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Native Quechua and Botanical Names

Cielo Ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi), Onanyan Shobo Ethnobotanical Garden

Cielo ayahuasca - i.e. Heaven ayahuasca - vine, Banisteriopsis caapi, growing in Onanyan Shobo Ethnobotanical Garden, in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru

 

Photo Credit: Francesco Sammarco

 

The traditional shamanic initiation as it is practiced still today in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest is embedded in the Spanish term dieta, which refers to the shamanic diet with plant teachers. Plants may also be "dieted" therapeutically, for healing from a particular condition (the healing diet). In either case different degrees of restrictions and/or a specific apprenticeship is required, under the guidance of the shaman. Click here to read more abut the "plant diet".

 

Along with their use in the dieta  - which has different styles and degrees of rigor - some of these plants and trees may also be employed as admixture in the preparation of the Ayahuasca brew, or find as well other more specific applications in the ceremonial and daily world of the vegetalistas of the Peruvian Amazon. In Onanyan Shobo the brew is currently prepared with ayahuasca, huambisa, chagropanga, chacruna and toe'.  Other plant additives are at the shaman's discretion to use.

 

 

Vernacular Name Botanical Name
Abuta   Abuta grandifolia
Acatuaua  Maytanus macrocarpa
Alcanfor Moena Ocotea costulata
Allpa ayahuasca   Banisteriopsis sp.
   
 
Altaruna Unidentified
   

Amasisa 

Erythrinaglauca

Anacaspi     Apuleta leiocarpa

Ajos chiro  

Gallizia corazema

 

 

Ajos sacha 

Mansoa alliacea
                                                              
 
Ayahùman   Couropita guianensis
   
Azucar huayo   Hymenaea sp.
Bellaco caspi  Himantanthus sucuuba
Bobinsana  Calliandra angustifolia
Camalonga   Thevetia peruviana (?) 
Cambio de renaco Unidentified
Campana ayahuasca Banisteriopsis sp.
   
 
Canelilla Aniba canellila
   
Capirona negra Capirona decorticans
Catahua    Hura crepitans
Caupuri      Virola surinamensis  
   
 
Chacruna    Psychotria viridis  
   
Chaliponga / Chagropanga / Ojo Yajé Diplopterys cabrerana
Chambira Astrocaryum chambira

Chicuru piripiri     

Cyperus sp.

   
 
Chiric sanango  Brunfelsia grandiflora
   
 
Chiricaspi (palo del frio)  Brunfelsia chiricaspi
   
Chontay caspi   Unidentified
Chonta quiro   Diplotropis sp. (A. Brack)  / Anthodiscus sp. (A. Gentry)
Cuchara caspi   Malovetia Tamaquarina    
Chuchuhuasi    Maytenus ebenifolia
Chuchuhuasha Heisteria pallida
   
 
Chullachaqui caspi (Chullachaki caspi) Tovomita sp.
 
Chullachaqui caspi hembra  Tovomita sp.
   
 
Cielo ayahuasca (lucero ayahuasca)  Banisteriopsis caapi
   
Clavohuasca Tynanthas panurensis
Colita de gabilan Unidentified
Cumaceba negra     Swartzia sp.
Cumala   Virola sp.
Estoraque (Estorake)    Myroxylon balsamum
Garabato    Unidentified
Giausahuasca      Unidentified     
Hiporuru      Alchornea castaneifolia
Huacra renaco Unidentified 
Huairacaspi     Cedrelinga catanaeformis
Huayra runa   Unidentified 
Huacapu'    Minquartia guianensis
Huambisa chacruna Diplopterys sp.
Huiririma  Astrocaryum jauari
Huicungo   Astrocaryum vulgare
Iana ayahuasca (ayahuasca negra)    Banisteriopsis sp.
Lobo chupa Unidentified
   
 
Lupuna blanca      Ceiba sp. / Ceiba Pentandra
   
 
Lupuna roja (puka-lupuna or lupuna bruja)    Cavanillesia hylogeiton / C. umbellata
   
Lupuna negra   Unidentified
Mapacho    Nicotiana rustica / Nicotiana tabacum
Misqui panga (michiquipanga)   Renealmia alpina
Motelo Sacha Unidentified
   
 
Mucura    Petiveria alliacea
   
Murcohuasca    Marcgravia williamsii
Mururé    Brosimum acutifolium Huber
Nuc-nuc pichana  Scoparia dulcis
   
     
Oje'     Ficus insipida
   
Papastrueno     Dioscorea sp.
Piripiri    Cyperaceous sp.
Puca chari (rojo dulce)   Unidentified
Pumasacha    Roucheria punctata ducke   
Puro puro  Unidentified
Raya balsa   Montrichardia arborecens
Rajo ayahuasca  Banisteriopsis sp.
Remo caspi   Pithecellobium laetum
Renaco     Ficus sp.
Renaquilla Ficus sp.
Renaquilla con hojas anchas Unidentified

Renaquilla con hojas minudas

Unidentified
Sacha Mango Grias peruviana
Sacha runa    Unidentified
Shapaca (Shapaja)  Sheelea cephalotes 
Shihuauacu  Dipterys sp.?
Suelda con suelda  Phtirusa pyrifolia
Supay-casha caspi    Unidentified
Tahuari'  Tabebuia heteropoda
Tambor Huasca Unidentified
Tangarana Triplaris surinamensis var. chamissoana
   
   
Toe'   Brugmansia suavolens
   
Trueno ayahuasca  Banisteriopsis sp.
Uchu-sanango Tabernaemontana sp.
Uña de Gato de Siete Capas Uncaria sp.
Yahuar Piripiri Eleutherine bulbosa
Yana ayahuasca  Banisteriopsis sp.

                                                      

                                                                             

 

References

 

Duke, J. A., Vasquez, R., Amazonian Ethnobotanical Dictionary, CRC Press, 1994; Luna, L.E. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 11 (1984) 135-156; Luna, L.E. Vegetalismo. Shamanism among the Mestizo Population of the Peruvian Amazon, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, Stockholm Studies in Comparative Religion 27, Stockholm 1986; Schultes, E.R. and Raffauf, R. F. Vine of the Soul, Medicine Men, their Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazonia, Synergetic Press 1992; Luna, L.E. : "Icaros: Magical Melodies", in Matteson Langdon, E.J. and Baer G. Portals of Power - Shamanism in South America, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque 1992; Dobkins De Rios, M. Amazon Healer. The Life and Times of an Urban Shaman, Prism Press, Dorset 1992; Luna, L.E. and Amaringo P. Ayahuasca Visions, The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman, Berkeley 1999; Luna, L.E. and White, S. (Editors) Ayahuasca Reader - Encounters with the Amazon's Sacred Wine, Synergetic Press, Santa Fe 2000; A. Gentry A Field Guide to the families and Genera of Woody Plants of Northwest South America, 1993; A. Brack Egg Dicionario Enciclopédico de Plantas Utiles del Perù, 1999; Mejia, K. &  Rengifo, E. Plantas Medicinales de Uso Popular en la Amazonia Peruana, 1995.

 

Acknowledgements

 

Most of the native quechua names of the plants as from personal communications by Francisco Montes Shuña, don Ruperto Peña Shuña, Felipe Ayala, don Julio Gerena Pinedo, Ruber del Castillo Ramirez and Heberto Hiran Garcia Ramirez. Tentative identification kindly supplied, in some instances, by Francisco Montes Shuña, Moises Suarez Mera (botanical researcher at Iquitos university) and Jessica Bertram de Sasari (guide at Manu National Park, and apprentice of Shipibo maestro don Adriano Rodriguez).

 

 

 

      

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