Tim Plowman did a monograph on this plant that is proving to be fantastic reading. I can;t get it attached to the post due to its size. Google "Tim Plowman Brunfelia"
, I hope you enjoy reading it, because it looks like consuming it is pretty terrible.
Plowman immediately recognized the plant as a new species, which he later named Brunfelsia chiricaspi after the Quechua word meaning cold tree. He asked the old man to prepare it, but the shaman refused. He described the plant as a dangerous messenger of the forest and disavowed any knowledge of taking it for visions. Tim persisted. Eventually the shaman agreed, although reluctantly and only on the condition
that Pedro also drink the preparation.
The drug, an extract from the bark, was murky brown and bitter to swallow. Tim felt the effects within ten minutes: a tingling sensation such as one feels when the blood rushes back to a limb that has fallen asleep. Only in this case the sensation grew to a maddening intensity, spreading from his lips and fingertips toward the center of his body, progressing up his spine to the base of his skull in waves of cold that flooded over his consciousness. His breathing collapsed. Dizzy with vertigo, he lost all muscular control and fell to the mud floor of the shaman's hut. In horror he realized that he was frothing at the mouth.
An hour passed. Paralyzed and tormented by an excruciating pain in his stomach, he remained only vaguely aware of where he was on the earth, face to face with three snarling dogs fighting over the vomit that had spread in a pool around his head.
The shaman, noticing his plight, did what shamans normally do under such circumstances: He went to bed. Desperate to escape the sensation, half-blinded by the drug, and incapable of walking, Tim and Pedro stumbled and crawled through the forest for two hours until finally, toward dawn, they reached the village of San Antonio, where
they were staying in an abandoned jail. As light came to the forest, they crawled into their hammocks, where they remained, motionless, for two days. Pedro Juajibioy, whose experience as a folk healer had taken him on a thousand flights of the spirit, summed up the experience succinctly: "The world was spinning around me like a great blue wheel. I felt that I was going to die."
While it's not exactly promising looking from an ingested point of view, there does seem to be some research on it being useful against arthritis and a few other issues. Not exactly a toy, that's for sure.
Oh wait, except when it is in the garden!
DESCRIPTION: These are evergreen, flowering shrubs found in tropical America. They are grown outside in southern Florida and California. They can be grown inside greenhouses where outdoor climates aren't suitable. They need a greenhouse with a minimum temperature of 55 degrees. These plants grow 2 to 8 feet in height, have woody stems and big, oval to oblong leaves. Their flowers, which grow in clusters, are large and purple or cream in color.
POTTING: Repotting is done after they've finished flowering. The best compost for them is a mixture of two parts fibrous loam and one part each of peat, leaf mold, and sand. When the flowers have faded, the shoots should be cut back by half. Sprits the foliage with water to encourage the growth of new shoots. When these are a half-inch or so long, the plants are taken from their pots and a bit of the old soil is removed, after which, they are repotted in slightly larger pots. Pinch the tips of the shoots so they will branch. When they have formed a good supply of roots, they may be given a dilute liquid fertilizer during their season of growth. Keep the air humid by wetting the floor, benches and their foliage quite often. They need a lot of water in the summer, but less in the winter.
PROPAGATION: Shoots that are 2 inches long may be inserted in a propagating case in the greenhouse in June or July.
VARIETIES: B. (Franciscea) calycina and its varieties, eximia, floribunda, macrantha; B. calycina (This one and its varieties are sometimes called Yesterday-Today-and Tomorrow); B. americana (Lady-of-the-night); B. undulata; B. latifolia.
From Botany.com
These are a common annual in temperate climates but can get to stunning size if kept year round. You should be able to buy them in any nursery. I think I actually had these two seasons ago, I had recognized the flowers being close to nicotina/petunias and wanted them for my garden. I see I was right in not running any bio-assays, these things seem pretty terrible.
So why the hell would they be included in ayahuasaca? Tim suggests that in smaller doses the waves of chills would increase the general weirdness of the main experience.
