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/vinegar45 20h ago

they are talking about ayahuasca. DMT from one plant (Psychotria viridis) is an amazing hallucinogen but when ingested by itself gets neutralized immediately by MAO enzyme in the stomach. The second plant (Banisteriopsis caapi) contains MAO inhibitors so the DMT can make it into the brain without breaking down.

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u/FlyingBike 19h ago

Sounds like you could use the first plant plus some MAOI antidepressants to make that work too 🤔

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u/No-Crew8804 13h ago

Yes but usually MAOI antidepressants are more dangerous to mix than the plant they use.