Anadenanthera peregrina

Did You Know?

• The wood of A. peregrina produces very hard timber used for furniture, with a density of about 0.86 g/cm3.
• Tannins have been derived from this plant.
• The beans and falling leaves are toxic to cattle.

Entheogenic uses

Archaeological evidence indicates that Anadenanthera beans have been employed as hallucinogens for thousands of years. The oldest clear evidence comes from puma bone pipes found with beans of the sister species A. colubrina at Inca Cueva in Argentina, which contained DMT and were radiocarbon-dated to 2130 BC. In eastern Puerto Rico, cojoba seeds ground with coral milling tools have been dated to AD 1150–1250, providing direct evidence of processing in the West Indies. Snuff trays and tubes from the central Peruvian coast dating to 1200 BC suggest that insufflation is a more recent method, with further evidence of such use in northern Chile between 500 and 1000 AD. The Piaroa of the Venezuelan Orinoco reserve yopo for shamanic specialists called meñeruá, who use it in visionary rituals to diagnose illness, mediate with spirits, and access ancestral knowledge. Yopo snuff is typically blown into the nostrils by another person through bamboo tubes, or snuffed using bird bone tubes. Some tribes, such as the Piaroa, integrate cuttings of Banisteriopsis caapi with yopo, or ingest capi decoctions or chew its inner bark before inhaling yopo to prolong and intensify the visionary experience.