukina and others

Indigenous revitalisation has made nixi pae/uni ceremonies, songs and visual languages prominent in Brazil and abroad. Global alliances can generate resources and political visibility while also producing pressure to perform recognisable “ancestral spirituality.”

Acre and Rondônia religious frontier

Rubber workers · Afro-Brazilian families · migrants · urban congregations

Mestre Irineu’s Santo Daime, Mestre Daniel’s Barquinha and Mestre Gabriel’s UDV transformed forest drink into organised religions with different doctrines, musical systems, hierarchies and international legal histories (Labate, Rose and Santos, 2009; Dawson, 2013).

History and evidence

Ritual practice: recurrent operations, different institutions

Preparation and disposition

Plant diets, fasting, sexual or behavioural restrictions, confession, prayer or doctrinal study reorganise the participant before drinking. These disciplines have different local meanings and are not a single universal “MAOI diet.”

Opening the protected space

Tobacco smoke, prayer, perfumes, candles, a cross, maraca, leaf-bundle rhythm or spoken calls establish who and what may enter. The ceremony is an engineered social and more-than-human boundary.

Serving and rising force

The medicine is distributed according to lineage, hierarchy, diagnosis or congregation. Bitter taste, nausea, cold, heat and trembling may be interpreted as force, cleansing, danger or resistance rather than generic side effects.

Song, word and collective entrainment

Onanya songs, ikaros, yagé chants, UDV chamadas or Daime hymns organise attention and relation. Song may summon a plant, diagnose, protect, guide a vision, teach doctrine or coordinate dancing bodies.

Healing and ordeal

Blowing, sucking, massage, tobacco, vomiting, crying, confession, mediumship or visionary intervention may remove pathogenic objects, restore relations or moralise suffering. The theory of cure varies with the institution.

Closure and social return

A healer closes the field, a church completes prayers and hymns, or a group shares food and testimony. Integration is not only private interpretation: changed obligations to kin, community, doctrine and territory may be the decisive outcome.

Mythology and cosmology

Yagé and the Jaguar Mother. In Siona narratives, apprenticeship passes through fear, death-like transformation and jaguar kinship. Vision does not symbolise power from a distance; it helps make the shamanic person capable of travelling, seeing pathogenic agencies and defending the collective (Langdon, 2017).

Oni, rao and patterned vitality. Shipibo-Konibo worlds are crossed by paths, designs, fragrances, songs and plant agencies. Popular accounts often say kené is simply “seen on ayahuasca” or that a design can literally be sung; Shipibo scholars and ethnomusicologists caution that the relations among design, female artistry, song and healing are more historically variable and gendered (Brabec de Mori and Mori Silvano de Brabec, 2009; Belaunde, 2016).

Plant teachers and ambivalent power. In vegetalismo, diets create relations with plants that may appear as owners, doctors, beautiful cities, animals or human-like teachers. The same trained power can protect, attract, heal or attack. Sanitised global “Mother Ayahuasca” imagery often suppresses this field of sorcery, jealousy and defence (Luna, 1986; Beyer, 2009; Peluso, 2014).

Juramidam and the Queen of the Forest. Santo Daime places Amazonian revelation inside Christian, Marian, Spiritist, esoteric and Afro-Brazilian worlds. Hymns are “received,” not merely authored; the dancing congregation becomes the disciplined Empire of Juramidam. Barquinha develops its own marine, charitable and mediumistic cosmos.

Hoasca as doctrinal light. UDV cosmology is transmitted through a hierarchical oral doctrine, biblical and reincarnationist narratives, chamadas and question–answer exchange. The burracheira is valued as clarity and communion with higher knowledge, not only visual spectacle.

> Shamans transform into jaguars when they drink yagé. — Langdon (1992), describing a Siona initiatory complex in which jaguar transformation, fear, death and rebirth are cultivated forms of knowledge—not decorative symbolism.

Shamanism, diagnosis and healing

The titles taita, onanya, uwishin, vegetalista, curandero/a, mestre and church officer are not synonyms. A Siona or A’ingae taita may carry political and territorial authority; a Shipibo-Konibo onanya acquires songs and plant relations through long dieting; a mestizo vegetalista works among plant teachers, spirit doctors and pathogenic darts; a Daimista commands firmness inside a collective hymnary; a UDV mestre teaches doctrine through speech. “Shaman” can compare these specialists, but it also conceals how their authority is produced.

Healing may mean identifying social conflict, extracting a pathogenic object, retrieving or strengthening a person, reordering family relations, treating addiction, converting suffering into Christian moral work, or producing psychological insight. Western outcome scales capture only some of these. Conversely, tradition does not guarantee beneficence: ayahuasca worlds include rivalry, fear, coercion and gendered power, while contemporary settings have documented exploitation and sexual abuse (Peluso, 2014; Fotiou, 2016; Marcus, 2023).

Art and material culture

Kené and women’s visual knowledge

Textile · ceramics · body · architecture · contemporary art

Shipibo-Konibo women draw, paint and embroider nonlinear path systems that organise beauty, identity and vitality. Kené now moves through urban muralism, fashion and gallery art while remaining a field of women’s labour, innovation and economic agency (Belaunde, 2016).

Song as operative form

Rao bewa · ikaro · yagé chant · chamada · hymn

Ayahuasca art is not primarily representational. Breath, melody, text, rhythm and vocal timbre act on bodies and beings. A song can protect, call, diagnose, steer, teach doctrine or coordinate a congregation.

Visionary painting

Pablo Amaringo · Usko-Ayar · Indigenous and mestizo successors

Amaringo’s densely inhabited worlds translated vegetalista cosmology into a global pictorial idiom: luminous cities, doctors, serpents, spacecraft, mermaids and plant beings coexist without becoming merely psychedelic fantasy (Luna and Amaringo, 1991).

Healing apparatus

Chakapa · maraca · tobacco pipe · perfume · cup · crown

Leaf bundles mark pulse and direction; smoke and fragrance carry protection; benches, crowns and feather regalia materialise rank and transformation. These are instruments, not atmospheric props.

Santo Daime’s embodied geometry

Farda · star · double cross · hexagonal table · bailado

White or blue uniforms, the fardado star, maracás, hymnals and ordered dance make doctrine visible and kinesthetic. The artwork is the synchronised congregation maintaining firmeza through a long work.

Barquinha and UDV material worlds

Altars · ships · portraits · uniforms · salon hierarchy

Barquinha’s marine and Afro-Brazilian imagery and UDV’s restrained institutional space produce very different sensory politics. Neither is adequately represented by the generic candlelit retreat altar.

Visionary phenomenology

Ayahuasca phenomenology is co-produced by brew, body, song, social expectation and ontological training. The same visual event may be interpreted as neurological imagery, pinta, a plant’s design, moral teaching, spirit encounter or miração. Comparing accounts is valuable only when the interpretive frame is preserved.

Three culturally organised modes of seeing

Siona yagé · pinta and transformation

Colour and patterned clarity arrive in graded worlds populated by masters, animals and dangerous agencies. The novice learns not simply to “have visions” but to withstand fear, recognise beings and acquire a stable shamanic perspective (Langdon, 1992; 2017).

Shipibo-Konibo oni · song-pattern-body

Geometric and scenic visions may entwine with song, bodily sensation and plant relation. Yet the claim that every kené motif is an ayahuasca transcription is too simple; art also follows gendered training, memory, piri-piri practice and aesthetic innovation (Brabec de Mori and Mori Silvano de Brabec, 2009).

Daime / Hoasca · miração and burracheira

In Santo Daime, mirações unfold within hymns, Christian–esoteric narratives and disciplined dance. In UDV, burracheira may emphasise clarity, recollection and doctrinal comprehension; absence of spectacular imagery does not mean absence of religious force.

