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What Is Mimosa Hostilis?

Many hours inland from the vibrant Brazilian coastline lie the sun-scorched plains of the country’s northeastern hinterlands. This inhospitable landscape is all but deserted: annual rainfall is low, average temperatures are high, and human settlements are few and far between.

It may sound strange to learn that this vast, parched land is actually revered by locals as the “Garden of the Gods.” While most of Earth’s flora could never thrive in this barren desert, one botanical curiosity has made it its home… A plant that’s served as the portal between mortals and ancestral spirits for centuries, if not millennia — the mighty Mimosa hostilis.

Mimosa hostilis is a perennial shrub or tree from the Fabaceae family. It’s endemic to much of Central America and northern parts of South America — specifically Colombia, Venezuela, and Northeast Brazil.

This powerful plant has a long history of traditional medicinal and ritualistic use among the many ancestral cultures of its native lands.

In this article, we’ll learn about the fascinating roots of Mimosa hostilis (both historical and actual ones), explore its diverse applications in traditional herbalism and contemporary medicine, and unravel its significance for indigenous Mesoamerican, Brazilian, and Afro-Brazilian populations, as well as for contemporary psychonauts and plant medicine practitioners.

The Many Names (and Uses) of Mimosa Hostilis

There are few plants with as many names as Mimosa hostilis — accounting for both its local monikers and its scientific denominations. The former are mostly based on its regional uses and cultural relevance, while the latter are the result of decades of attempts at precise botanical classification.

Botany: Mimosa or Acacia? Tenuiflora or Hostilis?

Mimosa hostilis has had a complex journey toward its current scientific name. This confusion was facilitated by the vast number of exquisitely similar Mimosa species endemic to the same region, most of which were simply referred to as ‘jurema’ by the indigenous people by the time Western botanists got to naming it.

The overlap between the Mimosa and Acacia genera additionally complicated the task — many Acacia trees, such as Acacia confusa and Acacia acuminata, also feature the characteristic bipinnate leaves and fluffy flowers like Mimosas, and contain DMT in their root bark or phyllodes.

In fact, the first botanical name assigned to jurema in 1806 by Carl Ludwig Willdenow was Acacia tenuiflora, before Jean Louis Marie Poiret recategorized it as Mimosa tenuiflora in 1810. A few more haphazard classifications later, in 1875, George Bentham first introduced the name Mimosa hostilis, which was erroneously quoted as Acacia hostilis by Carl Friedrich Phillip von Martius in 1876.

The two currently accepted full names for the jurema plant in botany are Mimosa tenuiflora [Willd] Poiret and Mimosa hostilis [C. Mart] Benth — combined, they acknowledge four of the dozens of scientists involved in the decades of classification efforts invested into this species.

Other than these two, the World Flora Online database also recognizes Acacia hostilis Mart., Acacia tenuiflora Willd., Mimosa cabrera H. Karst., and Mimosa limana Rizzini, while about a dozen more acknowledged botanical references to the jurema plant can be found in historical documents. To add irony to this complicated naming convention journey, the name Mimosa itself is derived from the Greek and Latin words mimos and mimus, respectively, which mean “imitator” or “mimic.”

Mexico: Tepezcohuite & “the Skin Tree”

In Mexico, Mimosa hostilis goes under two names: tepezcohuite and “the skin tree”.

The etymology of tepezcohuite is unclear, but it is believed to draw roots either from the ancient Aztec language Nahuatl or its regional variation, Nawat/Pipil. According to the Nahuatl interpretation, the word would mean “tree of the hill,” whereas the Nawat one dubs it “the iron/steel tree.”

The use of the name “the skin tree” (el árbol de la piel) is common among Mexican traditional herbalists. While it has no etymological roots, it underscores the historical importance of Mimosa hostilis as a medicinal plant used to treat a variety of skin conditions, mouth abrasions, gastrointestinal problems, hair loss, and urinary infections in women.

It’s interesting that the medicinal applications of tepezcohuite had been mostly forgotten in Mexico until the 1980s, when the country faced two devastating disasters that prompted the revival of ancient wisdom: the 1982 eruption of El Chichón in Chiapas and the 1984 gas system explosion in San Juanico.

These tragic events overwhelmed the local healthcare system, leaving victims in dire need of treatment. It was during this period that Mimosa hostilis bark reemerged as the valuable and indispensable regenerative medicine it is. Since 2015, the plant has become well-established in Mexican herbalism and has been featured as a core ingredient in a variety of commercial skincare products, endorsed or produced by celebrities such as Kylie Jenner and Salma Hayek.

Aside from its medicinal applications, the sturdy timber of tepezcohuite has also seen local use in building fences, as firewood, for producing charcoal, and even for tanning leather.