(this following part was written a few days later)
No, no DMT. It doesn't even have active alkaloids! The active part of this plant is called
Scopoletin, a coumarin compound. Please note, this is NOT scopolamine found in other Solanaceae plants, namely Datura (And is ALSO used in the attached study!)
Before we get to far into this, I should point out that this needs to be avoided by people on blood thinners or clotting issues. Coumarins are blood thinners and are dosed very carefully, overdose can cause bleeding problems.
from wiki:
Coumarin is moderately toxic to the liver and kidneys, with an LD50 of 275 mg/kg—low compared to related compounds. Although only somewhat dangerous to humans, coumarin is a potent rodenticide.
I'm a little surprised that Tim Plowman reports this plant as foul tasting, most coumarins have a delightful smell of cut grass. Then again, most coumarins don't show much promise as a noortropic! The study below looks pretty cool, nothing solid, but it's a good start.
The more I've read on this plant, the more I'm intrigued. There seems to be a number of studies looking at this for arthritis, pain relief, liver protection?!, anti-spasmodic, antibacterial...
Third-Party Published Research on Manacá
All available third-party research on manacá can be found at PubMed. A partial listing of the published third party research on manacá is shown below:
Anti-inflammatory, Pain-Relieving, & Fever Reducing Actions:
Moon, P. D., et al. "Use of scopoletin to inhibit the production of inflammatory cytokines through inhibition of the IkappaB/NF-kappaB signal cascade in the human mast cell line HMC-1." Eur. J. Pharmacol. 2007 Jan; 555(2-3): 218-25.
Rollinger, J. M., et al. “Acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity of scopolin and scopoletin discovered by virtual screening of natural products.” J. Med. Chem. 2004 Dec 2; 47(25): 6248-54.
Park, J. H., et al. “Antiinflammatory activity of Synurus deltoides.” Phytother. Res. 2004; 18(11): 930-3.
Kim, H. J., et al. “Scopoletin suppresses pro-inflammatory cytokines and PGE2 from LPS-stimulated cell line, RAW 264.7 cells.” Fitoterapia. 2004 Jun; 75(3-4): 261-6.
Ruppelt, B. M., et al. “Pharmacological screening of plants recommended by folk medicine as anti-snake venom–I. Analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities.” Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz 1991; 86: 203–5.
Iyer, R. P., et al. “Brunfelsia hopeana I: Hippocratic screening and antiinflammatory evaluation." Lloydia. 1977; 40(4): 356–60.
de Costa, A. O. “A pharmacologic study of manacá (Brunfelsia hopeana)." Bol. Assoc. Bras. Pharm. 1933; 14: 295–99.
Liver Protective Actions:
Kang, S. Y., et al. “Hepatoprotective activity of scopoletin, a constituent of Solanum lyratum." Arch. Pharm. Res. 1998; 21(6): 718–22.
Cellular Protective & Antioxidant Actions:
Barreiro Arcos, M. L., et al. ”Tilia cordata Mill. Extracts and scopoletin (isolated compound): differential cell growth effects on lymphocytes.” Phytother. Res. 2006; 20(1): 34-40.
Kim, E. K., et al. “Scopoletin induces apoptosis in human promyeloleukemic cells, accompanied by activations of nuclear factor kappaB and caspase-3.” Life Sci. 2005; 77(7): 824-36.
Ma, J., et al. “A coumarin from Mallotus resinosus that mediates DNA cleavage.” J. Nat. Prod. 2004; 67(9): 1614-6.
Shaw, C. Y., et al. “Antioxidant properties of scopoletin isolated from Sinomonium acutum. “ Phytother. Res. 2003 Aug; 17(7): 823-5.
Liu, X. L., et al. “Effect of scopoletin on PC(3) cell proliferation and apoptosis.” Acta. Pharmacol. Sin. 2001; 22(10): 929–33.
Wall, M. E., et al. “Plant antimutagenic agents, 1. General bioassay and isolation procedures.” J. Nat. Prod. 1988; 51(5): 866–73.
