Ilex guayusa is a tree of the holly genus, native to the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest. It is a distant relative of both Yerba Mate and Yaupon Holly, used to make the black drink. 

The leaves have the highest caffeine content of any known plant. The leaves are boiled to produce a tea; due to the high caffeine content, the same leaves are often used multiple times, sometimes for several days. Fresh leaves are used as well as dried leaves, which are dried in rolls and strung together as a wreath resembling a Hawaiian lei.

In addition to the stimulant effects, the tea is used to enhance dream recall. To achieve this effect, it is believed that the tea must be drunk consistently in the early morning, just after waking, before the sunrise. For many Ecuadorian indigenous, the morning drinking of guayusa is a social ritual.

In areas in which it grows, it is also a common admixture to the powerful entheogenic brew ayahuasca; it is added both in addition to the more common DMT containing plants as well as in the place of them. According to the Ecuadorian indigenous, it is also slightly hallucinogenic on its own, when drunk in high enough quantities.

Pendell, Dale. PharmakoDynamis, Mercury House:San Francisco, 2002. ISBN 1562791257

1. Glycaemic effects of traditional European plant treatments for diabetes. Studies in normal and streptozotocin diabetic mice.

Swanston-Flatt SK, Day C, Flatt PR, Gould BJ, Bailey CJ.

Department of Biochemistry, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.

Diabetes Res. 1989 Feb;10(2):69-73.

PMID: 2743711 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

2. Amazonian ethnobotany and the search for new drugs. 

Schultes RE.

Botanical Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Ciba Found Symp. 1994;185:106-12; discussion 112-5.

Publication Types: Review

PMID: 7736849 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

3. Ritualistic use of the holly Ilex guayusa by Amazonian Jivaro Indians.

Lewis WH, Kennelly EJ, Bass GN, Wedner HJ, Elvin-Lewis MP, Fast D.

Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130.

J Ethnopharmacol. 1991 May-Jun;33(1-2):25-30. Erratum in: J Ethnopharmacol 1991 Sep;34(2-3):293.

PMID: 1682531 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

4. A multidisciplinary overview of intoxicating snuff rituals in the western hemisphere.

de Smet PA.

J Ethnopharmacol. 1985 Mar;13(1):3-49. Related Articles, Links

Publication Types: Review,

PMID: 3887041 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

1. Glycaemic effects of traditional European plant treatments for diabetes. Studies in normal and streptozotocin diabetic mice.

Swanston-Flatt SK, Day C, Flatt PR, Gould BJ, Bailey CJ.

Department of Biochemistry, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.

Diabetes Res. 1989 Feb;10(2):69-73.

Twelve plants used for the traditional treatment of diabetes mellitus in northern Europe were studied using normal and streptozotocin diabetic mice to evaluate effects on glucose homeostasis. The plants were administered in the diet (6.25% by weight) and/or as decoctions or infusions in place of drinking water, to coincide with the traditional method of preparation. Treatment for 28 days with preparations of burdock (Arctium lappa), cashew (Anacardium occidentale), dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), elder (Sambucus nigra), fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum), guayusa (Ilex guayusa), hop (Humulus lupulus), nettle (Urtica dioica), cultivated mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus), sage (Salvia officinale), and wild carrot (Daucus carrota) did not affect the parameters of glucose homeostasis examined in normal mice (basal plasma glucose and insulin, glucose tolerance, insulin-induced hypoglycaemia and glycated haemoglobin). After administration of streptozotocin (200 mg/kg) burdock and nettle aggravated the diabetic condition, while cashew, dandelion, elder, fenugreek, hop, periwinkle, sage and wild carrot did not significantly affect the parameters of glucose homeostasis studied (basal glucose and insulin, insulin-induced hypoglycaemia, glycated haemoglobin and pancreatic insulin concentration). Guayusa and mushroom retarded the development of hyperglycaemia in streptozotocin diabetes and reduced the hyperphagia, polydipsia, body weight loss, and glycated haemoglobin. Mushroom also countered the initial reduction in plasma insulin and the reduction in pancreatic insulin concentration, and improved the hypoglycaemic effect of exogenous insulin. These studies suggest the presence of potentially useful antidiabetic agents in guayusa and mushroom.

