De Plantis Toxicariis e Mundo Novo Tropicale Commentationes XIII. Further Notes on Virola as an Orally Administered Hallucinogen

Ingestion of the resin of Virola bark for hallucinogenic purposes was first reported in 1969 (Schultes 1969). The species employed was Virola theiodora (Spr. ex Benth.) Warb., and information on its role among the Witoto, Muinane and Bora tribes was offered from observations and statements of Indians now residing near Leticia, a Colombian town on the Rio Amazonas. The custom of ingesting pellets or pills prepared from the resin of this myristicaceous tree was reputedly common in the original home of these Indians: the general area comprised within the Ri'os Karaparana and Igaraparana, Colombian affluents of the Rio Putumayo. A year later, in April 1970, the authors visited and carried out ethnotoxicological studies among the Witoto who live along the Rio Karaparana. Our additional information, gathered during a week of intensive field work in the settlements of El Encanto and San Rafael on this river, convinces us that Virola resin is taken orally over a rather wide area in the Colombian Putumayo for hallucinogenic purposes connected with witchcraft and magic. Since there are many Indians of the Witoto, Muinane and Boro tribes living south of the Rio