Machiguenga:An ethnobotanical study of plants of E. Peru

[Avery L. Breath]

http://manu.montana.com/

Quote of one of the plants in the plant section: (is a new one to me.)

Mamperikipini, Fittonia sp. detail.
This species is employed by the Kofan and Siona-Secoya tribes of the Ecuadorian Amazon as a headache treatment. The Machiguenga know it as an hallucinogen, used in large amounts as part of the kamarampi mixture in previous generations before they gained knowledge of the use of Psychotria sp. for this purpose. They say that it produces visions of eyeballs.

(several other 'hallucinogenic' plants noted.)

[dergheist]

Excellent link, thanks for the info.  That is a very credible site with excellent photos and descriptions.  That guy must have spent a couple years compiling this stuff. (I know I am a bio student)  Very cool, gonna take me a couple times browsing it before I pick up on all of it.

[Avery L. Breath]

darnit, I wish I had not lent out my plants of the gods book, I could swear there are some new novel entheogens I've never come across in that guys plant list.

[Stonehenge]

That's a very good link to plant info. Besides shamanic uses, many of those plants sound like they might be new drugs with commercial value. An eyedrop that cures migraine would be worth a lot of $$$. Trouble is, you need millions to get it past the FDA plus it takes years.

[Avery L. Breath]

I spent a good part of yesterday trying to find information about entheogenic orchids based on this guys information stated about:

Kemishitsa, tentatively Stelis sp. Orchidaceae. Oscar very excitedly brought us this specimen one day after he found it on the trail. Apparently, it was the plant that his master used to help him attain status as a seripegari, or shaman. He reports that it is very powerful, and we began calling it "the hallucinogen that falls from the sky". If corroborated, it will be the first such claim for this, the largest plant family, with some 30,000 species.

But came up nill on orchids in general except for another obscure refference to Oncidium longifolium of mexico containing opiate like alkaloids and being used as a peyote replacement (M.S. Smith).  so I wonder how significant a discovery this is.  I bet some orchidophiles would be getting a major woody over this one if they knew about it.