Fascinating stuff,I love that there are still mysterys out there that have eluded science and the modern world. It sounds pretty intense, I imagine (obviously this is totaly a gess) that whatever active compounds it may contain,they must be greatly increased by the diet,isoation,commitment etc. Im sure many of us have learned the hard way the importance and power of "set and setting".
Im sometimes amazed at the profound difference in intensity and depth of experience depending on my meditative practices and mood in general. That strict diet and isolation must realy prime the mind of the initiate. Im very interested in experiencing something like this at some time on my Path(unfortunately Ive learned this past year how the "no sex" rule feels lol! Totaly accidental celibate for way to long...on the bright side,being single has left me lots more time for research,art,botany and entheogens. I also have noticed emotional and mental changes without sex...so Im sure that the celibacy in conjunction with the diet,thats got to be a key to the prolonged dreamstate. Very cool posts and thread thanks for all the info!
Light and love to all those on the Poison Path.

Lightbulb i just made a connection.. (thanks ebay!) iam not sure others have....
Muka
Synonyms: Lepidium peruvianum, Lepidium weddellii, Lepidium affine, Lepidium gelidum, Maca,
Peruvian Ginseng, maka, mace, maca-maca, maino, ayak chichira, ayuk willku, pepperweed

Maca Magic™ Gives Support for:

Stamina and Energy*
Hormone Balance*
Endocrine Function*
Virility and Sexual Ability*
Mental Focus and Emotional Balance*

Maca is native to the high Andes of Bolivia and Peru.
Maca is a plant that grows in central Peru in the high plateaus of the Andes mountains. It has been cultivated as a vegetable crop in Peru for at least 3000 years. Maca is a relative of the radish and has an odor similar to butterscotch. Its root is used to make medicine. The root of the Maca plant is often used to balance hormones and naturally enhance libido function. Maca plants will not grow well in hot climates but can be grown in the winter months of most northern latitudes.



HOW TO GROW MACA SEEDS

Family: Mustard (Brassicaceae)
MACA Seeds should be sown in winter or when cold, just under the surface of a well drained potting mix, which can include equal parts perlite:potting mix:vermiculite and some sand. Once the seedlings emerge (7 days), they can either be thinned out or left until they are big enough to withstand transplanting. They can also be directly sown into the garden to avoid transplant shock and this is the preferred method of raising from seed.
Full sun with adequate water but can take dry periods well as it is used to poor soils in the mountains of Peru. Likes sandy soil, drought tolerant once established. Biennial, harvest roots in 2nd year.

Biennial, radish-like, rosette forming plant native to the high Peruvian Puna. This is a high elevation cultivar that is considered to be medicinally superior to other strains. Sow the seed on the surface of the seed bed, stir it around with your fingers, then tamp in securely. Plant prefers fall, winter and spring conditions for growth. Full sun and a fast-draining soil is preferred. Maca likes a somewhat alkaline soil, such as decomposed granite or volcanic soils. However, lacking this kind of soil, regular garden soil will do. Composted manures are a good fertilizer for MACA, and in fact we can grow them in PURE composted manure with good results. I know this is not always a practical idea for growers, but we have done tests in the greenhouse and plants growing in pure composted manure reach harvestable size quickly and demonstrate great health and vigor. Thin or transplant to 6 inch spacing, and harvest after the first year of growth. Grow as a fast crop in the greenhouse, or if planting outdoors in zone 7 and up, best to direct-seed in September and harvest in May. If your winters are very snowy I don't think this will probably work. In the case of snowy winters (zone 6 and under) I would plant this as a quick fall or spring crop and harvest small roots
DETAILS And HISTORY
Maca is a hardy perennial plant cultivated high in the Andean Mountain at altitudes from 11,000-14,500 feet. The area where Maca is found high in the Andes is an inhospitable region of intense sunlight, violent winds and below freezing weather. With its extreme temperatures and poor rocky soil, the area rates among the world's worst farmland, yet over the centuries, Maca learned to flourish under these conditions. Maca was domesticated about 2000 years ago by the Inca Indians and primitive cultivars of Maca have been found in archaeological sites dating as far back as 1600 B.C.
Maca has a low-growing, mat-like stem system which at times goes almost unnoticed. Its scalloped leaves lie close to the ground and it produces self-fertile small off-white flowers. The part used is the tuberous root which is pear shaped, up to 8 cm/3 inches in diameter and ranging from off-white to golden in colour usually, with the occasional purple one.
Although it is a perennial, it is grown as an annual, and 7-9 months from planting are required to produce the harvested roots..
To the Andean Indians, Maca is a valuable commodity. Because so little else grows in the region, Maca is often traded with communities at lower elevations for other staples like rice, corn, and beans.
Native Peruvians have traditionally utilized Maca since before the time of the Incas for both nutritional and medicinal purposes.
Maca is an important staple in the diets of the people indigenous to the region since it has the highest nutritional value of any food crop grown there. It has 59% carbohydrates, 10.2% protein, 8.5% fibre and 2.2% lipids. It has a large amount of essential amino acids and higher levels of iron and calcium than potatoes. Maca contains important amounts of fatty acids including linolenic, palmitic and oleic acids. It is rich in sterols and has a high mineral content as well. In addition to its rich supply of essential nutrients, Maca contains alkaloids, tannins and saponins. A chemical analysis conducted in 1981 showed the presence of biologically active aromatic isothiocyanates, especially p-methoxybenzyl isothiocyanate, which have reputed aphrodisiac properties.



Nutritional Profile of Dried Maca Root
(Average 10 gram serving)
Component per 10 g Amino Acids per 10 g Minerals per 10 g
Protein 1–1.4 g Alanine 63.1 mg Calcium 25 mg
Carbohydrates 6–7.5 g Arginine 99.4 mg Copper 0.6 mg
Fats (lipids) 220 mg Aspartic acid 91.7 mg Iron 1.5 mg
Fiber 850 mg Glutamic acid 156.5 mg Iodine 52 mcg
Ash 490 mg Glycine 68.3 mg Manganese 80 mcg
Sterols 5–10 mg Histidine 41.9 mg Potassium 205 mg
Calories 32.5 HO-Proline 26.0 mg Sodium 1.9 mg
Isoleucine 47.4 mg Zinc 380 mcg
Leucine 91.0 mg
Vitamins per 10 g Lysine 54.5 mg Fats/Lipids per 10 g
B2 39 mcg Methionine 28.0 mg Linoleic 72 mcg
B6 114 mcg Phenylalanine 55.3 mg Palmitic 52 mcg
C 28.6 mg Proline 0.5 mg Oleic 24.5 mcg
Niacin 565 mcg Sarcosine 0.7 mg
Serine 50.4 mg
Threonine 33.1 mg
Tryptophan 4.9 mg
Tyrosine 30.6 mg
Valine 79.3 mg
The tuber is consumed fresh or dried. The fresh roots are considered a treat and are baked or roasted in ashes much like sweet potatoes. The dried roots are stored and later boiled in water or milk to make a porridge. (the dried roots can be stored for up to seven years.) In addition, they are often made into a popular sweet, fragrant, fermented drink called maca chicha. In Huancayo, Peru, even Maca jam and pudding are popular.
The tuberous roots have a tangy taste and an aroma similar to butterscotch.
Maca has been used medicinally for centuries in South America to enhance fertility in humans and animals. Soon after the Spanish Conquest the Spanish found that their livestock were reproducing poorly in the highlands. The local Indians recommended feeding the animals Maca and so remarkable were the results that Spanish chroniclers gave in-depth reports. Even Colonial records of some 200 years ago indicate that payments of roughly 9 tons of Maca were demanded from one Andean area alone for this purpose. Its fertility enhancing properties were supported clinically as early as 1961, when researchers discovered it increased the fertility of rats.
Maca is growing in world popularity due to its energizing effects, fertility enhancement and aphrodisiac qualities.
Other traditional uses include increasing energy, stamina and endurance in athletes, promoting mental clarity, treating male impotence, and helping with menstrual irregularities and female hormonal imbalances including menopause and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Today, dried Maca roots are ground to powder and sold in Health Food shops to increase stamina and fertility.
In Peruvian herbal medicine, Maca is also used as an immunostimulant, for anemia, tuberculosis, menstrual disorders, menopause symptoms, stomach cancer, sterility and other reproductive and sexual disorders as well as to enhance memory.
Maca doesn't grow well in hot weather. In warmer areas maca can be grown during the winter months.

4. So are there different species of Maca?
There is only one species that is cultivated commercially for harvest. Like many other everyday foods, there is a plant that grows wild, but it has no dollar value. Remember, many of our common foods have 'wild cousins'; for example, bush lemons and alpine strawberries.

(SOURCES EBAY POSTINGS)

HERE and HERE are a couple of Nexus postings i found about maca; One says it gave very vivid dreams!


