Use of tobacco by curanderos

[red22]

This was a response to a post ⇩

SHAMANIC TOBACCOS

Tobacco smoking was widespread in North America at the time of the European contact. While the habit of taking hallucinogenic DMT-containing snuffs was also prevalent in the Caribbean cultural area, there are no confirmed reports of materials other than tobacco being smoked.

The high culture of the Maya that flourished until the mid-800s in Mesoamerica had an old and complex relationship with tobacco and the habit of smoking it. The tobacco of the Classical Maya was Nicotiana rustica, which is still in use among aboriginal populations in South America today. This species is much more potent, chemically complex, and potentially hallucinogenic than the commercial grades of Nicotiana tabacum available today. The difference between this tobacco and cigarette tobacco is profound. This wild tobacco was cured and rolled into cigars which were smoked. The trancelike state that followed, partially synergized by the presence of compounds that included MAO inhibitors, was central to the shamanism of the Maya. Recently introduced antidepressants of the MAO inhibitor type are distant synthetic relatives of these natural compounds. Francis Robicsek has published extensively on the Mayan fascination with tobacco and its chemical complexity:

It also must be recognized that nicotine is by no means the only bioactive substance in the tobacco leaf. Recently alkaloids of the harmala group, harman and norharman, have been isolated from cured commercial tobaccos and their smoke. They constitute a chemical group of beta-carbolines, which include harmine, harmaline, tetrahydroharmine, and 6-methoxy harmine, all with hallucinogenic properties. While to date no native varieties of tobacco have been analyzed for these substances, it is a reasonable supposition that their composition may vary widely, depending upon the variety and growth, and that some of the native-grown tobaccos may contain a relatively high concentration of them.⁸

Tobacco was and is the ever-present adjunct of the more powerful and visionary hallucinogenic plants wherever in the Americas they are used in a traditional and shamanic way.


8. Henry Hobhouse, Seeds of Change: Five Plants That Transformed Mankind
(New York: Harper & Row, 1985), p. 108

Food of the Gods. Terence McKenna, 1992, 1993 11. Complacencies of the Peignoir: Sugar, Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate, pages 196-197

Asante said:
Mapacho is Nicotiana rustica, which contains 3-9% of nicotine, the three to ninefold of tobacco, alongside beta carbolines and other alkaloids.

"Recently alkaloids of the harmala group, harman and norharman, have been isolated from cured commercial tobaccos and their smoke. They constitute a chemical group of beta-carbolines, which include harmine, harmaline, tetrahydroharmine, and 6-methoxy harmine, all with hallucinogenic properties. While to date no native varieties of tobacco have been analyzed for these substances,"

[Tobacco only contains harmalas when it's heated, I believe.*]
I wanted to see if this had changed, so I did a quick Google Scholar search and did not get any results.

Also, harman and norharman may be neurotoxic.* And they may not work for oral DMT:

Rather surprising, even though it has been shown to be a good monoamine oxidase inhibitor, a 250 milligram trial followed in 20 minutes with 35 milligrams of DMT, also had no effects.

TiHKAL (Shulgin & Shulgin, 1997), part 2, #44 6-MeO-THH (See Harman entry)


*"Harmane (1-methyl-9H-pyrido[3,4-β]indole) is a potent, tremor-producing β-carboline alkaloid, and emerging literature has provided initial links between this neurotoxin and ET."

Beta-carboline alkaloids and essential tremor: exploring the environmental determinants of one of the most prevalent neurological diseases. 2010. Louis ED, Zheng W. ScientificWorldJournal, 10:1783-94. doi: 10.1100/tsw.2010.159

Also see 5.4 Neurotoxicity of β-Carbolines, page 87 in Isoquinolines And Beta-Carbolines As Neurotoxins And Neuroprotectants: New Vistas In Parkinson's Disease Therapy. Lucyna Antkiewicz-Michaluk, Hans Rommelspacher. Jan 2012. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-1542-8


*Our findings strongly suggest that some foods, especially coffee, can act as a rich source of β-carbolines,

β-carbolines have been detected in tobacco leaves, cigarettes, and cigarette smoke [9,11].Our findings strongly suggest that some foods, especially coffee, can act as a rich source of β-carbolines,

β-carbolines have been detected in tobacco leaves, cigarettes, and cigarette smoke [9,11].

Bioactive β-Carbolines in Food: A Review. Piechowska P, Zawirska-Wojtasiak R, Mildner-Szkudlarz S. Nutrients. 2019 Apr 11;11(4):814. doi: 10.3390/nu11040814