Planta medica
November 1, 2022
Matteo Politi, Giorgia Tresca, Luigi Menghini et al.
19 citations
Ayahuasca, a herbal preparation used by indigenous groups in the Amazon and mestizo populations, combines Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis to produce hallucinogenic, purging, and emetic effects. While its psychoactive properties have drawn global shamanic tourism and scientific interest in mental health, the traditional cosmological significance of purging and vomiting has been neglected. This review examines the understudied purging and emetic activity of ayahuasca, first by exploring its cultural role in Amazonian traditions, then by evaluating the known phytochemicals in the formula for their emetic and purging properties. The work argues that these effects are pharmacologically and culturally important, not merely secondary to the psychoactive ones.
Cultura y Droga
July 3, 2018
Matteo Politi, Fabio Friso, Jacques Mabit
19 citations
Several American treatment centers use traditional herbal medicines or their derivatives to address substance dependence. Psychoactive plants that induce modified states of consciousness—Ayahuasca, Coca, Wachuma, Tobacco, Psilocybe mushrooms, Salvia divinorum, and Peyote—are particularly relevant. Plant-based assisted therapy for substance use disorders is a promising research field, but clinical outcome validation needs improvement for most cases examined.
Journal of psychoactive drugs
January 1, 2021
Matteo Politi, Fabio Friso, Gary Saucedo et al.
18 citations
A therapeutic community for substance use disorders combines traditional Amazonian medicine with modern psychotherapy. One plant medicine used is purgahuasca, a decoction of Banisteriopsis caapi vine traditionally used by Awajún people as an initiation rite. Clinical data from patients show that after ingestion, 359 (92.1%) reported mareación (dizziness), 299 (76.7%) experienced physical sensations, and 208 (53.3%) had visions. These effects relate to β-carboline alkaloids in B. caapi, which may contribute to patients' therapeutic process by helping them become aware of personal reasons behind addictive behaviors.
Anthropology of Consciousness
September 26, 2022
Owain J. Graham, Gary Rojas Saucedo, Matteo Politi
11 citations
Listening to icaros (medicine songs) during ayahuasca ceremonies helps addiction rehabilitation patients feel safe, navigate difficult memories and emotions, and experience healing and learning about their addictions. The songs modulate emotions and the altered state induced by ayahuasca, making them therapeutically significant. Therapies using psychedelics should carefully consider how they incorporate music into their protocols. Further research is needed to understand the synergistic effects of music and altered states of consciousness, especially across cultures.
Revista Peruana de Medicina Integrativa
March 25, 2019
Gary Saucedo Rojas, Fabio Friso, Jaime Torres Romero et al.
8 citations
Between 2013 and 2018, the Takiwasi Center in Peru used the PPLUS information system to track patient profiles, treatments, and outcomes. Of 188 patients who left the therapeutic community, 45.2% (85) completed treatment and were discharged medically. Among the 54.8% who did not finish, 33.5% withdrew voluntarily, mostly during the first month. The center recorded 19,620 traditional Amazonian medicine practices: ayahuasca sessions made up 36.1% and purging sessions 39.1%. Research profiles showed 46.5% were psychology practitioners and 29.8% external researchers. PPLUS adoption was gradual and uneven, with peak records in 2016, but it shows potential as a research tool.
Ecosystems and People
April 18, 2024
David Manuel‐navarrete, Serena Deluca, Fabio Friso et al.
7 citations
Ayahuasca use in settings co-produced by Indigenous and Western knowledges can foster relationality and sustainability transformations across ontology, praxis, and epistemology. A survey of 74 English-speaking individuals who attended ceremonies at the Takiwasi Center in Peru, along with 11 interviews and a discussion circle, revealed unexpected shifts: participants reported boundary dissolution and changes in self-perception, experiencing nature and non-human beings as having spiritual or human-like agency. This blurring of boundaries challenged their materialist ontologies. Co-produced ceremonies enhanced relational thinking and embodiment of relationality, with inner-outer transformations emerging from integrating the 'plant's teachings' into daily life. The findings contribute to inner transformations and the relational turn in sustainability, though scaling plant-based ceremonies must be weighed against impacts on the Amazon rainforest and its biocultures.
Therapeutic Communities The International Journal of Therapeutic Communities
May 30, 2019
Victoria Defelippe, Anna Schlütter, Annelen Meriaan et al.
7 citations
About half of patients (48.2%) completed addiction treatment combining ayahuasca with conventional therapy at the Takiwasi centre, while 51.8% did not. Students had 3.7 times higher odds of dropping out compared to employed patients. No other socio-demographic factors, psychiatric comorbidities, or primary drug type were significantly linked to non-completion. The findings suggest that student patients may need extra support to stay in treatment.
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
May 15, 2025
Marc Sherwin, Fabio Friso, Jörg Fachner et al.
4 citations
Curative songs called icaros, used by traditional healers in the Peruvian Upper Amazon alongside the psychoactive plant brew ayahuasca, may aid healing by influencing self-referential processing, promoting decentering, and facilitating beneficial introspective or meditative states. An interpretive phenomenological analysis of six participants attending an ayahuasca ritual for personal and spiritual development at the Takiwasi Center in 2018 provides pointers toward a neurophenomenology of musico-healing experiences. The work contributes a medical ethnomusicological perspective to understanding how Amazonian curative songs function under the altered state of consciousness produced by ayahuasca.
Mendelova univerzita v Brně eBooks
January 1, 2021
Tereza Rumlerová, Olivia Marcus, Jesús M. González Mariscal et al.
2 citations
The diet is a traditional Amazonian practice involving strict rules of isolation, diet, and sexual abstinence, during which 'master plants' or 'doctor plants' are taken for healing and learning. Two types exist: therapeutic/medicinal diets for physical, energetic, and emotional problems, and shamanic diets as part of long-term training to become a healer. The research was conducted at Takiwasi Center in Tarapoto, Peru, a nonprofit treating substance use disorders by combining traditional Amazonian medicine with psychotherapy. Since 1996, over 1,900 people from various countries have participated in eight-day retreats that begin with a purgative plant and an ayahuasca ceremony, which induces both vomiting and an expanded state of consciousness.
Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs
September 1, 2024
Svět Lustig Vijay, Magdalena Harris, Fabio Friso et al.
1 citation
Ayahuasca, a plant-based entheogen from the Amazon, is increasingly studied for treating substance dependence, but little research has examined the act of purging (mainly vomiting) considered central to healing in ayahuasca rituals. At the Takiwasi Center in Peru, interviews with 11 healers, plant preparers, and psychotherapists revealed that purging is understood as a fluid concept beyond vomiting. Their narratives fell into three themes: spiritual-oriented (purging aids spiritual development), Amazonian-oriented (purging expels embodied 'cargas' that cause sickness), and clinical-oriented (purging yields observable therapeutic benefits). All models emphasized purging's pivotal connection to healing during ayahuasca-assisted treatment for substance dependence.
Journal of psychoactive drugs
January 15, 2026
Laura Monteagudo-Romero, Isotta Triulzi, Tommaso Dondoli et al.
A plant called chiric sanango (Brunfelsia grandiflora), used in traditional Amazonian medicine, may aid addiction recovery and mental health by inducing physical sensations like numbness, tingling, dizziness, and cold, alongside deep psychological introspection and emotional processing. Analysis of 74 case reports from the Takiwasi Center in Peru showed that patients often moved from distressing emotions to states of clarity, acceptance, and resilience, with enhanced social engagement. The findings suggest chiric sanango could be a useful adjunct in psychotherapy and addiction treatment, highlighting the need for further research into its psychoactive properties.