An herb native to dry areas from the Mediterranean east to northern India, Mongolia and Manchuria, Peganum Harmala possesses undoubted hallucinogenic properties. Its seeds contain harmine, harmaline, harmalol and harman - bases known from at least eight different families.
This and some of the other species in the genus are highly prized in folk medicine as vermifuges, soporifics, alteratives, aphrodisiacs, lactogogues and in the treatment of eye diseases.
The fruits of Peganum Harmala are the source of a red dye and an oil. The esteem in which Peganum Harmala is held amongst peoples of the East is extraordinary. Although there are repeated but vague reports of the employment of Peganum Harmala as an hallucinogen, its actual narcotic use in inducing visions has not yet been established beyond a doubt. A critical search of the literature, especially the ancient records, and modern ethnobotanical field work are urgently needed in the study of Peganum Harmala.
Although not nearly so popularly known as peyote or, nowadays, as the sacred mushrooms, this narcotic has nonetheless had an undue share of sensational articles that have played fancifully with unfounded claims, especially with regard to its "telepathic" powers.
Notwithstanding its extraordinarily bizarre psychotomimetic effects, this narcotic preparation was hidden from European eyes until just a little over a century ago. The earliest report of ayahuasca appears to have been that of Villavicencio in his geography of Ecuador, written in The source of the drug, he wrote, was a vine used by the Zaparos, Angateros, Mazanes and other tribes of the Rio Napo basin: "to foresee and to answer accurately in difficult cases, be it to reply opportunely to ambassadors from other tribes in a question of war; to decipher plans of the enemy through the medium of this magic drink and take proper steps for attack and defence; to ascertain, when a relative is sick, what sorcerer has put a curse; to carry out a friendly visit to other tribes; to welcome foreign travellers or, at last, to make sure of the love of their womenfolk".
