Yopo
Yopo (Anadenanthera peregrine) is a tall tree native to South America and the West Indies. It has very conspicuous yellow flowers which grow all year around. There are four species of the Anadenanthera genus, the Peregrina (Yopo), Colubrina, Excelsa and Macrocarpa. All the tree species contain a whole host of pharmacological chemicals which have been used widely by the natives of South America to treat medical disorders.
The Europeans first came across Yopo in the 17th century and were astonished by its strong hallucinogenic and psychosis inducing properties.
Seeds of Anadenanthera peregrina.
For centuries this plant has been used by South American natives for rituals, ceremonies and its healing properties. The Aztecs and the Incas used the bark of the treat to a variety of medical disorders including cough, fevers, stomach ache. Headaches induce child birth, relieve pain, etc. There are no data on how these people fared after treatment considering that the plant is very toxic.
The South Americans used the leaves and the bark in various concoctions for their ceremonies and medicine. The seeds can also be mixed with leaves and inhaled as snuff or chewed like tobacco. Sometimes the seeds are crushed and mixed with water, alcohol and milk for oral ingestion. Users of this plants claim that when the seeds are crushed, there is smell of burnt plastic and the taste is just as bad.
The plant is better known because it contains potent chemical that can cause psychosis and creates vivid hallucinations. The powder from the seeds is mixed and inhaled to produce these side effects. The effects are quite rapid and persist for a long time. The main ingredient isolated in this plant is dimethyltryptamine (DMT). DMT is a potent hallucinogen and has no medicinal uses. In many countries, including USA, it is illegal to extract the DMT.
The bark of the tree when crushed also has a high calcium content and thus the synonym, calcium tree. So far the pharmaceutical companies have not rushed in to capitalize on this highly consumed mineral.
While the psychedelic compound DMT is often regulated, Yopo itself is mostly legal and the seeds of the Yopo plant are widely available on the internet. In addition to the name Yopo, one can see Anadenanthera peregrina also called by the names Cohoba, Mopo, Nopo and Parica.
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