Nicotiana rustica

Nicotiana rustica, known in South America as Mapacho, is a plant in the Solanaceae family. It is a very potent variety of tobacco. The high concentration of nicotine in its leaves makes it useful for creating organic pesticides.
Rustica is also used for entheogenic purposes by South American shamans. Growing in the rainforest it contains up to twenty times more nicotine than common North American varieties such as N. tabacum. Other reasons for its shamanic use are the comparatively high levels of MAOI beta-carbolines, including harmine, harmaline and tetrahydroharmine.1992 - Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge - A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution (Bantam) ISBN 0-553-37130-4 Pg. 196 - Shamanic Tobaccos Most commonly, it is allowed to soak in water, and the water is then insufflated; it is also smoked in cigars and used as an enema and as an anthelmitic effective against tapeworm infections. In the south-east of Turkey, people use this herb and ashes of some tree bodies to make a snuff called "Maraş Otu" which is put under either of the lips like Swedish snus. It is also a common admixture of Ayahuasca in some parts of the rainforest.
In Russia, N.rustica is called "makhorka" (махорка). It was smoked casually by the lower classes before normal tobacco became widely available (after World WarI I), and is still sometimes smoked by peasants and farmers.
Nicotiana rustica leaves have a nicotine content as high as 9%, whereas Nicotiana tabacum (common tobacco) leaves contain about 1 to 3%.
==References==
== External links ==
* Guide de culture (in French)
* Growing Nicotiana species (Plot55.com)
*Nicotiana rustica (University of Iowa)
Category:Entheogens