Anadenanthera colubrina



Anadenanthera colubrina

Anadenanthera colubrina Foliage and Flowers in Brazil, South America
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Mimosoideae
Genus: Anadenanthera
Species: A. colubrina
Binomial name
Anadenanthera colubrina
(Vell.) Brenan

Range of Adenanthera colubrina
Synonyms
  • Acacia colubrina Mart.
  • Acacia grata Willd.
  • Mimosa colubrina Vell.
  • Piptadenia grata (Willd.) J.F. Macbr.
Anadenanthera colubrina (also known as Vilca, Huilco, Wilco, Cebil, or Angico) is a South American tree closely related to Anadenanthera peregrina. It grows from 5m to 20m tall and the trunk is very thorny.[1] The leaves are mimosa-like, up to 30cm in length and they fold up at night.[2] In Chile, A. colubrina produces flowers from September to December and bean pods from September to July.[3] In Brazil A. colubrina has been given "high priority" conservation status.[4]

Geography

A. colubrina is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Mauritius.[5]

Natural Growing Conditions

A. colubrina grows at altitudes of about 315-2200m with roughly 250-600mm/year (10-24in./yr.) of precipitation and a mean temperature of 21 deg. C.  It tends to grow on rocky hillsides in well-drained soil, often in the vicinity of rivers. It grows quickly at 1-1.5m/year in good conditions.[6] The growing areas are often "savannah to dry rainforest." Flowering can begin in as soon as two years after germination.[7]

General Uses

Food

A sweetened drink is made from the bark.[4]

Gum

Gum from the tree can be used in the same way as gum arabic.[8]

Tannin

A. colubrina's tannin is used in industry to process animal hides.[4]

Traditional Medicine

The tree's bark is the most common part used medicinally.[4] Gum from the tree is used medicinally to treat upper respiratory tract infections, as an expectorant and otherwise for cough.[9]

Wood

In northeastern Brazil, the tree is primarily used as timber and for making wooden implements. "It is used in construction and for making door and window frames, barrels, mooring masts, hedges, platforms, floors, agricultural implements and railway sleepers."[6] The wood is also reportedly a preferred source of cooking fuel, since it makes a hot and long-lasting fire. It is widely used there in the making of fences, since termites seem not to like it. At one time, it was used in the construction of houses, but people are finding it more difficult to find suitable trees for that purpose.[4]

Chemical compounds

Chemical compounds contained in A. colubrina include:

Entheogenic uses

This section is missing citations or needs footnotes.
Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (August 2007)

To make the Anadenanthera peregrina.

The main active constituent of Vilca is calcium bufotenate (created from the bufotenin present in the beans, by mixing the beans with water and calcium hydroxide); to a much lesser degree 5-MeO-DMT are also present. A. colubrina has been found to contain up to 12.4% bufotenine.[12] As calcium bufotenate is quickly metabolized, the effects of the drug are short-acting. Usage and preparation of vilca is almost identical to that of yopo. Even as recently as 1996 there have been reports of active use of Vilca by Wichi shamans, under the name hatáj [Ott 2001, p.90].[13] It is also believed that the beans were consumed orally by the Incas.[specify]

Botanical Varieties

References

Notes

  1. ^ Journal of Ethnobiology and Medicine
  2. ^ Diccionarios Botánicos
  3. ^ Angelo Z, Dante and Capriles, José M. La Importancia de las Plantas Psicotrópicas para la Economía de Intercambio y Relaciones de Interacción en el Altiplano sur Andino. Chungará (Arica). Volumen Especial, 2004. Pages 1023-1035. Chungara, Revista de Antropología Chilena. ISSN 0717-7356.
  4. ^ a b c d e PubMed Central NIH
  5. ^ ILDIS LegumeWeb
  6. ^ a b Desiccation and storage of Anadenanthera colubrina beans. International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI). Edilberto Rojas Espinoza. Abstract available here.
  7. ^ Ethnobotanica.org Anadenanthera spp.
  8. ^ Anadenanthera: Visionary Plant of Ancient South America By Constantino Manuel Torres, David B. Repke, p. 98
  9. ^ Plantamed (Portuguese)
  10. ^ a b c d e UNO
  11. ^ a b Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases
  12. ^ Pharmanopo-Psychonautics: Human Intranasal, Sublingual, Intrarectal, Pulmonary and Oral Pharmacology of Bufotenine by Jonathan Ott, The Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, September 2001
  13. ^ Ott, Jonathan Shamanic Snuffs or Entheogenic Errhines (2001) ISBN 1-888755-02-4 (p. 90).

General References

  • I.J. Pachter, D.E. Zacharias, O. Ribeiro, "Indole Alkaloids of Acer saccharinum (the Silver Maple), Dictyloma incanescens, Piptadenia columbrina, and Mimosa hostilis", J. Org. Chem. 24, 1285 (1959).
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Anadenanthera_colubrina". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.