I recently picked up a sample of a snuff known as "Nu-Nu" from a favorite vendor. The snuff is a hunting tool used by the Matses tribe of South America, and consists of ground mapacho (Nicotiana Rusticum) and the ground inner-root bark from the macamba tree, a relative of Cacao in the Theobroma genus. The traditional way to partake of Nu-Nu is through a tube forcefully blown into one's nasal cavity by a fellow tribesmen. I have yet to try it this way, but I've very much enjoyed as a snuff. Nu-Nu has nice stimulating effects, but it also seems to help one to tune in to what's going on internally and externally. Several friends have also commented on its psychedelic qualities; I suppose that a hunting tribe picks its poisons well, and Nu-Nu has a beautiful combination of speedy stimulation and mental-tuning-in properties that fits the bill perfectly. It seems that hunting, particularly in the lush Amazonian rainforest, requires not only continuous energy but also the ability to "tune-in" to the target animal, hone in on its track and "dance" with it until it is cornered or chased down. Certainly the mapacho contributes to the "psychedelic" effects of Nu-Nu, but the macamba also contributes. Cacao is known to contain phenylethylamine and dopamine-effecting compounds so perhaps a similar alkaloid cocktail lies in the inner root-bark of the macamba tree.

On the negative side, Nu-Nu certainly leaves one craving for more, certainly due to the mapacho content. However, I find it's a craving that's easily handled. It's not like an addiction to cigarettes, which smell so nasty, and in fact cigarettes don't even do the trick for someone with a mapacho craving; mapacho is far stronger than the tobacco in almost any American or European cigarette, so an addiction to this preparation requires a much stronger solution than a simple cigarette. As Dale Pendell says, there's nothing more satisfying than tobacco, and nothing less satisfying than tobacco. It's like food for the soul, a gift to the humans. Come to think of it, I'd very much enjoy a mapacho and a toot of Nu-Nu as we speak. Are there any other Nu-Nu or Mapacho aficionados aboard the Nexus?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgKuzRhddjs

..I have wanted to try this for a while now..

Ive been making snuff of mapacho, by means of grinding the leaves ive dried coarsley and mixing that coarse powder with ashes from the stems and veins in the leaves that dont get ground well. additionally ive been playing with theobromine hcl and different cacao extracts in conjunction with the mapacho style Rapé (tobacco snuff). interesting that these people do something semi simmilar. i use a self applicator as theres not many tribesmen around, its just a single jointed paolo santo pipe from mouth to nose

yesterday in my search to learn more about kambo, phyllo medusa bicolor, i was invited to an initiation with the matses, who also insisted i work with Nu-Nu..... maybe ill bring them some theobromine mapacho snuff ^^

The cacao in the snuff isn't ground plant parts, it's burnt to make the alkaline ash which makes the tobacco more effective (plus the sting it adds is perversely enjoyable!). So, no alkaloids likely to be left in that ash. The tobacco for nu-nu is dried green.
If you want the best results for this kind of thing you need to get it really finely powdered and sifted - coarsely ground is not really gonna cut it, although with strong tobacco it'll still work a bit. If you're not into having it blown up your nose forcefully by someone else, it's not that hard to make yourself a kuripe, which is a little v-shaped snuff pipe, longer on one side, so you can do it yourself (and you don't need to blow too hard this way - you want it in your nasal passages, not in your throat and lungs).