Myrddin's Garden
Aconitum Lycoctonum
Aconitum Napellus L.
Amanita Muscaria L.
Artemisia Absinthium L.
Arundo Donax L.
Atropa Belladonna L.
Cestrum Parqui
Cannabis Sativa L.
Claviceps Purpurea L.
Conium Maculatum L.
Datura Stramonium L.
Hyoscyamus Niger L.
Lactuca Virosa L.
Mandragora Officinalis L.
Papaver Somniferum L.
Phalaris Arundinacea L.
Psilocybe Semilanceata
Salvia Divinorum
Scopolia Carniolica
Bufo Vulgaris
Cestrum Parqui
Willow-Leafed Jessamine, Palqui, Yerba Santa
Cestrum Parqui
Willow-Leafed Jessamine, Palqui, Yerba Santa
Synonyms
Cestrum salidfolium
Cestrum virgatum
Folk Names
Alhuelahuen, chilenischer hammerstrauch, duraznillo negro, green cestrum, hediondilla (“stinking”), paipalquen, paique, palguin, palki, palqui, palqui bianco, palquin, parqui, parquistrauch, willow-leafed jessamine, yerba santa.
The bush, which can grow as tall as 1.5 meters, has narrow, lanceolate, pale green leaves. The yellow, tubular, five-pointed flowers are located in panicles or clusters at the ends of the branches. In South America, the flowers bloom in October and November, and they exude a strong, inebriating scent. The plant produces small, oval-round berries (approximately 5 mm in length) that take on a shiny black color as they mature.
Appearance
The planl is Ironi central Chile but had spread as far as Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil at an early date. In Chile, it occurs as far south as Osorno and Chiloe. It has now been introduced into the Mediterranean region as well as California.
Distribution
Propagation is best achieved using seed. The plant is sometimes grown as an ornamental.
Cultivation
Since pre-Columbian times, the Mapuche of southern Chile have used this plant for medicinal and probably ritual purposes. The Spanish missionary Bernabe Cobo described the medicinal use of a plant known as hediondilla in his Historia del Nuevo Mundo (1653). Louis Lewin provided an early description of the use of the wood and leaves as a tobacco substitute (cf. Nicotiana tabacum) among the Cholos Indians. Palqui generally appears to have been smoked prior to the introduction of tobacco:
According to Ochsenius [1884], the Chonos (sic) Indians on the island of Chiloe smoke the herbage of another nightshade known as palguin (Cestrum parqui L’Herit.) when tobacco is lacking. It is possible that this is a remnant of a smoking custom that is older than [that of] tobacco.
History
The Mapuche of southern Chile drink an infusion of the leaves to treat smallpox, tuberculosis, and leprosy; to treat herpes, to wash out wounds; and also to treat fever. A tea or decoction of the bark is ingested as a powerful analgesic and sleeping agent. The leaves and the freshly pressed juice of the plant are used especially in the treatment of ant bites. In the Andes, the leaves are used primarily to treat wounds.
The Colombian Sibundoy Indians drink a tea prepared from the closely related species Cestrum ochraceum Francey [syn. Cestrum ochraceum var. macrophyllum Francey] to treat headaches, pain, swelling, fever, and rheumatism. It is said that the patient will fall into a mild state of delirium if he drinks (too much) of the tea. In Brazil, Cestrum laevigatum is used as a sedative. On the Brazilian coast, the leaves are smoked as a marijuana substitute.
Medicinal Use
In southern Chile, this sacred plant is used in shamanic healing activities., it is said that “wherever the devil has put ants, there God has planted a palqui tree”. The plant possesses the virtue or power known as contra, which resists attacks by sorcerers or black shamans (tue-tue or chonchones). Since illnesses are often produced by other shamans, they can best be healed by a shaman with the aid of palqui. The stems are used to make wooden crosses that are attached to the windows or outer walls of houses as a magical protection against disease demons. A tea also protects from susto (“fright”) and mal de ojo (“evil eye”) and is drunk during purification ceremonies .
The shamans of the Kamsa (Sibundoy, Colombia) refer to one Cestrum species as borrachero andoke. They press the leaves of the plant in water and drink the resulting solution so that they can see things as if under the influence of ayahuasca.
Ritual Use
Leaves
Bark
Wood
Psychoactive Material
Cestrum parqui contains solasonine, a glycosidic steroidal alkaloid, and solasonidine. The bitter alkaloid parquine has the empirical formula C21H3c|NO8 and produces effects like those of strychnine or atropine. A triterpene and fitoesterol are also present. The leaves and fruits contain tigogenin, digallo- genin, digitogenin, and ursolic acid. The fruits contain at least three alkaloids. Solasonine is the primary active constituent. The alkaloid is found in the leaves as well as the wood.
Cestrum parqui and Cestrum laevigatum contain gitogenin and digitogenin.
Constituents
The leaves of Cestrum parqui are dried, chopped, and smoked alone or in smoking blends, e.g., with Cannabis sativa. Three or four leaves per person is a good starting dosage. The leaves are an ingredient in psychoactive fumigations using Latuapubiflom. A decoction of leaves and bark or a bark tea (infusion) is drunk for folk medicinal purposes.
In Brazil, the dried leaves of the closely related species Cestrum laevigatum Schlecht. are known as maconha and are smoked as a marijuana substitute.
Preparation and Dosage
Pharmacologically, the extract has an atropine-like effect.
Smoking Cestrum parqui leaves produces effects that are clearly psychoactive and are reminiscent of the effects of smoking Brugmansia leaves. However, no dryness of the mouth occurs. The effects are relatively weak and are perceived as a mild euphoria and physical relaxation.
Effects
Source: Christian Rätsch: The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants
