Consumed for centuries by indigenous peoples during religious ceremonies, the Mimosa Tenuiflora, or “Jurema Preta”, as it is popularly known in Brazil, is over the counter in small street kiosks very widespread in the South American country.
Its roots contain dimethyltryptamine (DMT), hallucinogenic psychotropic psychotropic substance which is already the object of research in China, South Korea, the United States, Finland or the United Kingdom, for the development of experimental treatments against depression.
Guaracy Carvajal, 31 -year -old computer programmer, started consuming it in 2016, getting the roots of “Jurema Preta” in a kiosk in Brasilia. He learned to extract the active ingredients on the Internet, transforming the brown bark that covers the roots into crystal to smoke in a pipe.
“”It gave me the impression of having resolved something in my life. From the first experience, this is a lesson“, Tells AFP this young man with long hair and tattooed arms, who had previously known various treatments against the depression from which he has suffered since adolescence.
“Fast effect”
1,700 km from Brasilia, in the city of Natal (northeast), the physicist Draulio Araujo extracts the DMT of the “Jurema Preta” in a much less artisanal way, in his laboratory of the Brain Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande Do Norte.
This researcher conducted a scientific experience during which 14 people suffering from depression inhaled DMT vapors under medical supervision for six months.
“”The effect is fast. One day after (the first inhalation), patients have presented a significant improvement in their symptoms of depression“says Araujo.
“”They often evoke a change, as if a key had opened something“, He says.
The results of his research was published in April in the scientific journal Nature, and another study had been published last year in the journal Psychedelic Medicine.
“No magic formula”
According to the researcher, the DMT helps patients “to change perspective on how they face certain problems” in their personal life.
This is precisely what Guaracy Carvajal felt: he says that the “Jurema Preta” helped him “question himself” about “his work, everyday things”.
“”Life becomes lighter“, he summarizes, while specifying that he has stopped making use of this substance for several years.
And Draulio Araujo warns that it is in no way a “magic formula” and that products containing psychotropic substances “are not made for everyone”.
“”Some patients are much better, but for others there is no improvement“, adds Fernanda Palhano-Fontes, another researcher from the Brain Institute.
During experimental treatment, patients also benefit from psychological follow -up, and some continue to take conventional antidepressant drugs.
“Spiritual canals”
“”Brazil currently occupies a leading position“In research on the DMT, due to the rooting of the use of this substance in society.
The “jurma ready” in itself is legal, from planting to possession. But the consumption of products containing DMT is however prohibited, with the exception of religious cults or scientific experiences.
In its religious use, it is generally mixed with other plants, in a drink consumed during rituals where we dance to the rhythm of drums, especially among native peoples in northeast Brazil.
“”My spiritual channels become more accessible and I manage to communicate better with myself“, Testifies Joyce Souza, who frequents initiation ceremonies to the” Jurema Preta “in Planaltina, in the suburbs of Brasilia.
Gathered in the garden of a house, the participants are dressed in white and the novices observe the “initiates” who enter into a trance.
On the scientific level, Draulio Araujo intends to extend his research by offering his experimental treatment to a hundred patients, in order to draw more definitive conclusions “within five years”.