Duration, intensity and social form

Temporal phase	Common experiential features	Cultural modulation
Onset · often 20–60 min	Bitter aftertaste, yawning, cold, heat, abdominal movement, tremor, apprehension and first visual patterning.	Can be named mareación, force, arrival of the medicine, cleansing or the beginning of burracheira; repeated servings change the arc.
Intensification · c. 1–2 h	Nausea, vomiting, bodily dissolution, sound–vision coupling, fear, autobiographical material and rapidly elaborating imagery.	Song and healer intervention may be experienced as visibly restructuring the field; group dance or calls can stabilise attention.
Visionary plateau · c. 1–4 h	Geometric networks, coherent landscapes, architectures, animals, ancestors, autonomous beings, moral scenes and radical noetic conviction.	A taita may read pinta; an onanya diagnoses; a vegetalista negotiates with doctors or owners; a Daimista receives a miração.
Return · c. 3–6+ h	Relief, lucidity, fatigue, after-images, emotional openness and urgency to interpret.	Closing songs, prayers, food, testimony and ongoing communal discipline decide what the event becomes. Long church works may extend beyond the pharmacological peak.

World-formation rather than “visual effects”

01 · Pattern becomes environment

Entoptic grids, zigzags, spirals and filigree can thicken into surfaces, textiles, skin, pathways and architectures. Geometry is not always a preliminary noise-layer; it may carry identity, health and agency.

02 · The body becomes permeable

Vomiting, shaking, sweating and changes of scale can be experienced as expulsion, death, birth, penetration or reassembly. The body is a site of knowledge, not merely a container for cerebral vision.

03 · Autonomous inhabitants

Serpents, jaguars, birds, ancestors, doctors, plant persons, celestial beings, machines and strangers may behave independently and communicate. Their apparent autonomy contributes strongly to ontological weight.

04 · Biographical and moral revelation

Childhood scenes, grief, kinship failures, addiction and responsibility may appear with panoramic certainty. Therapeutic “insight” and religious judgment can describe overlapping events without being identical.

05 · Song becomes visible action

Melody may appear as coloured line, armour, path or moving architecture. Participants can feel a song extracting, opening or ordering them—an experience inseparable from trust in the singer.

06 · Noesis, ambiguity and aftermath

Encounters often feel more discovered than imagined. That certainty may reorganise a life, but it can also harden suggestion, grandiosity or fear. Cultural interpretation and integration remain part of the phenomenology.

> Pattern becomes path, relation and inhabited world. — Editorial synthesis of recurrent Shipibo-Konibo interpretations in the ethnographic literature; path, design and agency are linked without reducing kené to a chemical visual trace (Belaunde, 2016; Favaron, Williams and Bédard, 2026).

CAUTION

“Ayahuasca visions” are not a single content class. Brew chemistry, prior knowledge, songs, darkness, repeated use, language, congregation and the authority of guides shape what becomes salient and memorable. Laboratory scales are useful, but they often measure intensity after removing the relations that make a vision culturally intelligible.

Contemporary transformations

Indigenous revival, heritage and refusal

Ayahuasca globalisation is not only extraction by outsiders. Indigenous organisations and artists use ceremonies, festivals and international alliances to fund land defence, revitalise songs and languages, and produce political recognition. Siona taitas, for example, have reconstituted yagé authority after missionisation, extractive violence and armed conflict (Langdon, 2017). Yet participation is strategic, not unlimited consent: communities may restrict photography, recording, noise, outsider access or the circulation of sacred knowledge. The right to share includes the right to withhold.

Tourism, diaspora and neoshamanism

Retreat centres and travelling ceremonies have created livelihoods and intercultural apprenticeships, but also branded a generic “Amazonian shamanism” around individual healing, trauma and Mother Ayahuasca. This can erase Indigenous histories of collective defence, sorcery, kinship and territory (Fotiou, 2016). Credentials are difficult to evaluate across borders; sexual abuse, coercive touch, medication failures and inadequate emergency planning are documented concerns. Ethical practice requires transparent lineage claims, safeguarding, referral pathways and Indigenous participation that is more substantial than decorative legitimacy (Peluso, 2014; Marcus, 2023).

Economies and conservation

A transnational sacrament economy

Retreats · churches · travelling delegations · vendors · training

Value now accumulates around access to healers, protected land, translation, accommodation, integration and religious membership—not merely the brew. Revenue can support communities, but ownership and risk are often unevenly distributed.

Caapi is not formally assessed

Conservation uncertainty

B. caapi is accepted and widespread in southern tropical America, but no formal IUCN Red List assessment was located in this research pass. Global range alone cannot measure local depletion near commercial centres (Kew Science, 2026a).

Cultivation versus mature-vine harvest

Gardens · church plantations · retreat supply chains

Cultivation in agroforestry and religious communities can reduce wild pressure. Demand for old, thick vine and secrecy about provenance can incentivise destructive or distant harvesting. Sustainability must be assessed locally.

Knowledge and benefit

Indigenous custodians · researchers · companies

Clinical and commercial fields derive value from a relation first made intelligible by Amazonian peoples. Benefit-sharing should concern authorship, protocol design, land and institutions—not only royalty from a molecule.

Law and religious freedom

Jurisdiction	Current position and cultural consequence
International	DMT is Schedule I under the 1971 Psychotropic Convention. The INCB has stated that plants and plant preparations are not automatically scheduled by that treaty, but national law may control the brew, extraction, import or possession (United Nations, 1971; INCB, 2012).
Brazil	CONAD Resolution No. 1/2010 recognises and regulates religious ayahuasca use, prohibiting commercial exploitation and therapeutic advertising while protecting ritual practice. Debate continues over regulation, Indigenous autonomy and groups outside the three established religions (CONAD, 2010; Krause, 2025).
Peru	National Directorial Resolution No. 836/INC (2008) declared traditional ayahuasca knowledge and uses Cultural Heritage of the Nation. Heritage recognition does not itself create clinical regulation or prevent commercial appropriation.
United States	Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal (2006) protected a specific UDV claimant under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Later church settlements are case-specific; there is no general legalisation of ayahuasca.
Canada	Health Canada has granted time-limited religious exemptions to named Santo Daime and UDV congregations. Exemption belongs to the authorised institution, not to personal possession generally.
United Kingdom / much of Europe	DMT is tightly controlled and courts may treat brewed ayahuasca as a DMT preparation. Religious and human-rights arguments have produced uneven national outcomes; cross-border transport remains especially risky.

Legal information changes and is not legal advice. The difference between plant, brew, isolated DMT, import, church sacrament and research material is jurisdiction-specific.

The “Da Vine” patent and biopiracy

US Plant Patent 5,751 was granted in 1986 to Loren Miller for a cultivated caapi variety named “Da Vine.” COICA and allies challenged it as a violation of Indigenous sacred knowledge. The USPTO cancelled claims during re-examination in 1999, later reinstated the patent on procedural and novelty grounds, and the patent expired in 2003. The case remains an emblem of biopiracy, but recent legal analysis cautions against repeating the simplified claim that Indigenous organisations permanently “won revocation.” The deeper asymmetry remains: a plant can be made proprietary through botanical distinctness while Indigenous ceremonial arts and collective knowledge receive weak protection (Bosse, 2024; Press, 2022).

Clinical and neuroscientific translation

Study / field	Contribution	Limit
Palhano-Fontes et al. (2019)	A randomised placebo-controlled trial reported rapid antidepressant effects in treatment-resistant depression.	Small sample; strong sensory unblinding; clinical response does not establish equivalence with Indigenous healing.
Gonzalez et al. (2021)	Observed Shipibo-led ceremonies and found improvements in several wellbeing measures, keeping a living ceremonial context in view.	Observational design cannot isolate pharmacology or remove selection and expectancy effects.
Pagni et al. (2025)	Sixty-six first-time naturalistic participants were followed for up to twelve months; associations differed by prior diagnosis and time.	No randomised control; outcomes belong to heterogeneous neoshamanic settings.
Andión et al. (2025)	Reanalysis of the Global Ayahuasca Survey found adverse states related to mental-health history, setting and acute reaction.	Self-report survey; “difficult” and “harmful” experiences overlap but are not identical.
Soares et al. (2026)	A crossover multiple-dose fMRI study reported altered connectivity involving visual and social-perception pathways, correlated with perspective-taking.	Network findings are preliminary and do not explain culturally specific beings, songs or cosmologies.
Favaron, Williams and Bédard (2026)	Challenges Western universalism by centring Shipibo-Konibo concepts and the crisis produced when ayawaska is translated into a context-free psychedelic.	Its intervention is conceptual and decolonial, not a clinical efficacy test.

The most important research distinction is between whole-rite ayahuasca, standardised botanical brew, DMT–harmine formulation and isolated DMT. Results from one cannot silently validate another. A 2026 scoping review found 26 registered interventional studies across ayahuasca, DMT and DMT–harmine, evidence of rapid expansion but also of category slippage (Stojanović et al., 2026).

Linked species

Core plants, companion leaves and medicines that enter preparation, dieta, smoke, purge or healing practice. Association does not mean that every species is brewed, interchangeable or safe.

Core vine · β-carbolines

Banisteriopsis caapi

Ayawaska, yagé, jagube or mariri: botanical and cultural anchor of the complex.

Principal companion leaf · DMT

Psychotria viridis

Chacruna / rainha; prominent in Peruvian, Brazilian and diasporic preparations.

North-western companion · DMT

Diplopterys cabrerana

Chagropanga / chaliponga / oco-yagé; especially significant in Colombian and Ecuadorian yagé.

Regional companion leaf

Psychotria carthagenensis

Often called amiruca or samiruka; its chemistry and identification require specimen-level care.

Protection · diagnosis · smoke

Nicotiana rustica

Mapacho: cleans, protects, carries prayer and participates in apprenticeship; not merely an admixture.

Powerful and hazardous admixture

Brugmansia suaveolens

Toé / maikoa relatives add tropane alkaloids and a distinct visionary-deliriant risk.

Dieta and healing associate

Calliandra angustifolia

Bobinsana; a western-Amazonian medicine associated with diets, songs and emotional/social healing.

Stimulant and emetic associate

Ilex guayusa

Guayusa; caffeine-rich Amazonian holly used in waking, cleansing and regional preparations.

Master-plant dieta

Brunfelsia grandiflora

Chiric sanango; a potent medicine whose dieta relation should not be reduced to “brew ingredient.”

Aromatic ritual associate

Justicia pectoralis

Aromatic herb with distinct north-Amazonian snuff histories and some reported ayahuasca associations.

Bibliography

Harvard style (Cite Them Right) · DOI and stable-record links · 58 sources

Archaeology & history

01 · 6 sources

Brabec de Mori, B. (2011) ‘Tracing hallucinations: contributing to a critical ethnohistory of ayahuasca usage in the Peruvian Amazon’, in Labate, B.C. and Jungaberle, H. (eds.) The Internationalization of Ayahuasca. Zürich: Lit Verlag, pp. 23–47.

Ethnohistorical chapter

Highpine, G. (2012) ‘Unraveling the mystery of the origin of ayahuasca’, Ayahuasca.com. Available at: ayahuasca.com (Accessed: 29 July 2026).

HISTORIOGRAPHY
Open record ↗

Miller, M.J., Albarracin-Jordan, J., Moore, C. and Capriles, J.M. (2019) ‘Chemical evidence for the use of multiple psychotropic plants in a 1,000-year-old ritual bundle from South America’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(23), pp. 11207–11212. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1902174116.

DOI checked
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Naranjo, P. (1986) ‘El ayahuasca en la arqueología ecuatoriana’, América Indígena, 46(1), pp. 117–127.

HISTORICAL CLAIM

Schultes, R.E. (1986) ‘The history of a malpighiaceous plant of the Northwest Amazon’, Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, 30(2), pp. 135–141.

ARCHIVAL

Schultes, R.E. and Raffauf, R.F. (1992) Vine of the Soul: Medicine Men, Their Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazonia. Oracle, AZ: Synergetic Press.

Ethnobotanical synthesis

Art, music & material culture

02 · 2 sources

Brabec de Mori, B. and Mori Silvano de Brabec, L.E. (2009) ‘La corona de la inspiración. Los diseños geométricos de los Shipibo-Konibo y sus relaciones con cosmovisión y música’, Indiana, 26, pp. 105–134.

Ethnomusicology / Indigenous scholarship

Luna, L.E. and Amaringo, P. (1991) Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.

Primary visual-ethnographic volume

Botany & taxonomy

03 · 9 sources

Kew Science (2026a) Banisteriopsis caapi (Spruce ex Griseb.) C.V.Morton. Plants of the World Online. Available at: powo.science.kew.org (Accessed: 29 July 2026).