PMID: 2743711 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

2. Amazonian ethnobotany and the search for new drugs.

Schultes RE.

Botanical Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Ciba Found Symp. 1994;185:106-12; discussion 112-5.

Tropical rain forests offer enormous prospects for the discovery of new drugs for use in Western medicine. The Amazon supports 80,000 species of higher plants and a diverse Indian population. Focusing attention on those plants used as medicines by indigenous peoples is the most efficient way of identifying the plants that contain bioactive compounds. There is an urgent need for more ethnobotanists and ethnopharmacologists to be trained to document as much information as possible before it and the plants are lost through destruction of the rain forest and acculturation of the indigenous peoples. Ethnobotanical studies have identified plants documented by early travellers; these include Paullinia yoco and Ilex guayusa which are used as stimulants and have been shown to be rich in caffeine. Studies of the hallucinogen prepared from Banisterioposis caapi have shown that the native people know which plants to add to the mixture to lengthen and intensify the intoxication produced by the beta-carboline alkaloids in the plant. Three major snuffs are used in the Amazonia; the plants from which they are derived have been identified. One of the snuffs also has antifungal and curare-like activities; chemical analysis on the active principles has not been done. Several plants are considered as prime candidates for scientific study as sources of useful chemicals for medicine or industry. These include some used to prepare teas or other infusions for treatment of various symptoms of senile dementia.

Publication Types: Review

PMID: 7736849 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

3. Ritualistic use of the holly Ilex guayusa by Amazonian Jivaro Indians.

Lewis WH, Kennelly EJ, Bass GN, Wedner HJ, Elvin-Lewis MP, Fast D.

Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130.

J Ethnopharmacol. 1991 May-Jun;33(1-2):25-30. Erratum in: J Ethnopharmacol 1991 Sep;34(2-3):293.

In Amazonian Peru and Ecuador leaf decoctions of the rainforest holly Ilex guayusa with high caffeine concentrations are used as a morning stimulant. After daily ingestion, ritualistic vomiting by male Achuar Indians, better known as Jivaros, reduces excessive caffeine intake, so that blood levels of caffeine and biotransformed dimethylxanthines do not cause undesirable CNS and other effects. Emesis is learned and apparently not due to emetic compounds.

PMID: 1682531 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

4. A multidisciplinary overview of intoxicating snuff rituals in the western hemisphere.

de Smet PA.

J Ethnopharmacol. 1985 Mar;13(1):3-49. Related Articles, Links

Part one of the paper discusses ethnobotanical, chemical and general pharmacological aspects of intoxicating snuff rituals in the western hemisphere. Four categories of ritual snuff ingredients arise from this multidisciplinary approach: It is well established that the plant contains one or more psychoactive principles and the Indian use of the plant as a ritual snuff ingredient is confirmed or quite probable: Anadenanthera, Erythroxylum, Nicotiana, Virola; It is well established that the plant contains one or more psychoactive principles, but the Indian use of the plant as a ritual snuff ingredient is not well recorded or even unlikely: Banisteriopsis, Cannabis, Datura, Ilex guayusa; The Indian use of the plant as a ritual snuff ingredient is confirmed or quite probable, but it is not well established that the plant contains one or more psychoactive principles: Justicia pectoralis, Pagamea macrophylla, Tanaecium nocturnum; The Indian use of the plant as a ritual snuff ingredient is not well recorded, and it is not well established that the plant contains one or more psychoactive principles: Acorus calamus, Capsicum, Macquira sclerophylla, Piper interitum. Part two of the paper discusses the nasal pharmacokinetics and efficacy of possible ritual snuff constituents. The literature yields convincing clinical evidence that atropine, cocaine, nicotine and scopolamine are effective following nasal application, but experimental confirmation of the efficacy of nasal tryptamine alkaloids is still awaited. In self-experiments, 6.4 mg/kg of caffeine produced substantial plasma levels via the nasal route, but 0.5 mg/kg of harmine did not produce measurable plasma levels, when taken as a nasal powder. Without additional experiments, it is difficult to give a definite explanation for this negative result.

Publication Types: Review,

PMID: 3887041 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]