No less than 72 indigenous groups are reported to have used entheogenic ayahuasca potions, and 42 different indigenous names for the potions. Archaeological research has shown that the use of ayahuasca in Ecuador dates back as many as five millenia. Normally the ayahuasca brew is ingested orally, usually in a shamanic or ethnomedicinal context.
Ayahuasca visions are an important component of Amazonian art.
The visonary experience of ayahuasca is so important and fundamental to the world view of the Amazonian Indians that the use of the potion by curenderos has largely survived the forces of acculturation, and metizos consult the ayahuasca plant teachers even in modern day cities. The base of the ayahuasca brew, Banisteriopsis caapi , contains the Beta-carboline alkaloids harmine and harmaline, the same alkaloids found in the Syrian rue Peganum harmala . Indeed these alkaloids are widespread, having been found in well over 100 species in more than 27 families representing more than 60 genera. More than 90 different plant species from 38 plant families have been reported as ayahuasca admixtures. The admixture plants may be categorized into the three broad categories therapeutic, stimulants, and entheogenic or visionary additives.