TAXONOMY
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Kew Science (2026b) Psychotria viridis Ruiz & Pav. Plants of the World Online. Available at: powo.science.kew.org (Accessed: 29 July 2026).

TAXONOMY
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Kew Science (2026c) Diplopterys cabrerana (Cuatrec.) B.Gates. Plants of the World Online. Available at: powo.science.kew.org (Accessed: 29 July 2026).

TAXONOMY
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McKenna, D.J., Towers, G.H.N. and Abbott, F. (1984) ‘Monoamine oxidase inhibitors in South American hallucinogenic plants: tryptamine and β-carboline constituents of ayahuasca’, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 10(2), pp. 195–223. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8741(84)90003-5.

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Riba, J., Rodríguez-Fornells, A., Urbano, G., Morte, A., Antonijoan, R., Montero, M., Callaway, J.C. and Barbanoj, M.J. (2001) ‘Subjective effects and tolerability of the South American psychoactive beverage ayahuasca in healthy volunteers’, Psychopharmacology, 154(1), pp. 85–95. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002130000606.

DOI CHECKED
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Riba, J., Valle, M., Urbano, G., Yritia, M., Morte, A. and Barbanoj, M.J. (2003) ‘Human pharmacology of ayahuasca: subjective and cardiovascular effects, monoamine metabolite excretion, and pharmacokinetics’, Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 306(1), pp. 73–83. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1124/jpet.103.049882.

Verified
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Rodríguez, C., Rolland, A., O’Neill, B., Dansereau, C. and López, V. (2022) ‘Chemical profiling and comparison of ayahuasca samples’, ACS Omega, 7(14), pp. 12301–12311. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.2c00795.

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Santos, B.W.L., Moreira, D.C., Borges, T.K.S. and Caldas, E.D. (2022) ‘Components of Banisteriopsis caapi, a plant used in the preparation of the psychoactive ayahuasca, induce anti-inflammatory effects in microglial cells’, Molecules, 27(8), 2500. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27082500.

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Santos, B.W.L., Oliveira, R.C., Sonsin-Oliveira, J., Fagg, C.W., Barbosa, J.B.F., Caldas, E.D. and Sampaio, S.V. (2020) ‘Biodiversity of β-carboline profile of Banisteriopsis caapi and ayahuasca, a plant and a brew with neuropharmacological potential’, Plants, 9(7), 870. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9070870.

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Chemistry & pharmacology

04 · 2 sources

Callaway, J.C., Brito, G.S. and Neves, E.S. (2005) ‘Phytochemical analyses of Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis’, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 37(2), pp. 145–150. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2005.10399895.

Verified
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Rivier, L. and Lindgren, J.-E. (1972) ‘“Ayahuasca,” the South American hallucinogenic drink: an ethnobotanical and chemical investigation’, Economic Botany, 26(2), pp. 101–129. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02860772.

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Clinical research & neuroscience

05 · 2 sources

Palhano-Fontes, F., Andrade, K.C., Tofoli, L.F., Santos, A.C., Crippa, J.A.S., Hallak, J.E.C., Ribeiro, S. and de Araujo, D.B. (2015) ‘The psychedelic state induced by ayahuasca modulates the activity and connectivity of the default mode network’, PLOS ONE, 10(2), e0118143. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118143.

Verified
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Palhano-Fontes, F., Barreto, D., Onias, H., Andrade, K.C., Novaes, M.M., Pessoa, J.A., Mota-Rolim, S.A., Osório, F.L., Sanches, R., dos Santos, R.G., Tófoli, L.F., de Oliveira Silveira, G., Yonamine, M., Riba, J., Santos, F.R., Silva-Junior, A.A., Alchieri, J.C., Galvão-Coelho, N.L., Lobão-Soares, B., Hallak, J.E.C., Arcoverde, E., Maia-de-Oliveira, J.P. and Araújo, D.B. (2019) ‘Rapid antidepressant effects of the psychedelic ayahuasca in treatment-resistant depression: a randomized placebo-controlled trial’, Psychological Medicine, 49(4), pp. 655–663. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291718001356.

