Anadenanthera peregrina

Species of plant
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Anadenanthera peregrina
Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae
Clade: Mimosoid clade
Genus: Anadenanthera
Species:
A. peregrina
Binomial name
Anadenanthera peregrina
(L.) Speg.
Range of Anadenanthera peregrina
Synonyms

Acacia angustiloba DC.
Acacia microphylla Willd.
Acacia peregrina (L.) Willd.
Inga niopo Willd.
Mimosa acacioides Benth.
Mimosa niopo (Willd.) Poir.
Mimosa parvifolia Poiret
Mimosa peregrina L.
Niopa peregrina (L.) Britton & Rose
Piptadenia niopo (Willd.) Spruce
Piptadenia peregrina (L.) Benth.[2]

Anadenanthera peregrina, also known as yopo, jopo, cohoba, parica or calcium tree, is a perennial tree of the genus Anadenanthera native to the Caribbean and South America.[2] It grows up to 20 m (66 ft) tall, and has a thorny bark. Its flowers grow in small, pale yellow to white spherical clusters resembling Acacia (e.g. wattle) inflorescences. It is an entheogen which has been used in healing ceremonies and rituals for thousands of years in northern South America and the Caribbean.[3] Although the seeds of the yopo tree were originally gathered from the wild, increased competition between tribes over access to the seeds led to it being intentionally cultivated and transported elsewhere, expanding the plant's distribution through introduction to areas beyond its original native range.[4]

Related species

This plant is almost identical to that of a related tree, Anadenanthera colubrina,[5] commonly known as cebíl or vilca.[6] The beans of A. colubrina have a similar chemical makeup as Anadenanthera peregrina, with their primary constituent being bufotenin.[6]

Botanical varieties

Uses

Wood

The wood from A. peregrina produces very hard timber that is used for making furniture.[7] It has a Janka rating of 3700 lb.[8][failed verification] and a density of around 0.86 g/cm3.[9] Tannins have also been derived from this plant.[4]

Toxicity

The beans (sometimes called seeds) and falling leaves are hallucinogenic and are toxic to cattle.

Chemical compounds

Chemical compounds contained in A. peregrina include:

The bark contains a high percentage of tannins, 587 mg CE/g extract.[14]

Entheogenic uses

Traditional usage

Anadenanthera peregrina 1916
Yopo seeds

Archaeological evidence shows Anadenanthera beans have been used as hallucinogens for thousands of years. The oldest clear evidence of use comes from pipes made of puma bone (Puma concolor) found with Anadenanthera beans presumably of the sister species A. colubrina, at Inca Cueva, a site in the Humahuaca gorge at the edge of the Puna of Jujuy Province, Argentina. The pipes were found to contain the hallucinogen DMT, one of the compounds found in Anadenanthera beans. Radiocarbon testing of the material gave a date of 2130 BC, suggesting that Anadenanthera use as a hallucinogen is over 4,000 years old.[15] Snuff trays and tubes similar to those commonly used for yopo were found in the central Peruvian coast dating back to 1200 BC, suggesting that insufflation of Anadenanthera beans is a more recent method of use.[16] Archaeological evidence of insufflation use within the period 500-1000 AD, in northern Chile, has been reported.[17]

Some indigenous peoples of the Orinoco basin in Colombia, Venezuela and possibly in the southern part of the Brazilian Amazon make use of yopo snuff for spiritual healing. Yopo snuff was also widely used in ceremonial contexts in the Caribbean area, including Puerto Rico and La Española, up to the Spanish Conquest.

Yopo snuff is usually blown into the user's nostrils by another person through bamboo tubes or sometimes snuffed by the user using bird bone tubes. Blowing is more effective as this method allows more powder to enter the nose and is said to be less irritating. In some areas the unprocessed ground beans are snuffed or smoked producing a much weaker effect with stronger physical symptoms. Some tribes use yopo along with Banisteriopsis caapi to increase and prolong the visionary effects, creating an experience similar to that of ayahuasca.

Effects

The first report of the effects of hallucinogenic snuff prepared from the beans of Anadenanthera peregrina dates back to 1496 when it was observed by Friar Ramon Pane, who was commissioned by Christopher Columbus, among the Taino Indians of Hispaniola. Pane's report was first published in 1511 in Martyr's descriptions of the New World. The description of its effects reads in part: "This kohobba powder," described as "an intoxicating herb, is so strong that those who take it lose consciousness; when the stupefying action begins to wane, the arms and legs become loose and the head droops." It is administered with a cane about one foot long of which they introduce one end "in the nose and the other in the powder and ...draw it into themselves through the nose". It worked quickly: "almost immediately they believe they see the room turn upside-down and men walking with their heads downwards". The administering witch-doctor took the drug along with his patients, intoxicating "them so that they do not know what they do and ... speak of many things incoherently", believing that they are in communication with spirits.[18]

Active constituents