Phytochemical analyses of Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis

Introduction

Callaway and colleagues frame this study against longstanding ethnobotanical use of Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis as the principal plant ingredients in hoasca/ayahuasca brews. Earlier work has identified harmala alkaloids in B. caapi and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in P. viridis, but the authors note incomplete characterisation of how alkaloid concentrations vary across plants, regions and time of day. The study therefore set out to perform a broad phytochemical survey of these two species across many sites in Brazil, and to examine whether DMT content in P. viridis leaves varies over a 24-hour cycle. The investigators emphasise that producing a geographically wide, same-day collection was intended to provide a representative picture of ingredients commonly used by members of the União do Vegetal (UDV).