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Ethnography, ritual & cosmology

06 · 16 sources

Belaunde, L.E. (2016) ‘Kené: Shipibo-Konibo design and the aesthetics of Amazonian sociality’, in Santos-Granero, F. (ed.) Images of Public Wealth or the Anatomy of Well-Being in Indigenous Amazonia. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, pp. 190–211.

BOOK CHAPTER

Beyer, S.V. (2009) Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.

Ethnographic synthesis

Dawson, A. (2013) Santo Daime: A New World Religion. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Available at: Bloomsbury.

publisher record
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Fotiou, E. (2016) ‘The globalization of ayahuasca shamanism and the erasure of Indigenous shamanism’, Anthropology of Consciousness, 27(2), pp. 151–179. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/anoc.12056.

DOI CHECKED
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Gearin, A.K. and Calavia Sáez, O. (2021) ‘Altered vision: ayahuasca shamanism and sensory sociality’, Current Anthropology, 62(2), pp. 138–163. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1086/713737.

Verified
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Gow, P. (1994) ‘River people: shamanism and history in western Amazonia’, in Thomas, N. and Humphrey, C. (eds.) Shamanism, History and the State. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, pp. 90–113.

Ethnohistorical chapter

Harner, M.J. (1972) The Jívaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday.

Ethnographic monograph

Labate, B.C., Rose, I.S. and Santos, R.G. (2009) Ayahuasca Religions: A Comprehensive Bibliography and Critical Essays. Santa Cruz, CA: Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Labate, B.C., Santos, R.G., Anderson, B.T., Mercante, M.S. and Barbosa, P.C.R. (2012) ‘The treatment and handling of substance dependence with ayahuasca: reflections on current and future research’, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 44(3), pp. 229–239. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2012.704590.

DOI CHECKED
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Langdon, E.J.M. (1992) ‘Shamans and jaguars: a study of Siona medicine’, in Langdon, E.J.M. and Baer, G. (eds.) Portals of Power: Shamanism in South America. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, pp. 41–62.

BOOK CHAPTER

Langdon, E.J.M. (2017) ‘From the vision to the word: the shamanic performance and its relation to the political’, Social Compass, 64(3), pp. 319–337. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0037768617713654.

DOI CHECKED
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Luna, L.E. (1986) Vegetalismo: Shamanism among the Mestizo Population of the Peruvian Amazon. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.

Ethnographic monograph

Peluso, D.M. (2014) ‘Ayahuasca’s attractions and distractions: examining sexual seduction in shaman-participant interactions’, in Labate, B.C. and Cavnar, C. (eds.) Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 231–255. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199341191.003.0011.

DOI CHECKED
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Reichel-Dolmatoff, G. (1975) The Shaman and the Jaguar: A Study of Narcotic Drugs among the Indians of Colombia. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Ethnographic monograph

Tupper, K.W. (2008) ‘The globalization of ayahuasca: harm reduction or benefit maximization?’, International Journal of Drug Policy, 19(4), pp. 297–303. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2006.11.001.

DOI CHECKED
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Tupper, K.W. (2009) ‘Ayahuasca healing beyond the Amazon: the globalization of a traditional Indigenous entheogenic practice’, Global Networks, 9(1), pp. 117–136. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0374.2009.00245.x.

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Law, policy & patents

07 · 11 sources

Bosse, M. (2024) ‘The “Da Vine” patent: ayahuasca, biopiracy and the limits of plant patent law’, Intellectual Property Quarterly, 2, pp. 136–162.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

Brazil, Conselho Nacional de Políticas sobre Drogas (CONAD) (2010) Resolução No. 1, de 25 de janeiro de 2010. Brasília: Diário Oficial da União.

PRIMARY LAW

Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal, 546 U.S. 418 (2006). Available at: supreme.justia.com (Accessed: 29 July 2026).

CASE LAW
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International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) (2012) Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2012. New York: United Nations, para. 329. Available at: incb.org (Accessed: 29 July 2026).

TREATY GUIDANCE
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Krause, F. (2025) ‘Reassessing ayahuasca regulation in Brazil: strategic framing and cumulative gains’, Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, 32(4), pp. 380–391. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/09687637.2024.2415319.

DOI CHECKED
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Labate, B.C. and Cavnar, C. (eds.) (2014) Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond. New York: Oxford University Press.