SO a bit less mysterious, but still very interesting.

thanks for sharing that...
according to Yawanawa tribe, had met one guy from NL in the Cusco area, who completely quit from city monkeys business and switch to jungle life across Peruvian-Brasiian region and living in Yawanawa communtity some time.
He put some posts describing his experience with Yawanawa people with entheogens.
According to post above seems Maca and Muka kind of diff. Maca it is like a Peruvian turnip, commonly known in that regions for its herbal medicine use.
Kind of interest is the Muka, which known historically used by the indigenous tribes as spiritually active plant for ceremonial use...
Please put some clarification on two these plants according community interests we are looking for...
thank you

If muka means indeed 'bitter' in Panoan, then it definitely cannot be maca. Also, maca being a temperate highland plant, won't grow in or near the amazon basin.

We just learned on the innernet that another Panoan speaking tribe, the Kaxinawa, call ayahuasca brew: muka dao (bitter medicine)....

Obviously, there is someone who doesn't want to share moar information, which is okay for intezam, since spiritual authority does not require muka, or dieta, or both, but even then (without the use of entheogens), there are traditions that are protective about certain techniques...

I have seen the plant a couple of times, and comparing from visual memory, and from some readings about Chiric Sanango, im pretty sure Muca is from the Brunfelsia family, but definitly not the same one as chiric sanango

MultiDimensionalTherapy,
seems your path was more closely to the subject... making the note of contact with plant spirit, make a diff...
did you have finished your dieta with this master plant?
how it was at returning back to society, city living?
do you keep on contact your curandero in the Acre?
any suggestions to find appropriate and qualified village and the plant maestro who allowing to visit and stay in the tribe community with the providing the process of muka's diet to foreigner? seems it must be the save, couse as I see - the muka can be kind of tropane, like toe... which can be very dangerous and no playing trippy games allowed in case of spiritual and transformational life changing practices...
thank you

well, it has been quite a ride. i have finished it, but its effects and implications go long after the end of diet. i didnt do it with the yawanawa, but they say that you should keep the diet restrictions for the same time you did the diet, after you finish it.

basicly, you almost dont eat, and you cant drink water, thats the most dificult part. muka is so so bitter, that even water and other other foods tha you regularly eat in other diets become sweet, and muka doesnt like it. besides that, its very simple. you lay still for most of the time, thinking about what you want to reach with this diet. in the begining of it you put this intention, you take the sacrament, and literally tell him what you want to accomplish with taking it, and thats what you do, focusing in those intentions constantly, because your tought gains a lot of strenght, and thats the principal reason you have to do it in the right setting, so that you dont think in unecessary things while in the diet.

when you are not lying still, you are preparing medicine. while on this diet, every medicine you do becomes stronger, and all the beings come to you and leave their mark in the medicine, and people will feel it. so you do hundreds of liters of ayahuasca alone, you make kilos of rapé alone, and it will allways be special.

besides that, you sleep a lot. first because with such a strict diet you dont have much fisical energy, senconds because all that you will learn will come from you dreams. the shaman will not do much, only confirm and develop anything you recieved in your dreams, and if he thinks thats something that will take you off the right path, he will just stay silent.

basicly to have access to this diet you have to be lucky that they like you and feel that you are worthy of it. and you have to be ready to pay, because it has a lot of implications (for example, the person cooking for you has to be in a diet also). the best bet is the yawanawa and the huni kuim, but the yawanawa have better infrastructures for that.

I´m almost sure the identity of this plant is Humirianthera ampla, commonly known as Surucuina





There are just a few studies on the phytochemistry but not much on possible alkaloids. Some diterpenoids have been described, humirianthol, acrenol, annonalide (Graebner et al 2000), also Humirianthenolides A, C and D (Zoghbi et al 1983). β-sitosterol and stigmasterol, annonalide, lupeol and the 3-β-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl sitosterol have also been detected (Marques 2007).

Some alkaloids have been detected but not identified (Seta et al 2019)

One of the traditional uses of this plant is against snakebites, and research has shown it to be effective for that (Strauch et al 2013). Also, interestingly enough, there is a video of an old local talking about how there are wild animals like large lizards that when get bitten by snake they come and bite the ´potato´ of this plant in order to cure themselves




And this is another video where the native mentions the Muka name too.




It´s also used traditionally for different kinds of ailments, and has been shown to have antinociceptive (pain reducing) effects (Guimaraes 2005)


I have gotten a supposed sample from this plant, will test it soon