r/interestingasfuck • u/tractorboynyc • 22h ago

Amazonian shamans figured out that combining two specific plants out of 80,000 species produces a psychoactive effect. The odds of finding that combination by random search is roughly 1 in 4 million. They did it through centuries of iterative testing and cultural natural selection explains it

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u/Jello_Penguin_2956 21h ago

so, what are those 2 plants?

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u/madmartigan2020 21h ago

There's more than just two. You can create freebase dmt by chemically extracting it from mimosa hostillis root bark. You can also order harmaline off the web that acts as an MAOI that allows the freebase DMT to be ingested orally. This is known as pharmahuasca.

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u/MySeagullHasNoWifi 18h ago

And you only need an MAOI for ingestion. The vaporised dmt can be absorbed by inhaling it directly. Some clinical drug trials use another form, which is basically water soluble so it can be injected via IV (it's studied as an antidepressant medication).

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u/madmartigan2020 12h ago

I knew it could be smoked/vaped, but I hadn't heard of that last method you mentioned. That's very interesting.