Pharmaiiopo-Psychonautics: Huntan Intranasal, Sublingual, lntrarectal, Pulntonary and Oral Pharmacology of Bufoteninet

Summarized are psychonautic bioassays (human self-experiments) of pharmaiiopo­ crystalline bufotenine (5-HO-DMT; 5-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine; dimethylserotonine), at times combined with harmaline or harmine-via intranasal, sublingual, intrarectal, pulmonary (inhaled vapor) and oral routes. This is done by way of pharmacological modeling of diverse South American shamanic inebriants, principally the snuffs iiopolyopo and cebWhattij, prepared from seeds of Anadenanthera peregrina var. peregrina and A. colubrina var. Cebil, respectively. Psychoptic (visionary) activity of bufotenine has been established and the 1 967 Holmstedt-Lindgren hypothesis of the paricti effect-intranasal potentiation of tryptamines by concomitant administration of monoamine-oxidase-inhibiting (MAO!) P-carbolines from stems of Banisteriopsis caapi admixed with the snuffs-has been confirmed by 25 psychonautic bioassays. Salient phytochemical and psychonautic literature is reviewed, and isolation of bufotenine from Anadenanthera seeds detailed (with one table and eight references). Keywords-bufotenine; harmaline; harmine; MAOI; shamanic snuffs; tryptamines In a previous paper on pharmahuasca psychonautics, model ing ayahuasca or Banisteriopsis caapi (Spr. ex Griseb.) Mort. (Malpighiaceae) potions via self-experiments with pure harmine and DMT or N,N-dimethyltryptamine (Ott 1 999; 1 994 ), I noted that Holmstedt and Lindgren had original ly proposed in the context of shamanic snuffs what I called the "ayahuasca effect"-activation of the orally­ inactive (and, presumably, also intranasally-inactive) DMT t I am beholden to Dr. C. Manuel Torres for discussions and advice. This article is dedicated to Professor Bo Holmstedt of Karolinska Institute!, in grateful recognition of his pioneering role in elucidating the ethnopharmacognosy of shamanic snuffs. *Partner and Editor, Phantastica, Barcelona, Espana. Please address correspondence and reprint requests to Jonathan Ott, Phantastica, S.C.P., Pla�a Sant Josep Oriol, 4, Barcelona 08002 Espana. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 273 by concomitant administration of monoamine-oxidase­ inhibiting (MAOI) P-carbolines, mainly harmine-later extended to encompass also orally-ingested ayahuasca po­ tions in its purview. These chemists found all but one of six South American snuffs to contain tryptamines, whereas a Piaroa paricd snuff also contained harmine; a Surara epena snuff only P-carbolines (Holmstedt & Lindgren 1 967; Bernauer 1 964 ) ; likewise a Tucano paricd snuff (Biocca et a! . 1 964). Since snuff tryptamines appeared (erroneously) to be nonpsychoactive intranasally (Turner & Merlis 1 959), Holmstedt and Lindgren ( 1 967 : 365) conjectured that �-carbolines in the snuffs " . . . could potentiate the action of the simple indoles." Volume 33 (3), July September 2001 D ow nl oa de d by [ a t 1 1: 56 0 6 M ay 2 01 3