Scholarly volume

Marcus, O. (2023) ‘“Everybody’s creating it along the way”: ethical tensions among globalized ayahuasca shamanisms and therapeutic integration practices’, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 48(3), pp. 455–472. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/03080188.2022.2075201.

DOI CHECKED
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Peru, Instituto Nacional de Cultura (2008) Resolución Directoral Nacional No. 836/INC: Declaran Patrimonio Cultural de la Nación los conocimientos y usos tradicionales del ayahuasca practicados por comunidades nativas amazónicas. Lima: Instituto Nacional de Cultura.

HERITAGE LAW

Press, E. (2022) ‘Ayahuasca on trial’, The New Yorker, 12 September. Available at: newyorker.com (Accessed: 29 July 2026).

LEGAL REPORTING
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United Nations (1971) Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Vienna: United Nations. Available at: unodc.org (Accessed: 29 July 2026).

PRIMARY TREATY
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United States Patent and Trademark Office (1986) Banisteriopsis caapi (cv.) ‘Da Vine’, US Plant Patent 5,751. Available at: USPP5751P (Accessed: 29 July 2026).

Patent record
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Visionary phenomenology

08 · 10 sources

Andión, Ó., Bouso, J.C., Sarris, J.J., Tófoli, L.F., Opaleye, E.S. and Perkins, D. (2025) ‘A new insight into ayahuasca’s adverse effects: reanalysis and perspectives on its mediating role in mental health from the Global Ayahuasca Survey (GAS)’, PLOS Mental Health, 2(4), e0000097. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000097.

DOI CHECKED
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Bouso, J.C., Andión, Ó., Sarris, J., Scheidegger, M., Tófoli, L.F., Opaleye, E.S., Schubert, V., Perkins, D. and Sánchez-Avilés, C. (2022) ‘Adverse effects of ayahuasca: results from the Global Ayahuasca Survey’, PLOS Global Public Health, 2(11), e0000438. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000438.

DOI CHECKED
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dos Santos, R.G. and Hallak, J.E.C. (2025) ‘Ayahuasca: pharmacology, safety, and therapeutic effects’, CNS Spectrums, 30(1), e2. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S109285292400213X.

DOI CHECKED
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Favaron, P., Williams, K. and Bédard, A.-A. (2026) ‘Oni pae mera: Ayawaska among the Shipibo-Konibo and the crisis of western universalism’, Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 10(2), pp. 173–184. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2025.00497.

DOI CHECKED
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Gonzalez, D., Cantillo, J., Perez, I., Carvalho, M., Aronovich, A., Farre, M., Feilding, A., Obiols, J.E. and Bouso, J.C. (2021) ‘The Shipibo ceremonial use of ayahuasca to promote well-being: an observational study’, Frontiers in Pharmacology, 12, 623923. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2021.623923.

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Pagni, B.A., Halman, A., Sarris, J., Chenhall, R., Bogenschutz, M.P. and Perkins, D. (2025) ‘Long-term mental health and wellbeing outcomes associated with naturalistic ayahuasca consumption’, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. Advance online publication. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2025.2465800.

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Perkins, D., Opaleye, E.S., Simonova, H., Bouso, J.C., Tófoli, L.F., Galvão-Coelho, N.L., Sarris, J. and Liknaitzky, P. (2021) ‘Associations between ayahuasca consumption in naturalistic settings and current alcohol and drug use: results of a large international cross-sectional survey’, Frontiers in Pharmacology, 12, 623979. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2021.623979.

DOI CHECKED
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Shanon, B. (2002) The Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cognitive-phenomenological monograph
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Soares, C., Lima, G., Teixeira, M., André, R., Rijo, P., Cabral, C. and Castelo-Branco, M. (2026) ‘Ayahuasca enhances functional connectivity in the third visual pathway and mirror neuron networks: a crossover, multiple-dose functional MRI study’, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 21(1), nsag004. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsag004.

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Stojanović, T., Nilsson, K.W., Fredriksson, R., Schiöth, H.B. and Moulin, T.C. (2026) ‘Registered clinical trials of ayahuasca and DMT: a scoping review’, Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 120(1), pp. 94–108. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/cpt.70311.

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