The photograph shows a cross section through a freshly harvested yoco stem. The orange-pigmented zone is used for preparing the stimulating drink. Source: Courtesy ©Luke Weiss, Yale University.
This species is a non- or scarcely-domesticated liana, the bark (cortex) of which is used by tribes living in southern Colombia (C), in northern Peru (P) or/and in northeastern Ecuador (E) for the preparation of a stimulant [108]: Coreguajes (C), Ingas (C), Kofáns (C/E), Sionas (C/E), and Secoyas (E/P).
This geographically very restricted tradition consists of rasping the stem cortex and either squeezing or simply immersing the resulting mass into cold water to prepare a caffeine-rich drink. It is taken early in the morning and gives endurance while it kills hunger until the afternoon meal. Richard Schultes reports that the natives – on their multi-day boat trips – always carry several stem pieces of yoco with them, so to speak ’caffeine to go’!
Rather than go into the details of the history of this fascinating liana, I refer you here to the recently published book, which gives a full account of this species. However, a historical reference should be specifically mentioned here: In connection with a systematic analysis of the caffeine content in the genus Paullinia (Weckerle et al. 2003), we requested a bark sample from a renowned pharmacist in Paris, namely from Prof. Tillequin (1950 – 2011) of the Laboratory for Pharmacognosy, University of Paris 05, who provided us with a generous gift of a yoco stem section from his collection.
yoco – Paullinia yoco Schultes & Killip
The 'Caffeines'
The
Caffeine Plants
