With thousands upon thousands of plants, there is really nothing on the planet quite like the Amazon rainforest. While the west is just beginning to understand the profundity of the plants that call the Amazon home, natives indigenous to the rainforest have long recognized its wonders. Here is a guide to the mind-blowing and magical Peruvian Amazon Herbal Medicine.
Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca is a combination of chacruna, a plant containing DMT (a powerful psychedelic) and the ayahuasca vine, which contains an MAO inhibitor. The MAO inhibitor in the ayahuasca vine temporary blocks enzymes in your stomach, which allows the DMT to work. The origins of this Peruvian Amazon Herbal Medicine are unknown, but if you ask a shaman, they’ll tell you that the plants told them the secret. Of the thousands of plant species in the Amazon, it is remarkable that the combination of these two can produce the wonderful effects that are reported by some users, such as ending addiction, curing diseases, overcoming traumas and eliminating the ego.
Kambo
First, they gently scrape the bright-green frog’s back to extract the poison. The giant monkey frog is native to the Amazon rainforest. They reside in parts of Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela. People in many cultures revere giant monkey frogs for their alleged healing abilities.
Proponents believe that the kambo can purify the physical body of toxic substances, as well as purify the mind and spirit of negative energy. They also claim that the ritual can: bring luck, increase stamina, and cure physical ailments.
They use this Peruvian Amazon Herbal Medicine to burn tiny holes on participants’ arms, introducing the poison into the bloodstream. The reactions vary, but you might experience vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, a swollen face and a slight fever; this is all from the reaction to the frog poison. The results are nothing short of miraculous. The treatment has been known to help people quit drinking alcohol, cure drug addiction and treat anxiety, depression, migraines, infections, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, cáncer and infertility.
Chuchuhuasi
Chuchuhuasi is an enormous canopy tree of the Amazon rainforest that grows to 30 m high. It has large leaves (10-30 cm), small, white flowers, and extremely tough, heavy, reddish-brown bark.
Chuchuhuasi acts as the Amazon’s love potion because it has aphrodisiac properties. Local people and villagers along the Amazon believe that chuchuhuasi is an aphrodisiac and tonic. The bark soaked in the local sugarcane rum (aguardiente) is a popular jungle drink. “Go-juice” in bars helps tourists relieve pain and persist on lengthy rainforest treks.
In Peruvian Amazon herbal medicine systems, they use chuchuhuasi alcohol extracts to treat osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, bronchitis, diarrhea, hemorrhoids, and menstrual irregularities and pain.
Rapé
Rapé is a tradition from the Amazon that involves blowing tobacco and other powdered plants and barks up your nose. It may sound intense and it is, but if you suffer from acute sinus problems, it may be for you. The effect of blowing the powder up your nose clears the passageways of your nose and sinuses, clearing out all the toxins and gunk you have stuck in there. They also use it to purge the head and clear the mind.
Andiroba
Andiroba is a plant. People use the bark, leaf, fruit oil, and seed to make medicine.
People take a tea made from andiroba bark and leaf to treat fevers, herpes, and worm infections; and as a tonic. They take Andiroba fruit oil for coughs.
Some people apply andiroba bark and leaf directly to the skin for sores, ulcers, and skin troubles. They use it on the skin to remove ticks and skin parasites.
They apply the seed oil directly to the skin to treat inflammation, arthritis, rashes, muscle and joint aches and injuries, wounds, boils, and herpes ulcers.
Tayuya
Indigenous peoples use the Tayuya vine from the Amazon jungle for various remedies. They use it to cure snakebites, as an anti-inflammatory, a tonic, and a blood purifier and detoxifier. Additionally, they use it to treat diarrhea, epilepsy, metabolism disorders, backache, sciatic pain, headaches, and gout.
Two animal studies (performed in the early 1990s) do verify that root extracts provide analgesic and anti-inflammatory actions. One study documented that a root infusion given intragastrically to mice had an analgesic action. Another research group prepared the root in a methanol extract and reported mild anti-inflammatory actions when administered orally to mice.
Like so many other plants found in the Amazon, its possibilities seem endless.
Cordoncillo
Cordoncillo has been used by the natives of America for thousands of years, and is also known as “the soldier’s grass.”
The plant is boiled and the water used as an herbal bath or for washing the skin for reducing high fevers. They heat it and tie or wrap it around the head and forehead as a poultice to treat headaches.
The root is diuretic. They derive a remedy for uterus pain from the partially cooked root..
The leaves are anti-inflammatory, anti-neuralgic, sudorific. An infusion is used to treat fevers. Decoction used in Guyana as a purgative to clean out the uterus. In a poultice with oil for bruises and swellings. In NW Guyana, leaves are used for abscesses, colds and coughs, haemorrhage, headache, swellings, and for cleaning the womb and tubes.
Applied externally, the leaves are used in a compress that is applied to the head for a prolonged period of time as an anti-neuralgic. They combine the macerated leaves and crushed stem with Piper amapaense leaves to create a headache remedy. People mix leaves with coconut oil or castor oil and rub them on painful or swollen joints. They use these leaves as a poultice on cuts. They apply the warmed leaves locally to treat hernia pain and arthritis pain.
People ingest an essential oil from the leaves with sugar to treat stomach atony.
