ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2019
Chemical evidence for the use of multiple psychotropic plants in a 1,000-year-old ritual bundle from South America.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 162 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) psychedelic therapy for substance misuse: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Clinical Pharmacokinetics of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT): A Systematic Review and Post-hoc Analysis.Clinical pharmacokinetics · 2025Pooled it
- Rapid and sustained antidepressant effects of vaporized N,N-dimethyltryptamine: a phase 2a clinical trial in treatment-resistant depression.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Trial
- A Phase 1 single ascending dose study of pure oral harmine in healthy volunteers.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2024Trial
- Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of 4‑Bromo-ACS omega · 2026Article
- Machine learning recovers folk classification ofiScience · 2026Article
- The renaissance of research on psychedelics in child and adolescent psychopharmacology.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- Exploring Colombian medicinal flora used in indigenous and campesino health systems for neuropsychiatric disorders and neuropharmacological potential: an ethnopharmacological review.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Breaking psychedelic boundaries in public health: emerging ideas with ancient roots.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- An evolutionary perspective on the use of betel nut and its effects on health outcomes.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2026Article
- Psychoactive plants and secret rituals in ancient Peru.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Pre-Hispanic ritual use of psychoactive plants at Chavín de Huántar, Peru.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Dated Phylogeny ofPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- A new insight into ayahuasca's adverse effects: Reanalysis and perspectives on its mediating role in mental health from the Global Ayahuasca Survey (GAS).PLOS mental health · 2025Article
- Traditional Indigenous-Amazonian Therapy Involving Ceremonial Tobacco Drinking as Medicine: A Transdisciplinary Multi-Epistemic Observational Study.Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education · 2024Observational
- Contemporary Uses of Vilca (Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Making Sense of Psychedelics in the CNS.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Psychedelics: From Cave Art to 21st-Century Medicine for Addiction.European addiction research · 2024Review
- Psychoactive and other ceremonial plants from a 2,000-year-old Maya ritual deposit at Yaxnohcah, Mexico.PloS one · 2024Article
- Ayahuasca: A review of historical, pharmacological, and therapeutic aspects.PCN reports : psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2023Review
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Over several millennia, various native plant species in South America have been used for their healing and psychoactive properties. Chemical analysis of archaeological artifacts provides an opportunity to study the use of psychoactive plants in the past and to better understand ancient botanical knowledge systems. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used to analyze organic residues from a ritual bundle, radiocarbon dated to approximately 1,000 C.E., recovered from archaeological excavations in a rock shelter located in the Lípez Altiplano of southwestern Bolivia. The site is located at an elevation of ∼3,900 m above sea level and contains evidence of intermittent human occupations during the last 4,000 years. Chemical traces of bufotenine, dimethyltryptamine, harmine, and cocaine, including its degradation product benzoylecgonine, were identified, suggesting that at least three plants containing these compounds were part of the shamanic paraphernalia dating back 1,000 years ago, the largest number of compounds recovered from a single artifact from this area of the world, to date. This is also a documented case of a ritual bundle containing both harmine and dimethyltryptamine, the two primary ingredients of ayahuasca. The presence of multiple plants that come from disparate and distant ecological areas in South America suggests that hallucinogenic plants moved across significant distances and that an intricate botanical knowledge was intrinsic to pre-Columbian ritual practices.
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