The Ayahuasca vine, Banisteriopsis Caapi, is a traditional jungle medicine that grows in the Amazon of Peru and spirals like DNA
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Contributor:
Brian Van Tighem / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
FDYCYEFile size:
62 MB (3 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
5700 x 3800 px | 48.3 x 32.2 cm | 19 x 12.7 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
15 May 2015Location:
Amazon River Basin, Iquitos, Maynas, Peru, South AmericaMore information:
An Ayahuasca vine growing in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru twists itself together in a spiral not unlike the double helix pattern of DNA. Banisteriopsis Caapi, also called the vine of the dead or vine of the souls, is an indigenous liana vine in the amazon and is used by native shamans, called curanderos or ayahuasqueros, to brew the sacred medicine Ayahuasca. This entheogenic brew has a long history of traditional use in the amazon river basin, not just in Peru but also in Ecuador, Brazil, and Columbia. The vine contains beta-carbolines and MAOI's which, when mixed with Chacruna or psychotria viridis, enable the brew to me orally psychoactive, or hallucinogenic. Amazonian people use it as a purgative to cleanse the body of physical and spiritual ailments.