Genetics tries to unravel the mystery of the ayahuasca vine – 04/12/2023 – Virada Psychedelica

Without the vine-mariri, banisteriopsis caapi, there would be no psychedelic ayahuasca tea. Also known as daime and hoasca, the drink results from its cooking with the leaves of the chacrona bush (psychotria viridis). The scientific name indicates a single species of vine, but genetic studies suggest there may be more than one.

What is certain is that all mariri varieties supply the monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor, an enzyme that prevents the effect of chacrone by degrading the psychedelic substance dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in the digestive tract. With the liana inhibitor taken at the same time, DMT reaches the bloodstream and brain, producing the “mirações” characteristic of ayahuasca.

The União do Vegetal (UDV) is one of the main ayahuasca religions, along with Santo Daime and Barquinha. Its members recognize and cultivate at least three lineages, or ethnovarieties, of the mariri: tucunacá, caupuri and pajezinho. This traditional knowledge has now been corroborated by the analysis of DNA markers, as reported by the blog UDV Ciência.

Confirmation came with the master’s research by agronomist Thalita Zanquetta Luz at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon (Inpa). The first chapter of her dissertation was published in December in the specialized journal Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, in the article “First DNA barcode efficiency assessment for an important ingredient in the Amazonian ayahuasca tea: mariri / jagube, Banisteriopsis (Malpighiaceae)”.

The long title is certainly not inviting to lay people, but it means something like: first evaluation of the efficiency of genetic barcodes to identify varieties of mariri, or jagube (another name for the vine, also called iagê/yagé). Barcode, in this case, is a metaphor for DNA marker sequences that allow one organism to be distinguished from another.

Luz, at 33, is the youngest of the article’s authors. She was suggested a master’s topic by Antonio Saulo Cunha-Machado, a plant geneticist and member of the UDV in Manaus. He intended to investigate the mariri in his own master’s and doctoral studies, but he was unable to provide the necessary resources for the planned plan in time.

Cunha-Machado ended up studying the surubim with fish geneticist Jacqueline da Silva Batista, another co-author of the article, but he did not give up on the mariri. He ended up convincing the advisor to venture into plant genetics and got support for the research from the UDV, which provided part of the funding and 120 samples of vine in the states of Acre, Amazonas, Pará and Rondônia.

The chapter that became an article focused on 20 of these samples. The master’s student tested the discriminatory power of several types of DNA sequence and concluded that the best ones were internal transcribed spacers (ITS).

The ITS make up one modality among many stretches of DNA without much sense interspersed among genes (protein coding sequences). Slightly compared, they would be like the words “right” or “like” uttered in speech, which can be eliminated in a transcript without changing the main message.

The small ITS sequences immersed in the ocean of DNA that constitutes the genome of organisms proved capable of distinguishing the tucunacá, caupuri and pajezinho ethnovarieties, just as a bar code makes it possible to specify each product on the supermarket shelf. More than that: other analyzes with these and other Inpa genetic markers identified a total of 12 different mariri lineages among the three major groups.

To obtain the important tea ingredient, the UDV cultivates these varieties mainly through vegetative propagation. In the case of lianas, by cuttings (rooting cuttings). Seeds can germinate, too, but it’s hard to harvest them from a plant that blooms in the heights – when it blooms.

“The vegetative propagation makes it possible for conservation measures to be carried out more easily, as long as the genetic variants are duly identified, so that the conservation measures are effective”, explains Cunha-Machado.

“[Agora] It is possible to carry out genetic analyses, based on the method described in the article, to identify the different lineages and carry out vegetative propagation actions, thus contributing to conservation.”

Thalita Luz, who, because of the research, ended up joining the UDV and attending it for a year, goes further and sees possible implications in the clinical context as well. After all, ayahuasca and DMT have shown good preliminary results as an experimental treatment for depression, for example.

For her, if the varieties produce different effects on those who drink the tea, it is interesting to be able to identify the vines to find out how their psychoactive components vary. “This could make a difference in clinical trials.”

“We’ve just begun to unravel [os mistérios do mariri”, diz Jacqueline Batista, a orientadora. “Foi um ponto de partida interessante confirmar o que fenotipicamente se conhecia. Precisamos de mais estudos e informações para definir, lá na frente, se são espécies diferentes ou não.”

Cunha-Machado vai na mesma direção: “São fortes os indícios de que podem ser espécies distintas. Encontramos até 28% de distância genética”.

Embora os membros de religiões ayahuasqueiras reconheçam efeitos psicoativos ligeiramente diferentes ao ingerirem o chá com diferentes etnovariedades do cipó-mariri, até hoje ninguém tinha estudado se haveria alguma diversidade genética entre essas linhagens, observa Francisco Prosdocimi, biólogo do Instituto de Bioquímica Médica Leopoldo de Meis, da UFRJ, comentando o trabalho no Inpa.

“As duas variedades do caupuri, com e sem nós, se mesclaram [na mesma categoria] and seem to suggest that the presence of nodes in this ethnovariety is possibly related to environmental factors, more than genetics”, emphasizes Prosdocimi, who shares with Alessandro Varani, from the Faculty of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences at Unesp in Jaboticabal, a project to sequence the entire genome (and not just markers) of the B. caapi vine (caupuri and tucunacá varieties) and the bush P. viridis.

“It is hoped that more varieties of the mariri will be collected and analyzed so that the places with the greatest genetic diversity of the vine can be found, understand its biogeographical routes and who knows how to trace the place of origin of this teacher plant”, projects Prosdocimi.

He and Varani have already completed half of the sequencing phase of the chacrona and a quarter of the mariri, a step that will be followed by annotation and analysis. The project will take off now that funds have come out from Fapesp (Foundation for Research Support of the State of São Paulo) to continue with the research, which also aims, among others, to unravel the mystery of the ethnovarieties of the vine.

For Prosdocimi and Varani, the principle of research is to respect, exalt and understand the traditional Amazonian indigenous culture and promote an alliance between traditional Amerindian culture and scientific culture.

“We hope to generate unprecedented genomic, evolutionary and functional information for these two plants, which, despite belonging to our biodiversity, have been little explored from a molecular, genomic and taxonomic point of view”, states the summary of the approved project.

Cunha-Machado, a member of the UDV and inspiration behind Thalita Luz’s work, goes in the same direction: “Traditional knowledge does need more respect and attention. In our work we manage to document and demonstrate the importance of this knowledge”.

“Traditional knowledge and scientific knowledge are independent, they are equally important, I don’t believe they need each other’s endorsement.”

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NOTICE TO NAVIGATORS – Psychedelics are still experimental therapies and certainly do not constitute a panacea for all psychic disorders, nor should they be the object of self-medication. Speak with your therapist or doctor before venturing into the area.

To learn more about the history and new developments of science in this area, including in Brazil, look for my book “Psiconautas – Viagens com a Ciência Psychedelica Brasileira”.

On the tendency to legalize the therapeutic and adult use of psychedelics in the US, see the article “Cogumelos Livres” in the December 2022 issue of Piauí magazine.

Be sure to also see the articles in the series “A Ressurreição da Jurema” in Folha: