“Huachuma, or San Pedro, is a psychedelic cactus in the genus Echinopsis native to the mid-elevation Andes. Shamanic practitioners across huachuma’s wide range have prepared the plants as a visionary drink for at least 3,000 years.”
Biography
Josip Orlovac Del Río is a maestro huachumero from coastal Peru with over 30 years of experience growing, cooking, drinking, and sharing the San Pedro cactus. He received his connection to the plant through his Andean grandfather, and from a young age studied traditional healing in a lineage of curanderos from the Río Santa. Josip is the creator of the cultural phenomenon Mullu, and its offshoot music events, Mullu Sessions. He also co-founded Huachuma Collective, a nonprofit association in Peru which works with indigenous communities towards the biological and cultural sustainability of San Pedro. He has been planting San Pedro for 25 years, and collectively his gardens are home to nearly 6,000 individual cacti. He lives in the Rimac Valley of Peru and the Flathead watershed of Montana.
Ethnopharmacology and phytochemical profiling of Huachuma.
“Shamanic practitioners across huachuma’s wide range have prepared the plants as a visionary drink for at least 3,000 years.”
Transcript Abstract
Huachuma, or San Pedro, is a psychedelic cactus in the genus Echinopsis native to the mid-elevation Andes. Shamanic practitioners across huachuma’s wide range have prepared the plants as a visionary drink for at least 3,000 years. Scientific and public interest in huachuma for its psychedelic effects is quickly increasing, but there is a noted lack of phytochemical information about the plants and their natural diversity. This study compares 5 geographically diverse San Pedro cacti from Peru and their resulting medicinal preparations, both phytochemically and in the qualitative experience of a Peruvian huachumero (San Pedro shaman). We employ a field sampling technique called solid phase microextraction (SPME) to capture quantitative data and metabolic fingerprints of the plants both raw and after preparation as medicine.
SPME has been used successfully in previous phytochemical studies and is particularly fast and inexpensive when collecting large numbers of samples in the field. LC-MS/MS was used to identify the major alkaloids mescaline and hordenine, and to discover how they vary quantitatively between diverse plants. For the qualitative portion of the study, the Peruvian huachumero who prepared the medicine drank each preparation separately and reflected verbally on the plants’ characters and personalities. Results of the phytochemical study showed very similar metabolic fingerprints and little difference in alkaloid quantities between plants, but the qualitative experience of ingesting each of the plants was unique. This supports anecdotal evidence from traditional San Pedro use in Peru, which suggests that Indigenous communities and practitioners distinguish types of San Pedro which science cannot tell apart. These results also show the utility of SPME as a field technique for psychedelic phytochemists.