Indigenous-Amazonian Traditional Medicine’s Usage of the Tobacco Plant: A Transdisciplinary Ethnopsychological Mixed-Methods Case Study
Ilana Berlowitz, Ernesto García Torres, Caroline Maake, Ursula Wolf, Chantal Martin-Soelch
Plants January 11, 2023 DOI: 10.3390/plants12020346
Summary
While tobacco is globally harmful, an ancient Amazonian healing practice offers a compelling alternative. In the Peruvian Amazon, traditional medicine uses *Nicotiana rustica* as a potent medicine for mental health. A case study of one 37-year-old woman with anxiety and mood disorders, participating in a weeklong Indigenous intervention, showed clinically relevant improvements in her psychological well-being. This highlights the potential of medicinal plant extracts for complementary and alternative medicine, encouraging psychology and psychiatry to reconsider natural psychoactives, acknowledging the plant's native environmental context.
Abstract
Harmful usage of tobacco is a global public health problem associated with adverse health effects and addiction. Yet, in the Peruvian Amazon, the native region of Nicotiana rustica L., this plant is used in remarkably different manners: it is considered a potent medicinal plant, applied in liquid form for oral ingestion to treat mental health problems, a common and ancient healing practice in this region. Using a transdisciplinary field research approach with mixed ethnopsychological methods, this work aimed to report for the first time a case study in this context. The intervention took place in the Peruvian Amazon (Loreto) and involved ritual tobacco ingestion in a weeklong retreat-like frame, administered by a specialized traditional Amazonian healer. The patient was a 37-year-old woman with diagnosed mood, anxiety, and attention deficit disorders, as well as a chronic somatic condition. We applied qualitative experience-sampling during and quantitative symptom assessments pre- and post-treatment. Our findings offer a detailed description of the experiential therapeutic process during the treatment week and suggest clinically relevant improvements in patient well-being. This work is significant in view of the globally prevalent harmful uses of tobacco and the current scientific trend of revisiting herbal psychoactives (e.g., cannabis, psilocybin) for their therapeutic potentials.