Trujillo, Edwin and Frausin Bustamante, Gina and Correa, Marco and Trujillo, William (2010) El uso de la Ayahuasca en la Amazonia. Ingenierías y Amazonia, 3 (2). pp. 151-163.
Abstract
The yagé is a hallucinogenic plant (Banisteriopsis caapi) widely distributed in Colombia, Perú, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil and Bolivia, of which gets ready a drink (Ayahuasca) consumed from immemorial times inside an indigenous ritual context. Their preparation it is usually made with the bark of B. caapi, but in occasions additive are used, as the oco-yaje leaves or chagropanga (Diplopterys cabrerana: Malpighiaceae) and chacruna (Psychotria viridis: Rubiaceae), with the purpose of changing the psicoactivity effects of the drug, increasing their power and the duration of the trance. Besides the medicinal use, associated to the shamanism, there are different ways of consumption of this plant, among them: the vegetalism in Peru and Colombia and its associated practice to the Catholicism, magic and spiritualism in Brazil like the Union do Vegetal (UDV), Santo Daime and the Barquinha. The use of yage is synonymous with quality of life and health for Amazonian indigenous cultures. The cultural transformation which face today the indigenous cultures favors the loss of these ancestral practices affecting the welfare of the aboriginal people of the region and the culture of yage disappears with the death of old wise persons.