Iyer, R. P., et al. “Brunfelsia hopeana—Pharmacologic screening: isolation and characterization of hoppeanine.” Diss. Abstr. Int. B. 1978; 39: 761.
Anti-convulsant & Anti-spasmodic Actions:
Oliveira, E. J., et al. “Intracellular calcium mobilization as a target for the spasmolytic action of scopoletin.” Planta Med. 2001; 67: 605–8.
Chiou, L. C., et al. “Chinese herb constituent beta-eudesmol alleviated the electroshock seizures in mice and electrographic seizures in rat hippocampal slices.” Neurosci. Lett. 1997; 231(3): 171–74.
Antimicrobial Actions:
Kloucek, P., et al. “Antibacterial screening of some Peruvian medicinal plants used in Calleria District.” J. Ethnopharmacol. 2005 Jun; 99(2): 309-12.
Carpinella, M. C., et al. “Antifungal synergistic effect of scopoletin, a hydroxycoumarin isolated from Melia azedarach L. fruits.” J. Agric. Food Chem. 2005 Apr 20; 53(8): 2922-7.
Kayser, O., et al. “Antibacterial activity of extracts and constituents of Pelargonium sidoides and Pelargonium reniforme." Planta Med. 1997; 63(6): 508–10.
Insecticidal Actions:
Heal, R. E., et al. “A survey of plants for insecticidal activity.” Lloydia 1950; 13 1: 89–162.
I see a lot of contradictions with this substance, coumarins are liver toxic, this one might protect the liver, there's other things that don't quite make sense. Tim Plowman consumed a cup full, and the site I got most of the quotes from (alas attached to a commercial site) would almost indicate that as a dose. This is clearly a plant that needs to be approached with reasonable caution, there's much research that needs to be done on dose size and preparation. I suspect that the shaman purposefully poisoned Tim to teach him a lesson and it was generally used in much lower doses.
Traditional Preparation: One-half cup root decoction 1-2 times daily, or 1-2 ml of a 4:1 tincture twice daily.
Contraindications:
* Manacá has a traditional use as an abortive. No clinical studies have been performed to indicate its safety during pregnancy; therefore, it is contraindicated for pregnant women.
* Manacá root is reported to have toxicity in large doses - causing excessive salivation, vertigo, general anesthesia, partial paralysis of the face, swollen tongue, and disturbed vision. Avoid dosages higher than the traditional remedy indicates.
* Those allergic to aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) should avoid using manacá. Manacá contains salicylate and several of its derivatives. Salicylate occurs naturally in plants; for some people, too much salicylate causes problems (known as "salicylate sensitivity" or "salicylate intolerance") without being allergic to aspirin. Do not use manacá if sensitive to salicylate.
* Manacá root contains coumarins - plant chemicals known to thin the blood. Those taking blood-thinning medications such as coumadin should use manacá only under the direction and supervision of a qualified healthcare practitioner to monitor these effects.
* The plant chemical scopoletin has been documented to inhibit monoamine oxidase. Those taking monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors should consult their healthcare practitioner before taking manacá.
Drug Interactions: None reported; however, manacá may potentiate blood-thinning medications such as Warfarin® and heparin. It may potentiate monoamine oxidase inhibitor drugs also.
That last line makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't be surprised if we find this used with
caapi alone. I attached a paper that discusses the technical end of this inhibition. It also mentions Mugwort as a source of this compound.
I'm working on a bibliography of citations of traditional use, it looks like they will be hard to track down, lot of out of print stuff. When I get home,
I'll check in Tobacco Shamanism in South America, I think
Brunfelsia is touched on, but I'm not holding my breath. I think this plant may hold some interest and is worth studying. Just remember, if an experiemnt goes wrong, there is a good chance that no one at the hospital is going to know what to do.
But damn, an MAO-I admixture for ayahuasaca that may increase recall?
its a magikal plant.... Enlightened being from another galaxy... thats another story though.
