Banisteriopsis caapi
Banisteriopsis caapi, also known as Ayahuasca,Caapi or Yage, is a South American jungle vine of the family Malpighiaceae. It is used to prepareAyahuasca, a decoction that has a long history ofentheogenic uses as a medicine and "plant teacher" among the indigenous peoples of the Amazon Rainforest. It contains harmine, harmaline, andtetrahydroharmine, all of which are both beta-carboline harmala alkaloids and MAOIs. The MAOIs in B. caapi allow the primary psychoactive compound, DMT (which is introduced from the other primary ingredient in Ayahausca, the Psychotria viridis plant), to be orally active. The stems contain 0.11-0.83% beta-carbolines, with harmine andtetrahydroharmine as the major components.[2]
According to The CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names by Umberto Quattrocchi, the naming of B. caapi was actually dedicated to John Banister, a seventeenth-century English clergyman and naturalist. An earlier name for the genusBanisteriopsis was Banisteria, and the plant is sometimes referred to as Banisteria caapi in everyday usage.
The name Ayahuasca means "vine of the soul" inQuechuan, and the shamans of the indigenous Western Amazonian tribes use the plant in religious and healing ceremonies. In addition to its hallucinogenic properties, caapi is used for its healing properties as a purgative, effectively cleansing the body of parasites and helping the digestive tract.
There are two scientifically accepted varieties:[edit]Types of vine
- Banisteriopsis caapi var. caupuri with knotty stems
- Banisteriopsis caapi var. tukunaka with smooth stems[citation needed]
[edit]Legal issues
[edit]Legality
In the United States, caapi is not specifically regulated. A recent court case involving caapi-containing Ayahuasca (which also contains other plants containing the controlled substance DMT, introduced from the Psychotria viridis plant),Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal, was found in favor of the União do Vegetal, a Brazilian religious sect utilizing the tea in their ceremonies and having around 130 members in the United States.
In Australia, the harmala alkaloids are scheduled substances, including Harmine and harmaline, but the living vine, or other source plants are not in most states. On the State of Queensland as of March 2008 [3] this distinction is now uncertain. In all states the dried herb may or may not be considered a scheduled susbtance, dependent on court rulings.
In Canada, harmala listed under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act as a schedule III substance, but the vine is not. (Note that Canadian scheduling laws are very different from their United States counterparts).
Caapi, as well as a range of harmala alkaloids, were recently scheduled in France, following a court victory by the Santo Daime religious sect allowing use of the tea due to it not being a chemical extraction and the fact that the plants used were not scheduled. Religious exceptions to narcotics laws are not allowed under French law, effectively making any use or possession of the tea illegal.
[edit]This is for 1 healthy (Red strain) hard rooted plant. Hard rooted and hardened plants have multiple growth (vines) coming from the plant. They grow much quicker and will have multiple vines coming from them much faster then rooted green wood cuttings.
RED CAAPI - Banisteriopsis caapi
Initiatic use: healing trance & insight, spiritual balancing, journeying & astral travel.
Red Caapi is on the stronger end of the spectrum, and is traditionally used in healing ceremony, taken by the Curandero in order to look into the patient to discover the illness. Often, in this use, the patient is given the friendlier Yellow Caapi. Red Caapi brings visions tinted in blue (the "red" refers to the colour of the brew made from it).
Red banisteriopsis is used as a doorway for entering the astral realm for Shamanic or divination work. It has a tendency to loosen the ties between the astral and physical body for skrying work.
Because of modern psychonaut's overemphasis on "active" chemicals and pharmaceutical analysis, Banisteriopsis is not well-known as a journeying plant by itself, as it is considered to be merely a potentiator for the "real active ingredients" of Ayahuasca. This is unfortunate, as Banisteriopsis is a gentle but powerful plant, a teacher with much to say but a light-hearted way of communicating.
It is extremely rare and special to have access to any Caapi other than the most common, White, but we are able to usually offer all four colors of Banisteriopsis- Black, Red, White & Yellow. In their jungle habitat, the subtle differences between them are discernible only to devotees of the Vine; even botanists have difficulty discerning them. In Initiatic use, however, distinct differences between them emerge.
All caapi plants are quite hardy...about the hardiest that I have in my greenhouse. I've had them exposed to temps near freezing with no damage at all and I always have them finding their way above the shadecloth in my greenhouse where temps can be 160 degrees!!!! When I lost power last fall and had no cooling for a 100 deg. day...the vines above the shadecloth did get damaged, but the temp at head level reached 175 before it cooked my thermometer so it likely got near boiling above the shade cloth. On very cold nights I will get a layer of ice on the inside of the plastic covering and caapi vines are pushed right up against it...still no damage. Amazing plants!!!
Banisteriopsis caapi
Botanical information:
(Malphigaceae) Ayahuasca is a term from Quechua, a South American Indian language and translating from huasca meaning "vine" or "liana" and aya meaning "souls" or "dead people" or "spirits" the name reads as "vine of the souls", "vine of the dead" or "vine of the spirits". In shipibo Conibo language it is called Oni. Ayahuasca is one of the most culturally prevalent incenses in the world said to "enter into almost all aspects of the life of the people who use it" being compared to an umbilical cord that links humans to their mythical past.
It has also been adopted into the practices of modern suburban shamans throughout Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador & Peru. Often known as vegetalistas they use plant teachers to derive knowledge and diagnose and cure illness. Missionary Father Tastevin observed "the Indians believed in a veritable telepathic effect of yagé... they use it to find out whether a sick person will become well, to look into the future, to divine, to find out how, for example, one of their own is doing who is on a journey etc. They also believe that Ayahuasca enables them to promptly recognize approaching dangers". Some paye's maintain that with caapi they can cause eclipses of the moon, tornadoes or control the weather.