The Rest of Central America: Carbonal, Cabrera/Cabrero, & Carbón negro/colorado

In Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and parts of Colombia, Mimosa hostilis is simply known by a variety of names denoting its qualities as high-calorific charcoal-producing firewood: carbonal, cabrera or cabrero, and carbón negro or carbón  colorado, depending on the region.

In these lands, it’s also used in construction, as animal forage (its leaves and pods are a source of protein for grazing animals), as shade for livestock, and as treatment for mouth wounds and gastric ulcers.

Northeastern Brazil: “Jurema” & “Jurema preta”

Northeastern Brazil is the only region where Mimosa hostilis root bark is traditionally used in its most powerful capacity — for creating potions that catalyze trance possessions and help channel ancestral spirits. Here, it is known by its widely-renowned name — jurema.

The name ‘jurema’ denotes much more than just the plant — it is the tree, the drink, the spirit, the belief system, and the ineffable realm in which powerful entities reside and from which they are summoned during ceremonies.

With such profound significance, jurema is a central component of the medicinal, religious, and spiritual practices of both the indigenous and Afro-Brazilian populations of the region. It’s fair to say that this mystical plant is for Northeast Brazilians what ayahuasca  is for Amazonians.

However, it’s important to note that several other species with similar botanical characteristics are all colloquially referred to as “jurema” by the locals. A total of 38 Mimosa species have been found growing in the caatinga (“white forest”) of the Brazilian sertão (arid hinterland region), almost 20 of which share the name “jurema.”

In order to distinguish Mimosa hostilis from “lesser” (in potency and reverence) jurema species such as jureminha, jurema cor-de-rosa, or jurema branca, it is called jurema preta; but still, three other species go by this same moniker as well. Knowing this, the initial confusion in this plant’s scientific classification starts to make sense.

The Jurema Cult(ure)

Mimosa hostilis and its many botanical relatives hold immense value for Brazilian communities, serving as both multifaceted medicines and sacred means of connecting with ancestors and spirits.

The History of Ritual Jurema Use

Indigenous communities of Northeastern Brazil have been using jurema for spiritual purposes for centuries, since long before the arrival of Portuguese explorers in 1500. Ritualistic jurema use falls under the system of beliefs known as the Jurema Cult (O Culto da Jurema).

Sadly, as was the case with other psychedelic rituals the colonizers had encountered among the many “Indian” cultures of the New World, the Jurema Cult and its doings were perceived as demonic and were brutally suppressed until their apparent extinction.

Although much of the knowledge about these ancient practices was lost (the tradition had only been transmitted orally from generation to generation), some of it still lives on. However, the rituals were being performed in such secrecy for such a long time that they were believed to have been eradicated all the way up until the late 1990s.

Thanks to the dedication of Yatra da Silveira Barbosa and her team of anthropologists, underground jurema practices were rediscovered in a few states of Northeastern Brazil in 1997. These researchers visited local juremeiros (jurema shamans) and attended rituals during which they would access states of trance by drinking vinho da jurema, smoking tobacco, singing sacred songs, and invoking caboclo spirits, who are then received into the body of the juremeiro medium.

Caboclos are spiritual entities believed to be the souls of ancient indigenous Brazilians from the Amazon region. They are hunters, warriors, healers, and shamans, and juremeiros are able to establish connections with them and channel their guidance and advice. There is an infinite number of caboclo spirits; some are considered more powerful and they are widely revered, but most are known only to the juremeiros they communicate with.

The Resilience of the Jurema Ritual

The survival of the Jurema Cult after several centuries of colonial persecution and cultural and religious imperialism is credited to several factors, including the desire for strengthening of indigenous identity, the neglect of the people by the Brazilian state (especially the poor populations of the Northeast), and the early incorporation of Catholic elements into ancestral jurema rituals.

After many generations of racial mixing, descendants of indigenous jurema masters were eventually pushed out of their lands by Western occupiers once they were no longer recognized as “Indians.” In order to re-establish their identity and reclaim the right to their land, they reinforced the Jurema Cult as part of their traditional culture.

In more recent history, with poor or no access to public healthcare services, the populations of Northeastern Brazil also needed to reconnect with their ancestral plant medicine practices in order to survive. The reemergence of jurema rituals was a natural and integral part of these efforts.

Further back in the past, though, adaptations were made which helped prevent the total eradication of jurema use in the first place. The arrival of the colonizers marked the abrupt, harsh end of the “blasphemous” ancestral rituals of the Jurema Cult and the beginning of the syncretism of indigenous and Catholic belief systems.

The Emergence of Catimbó-Jurema

During the XI century, under the impact of evangelization, communities in the sertão regions of Brazil started combining their worship of jurema with their newly-adopted reverence for Catholic saints and the use of crucifixes and candles inherited from their new overlords. The emergence of this syncretism is characteristic of proto-Catimbó — the evolutionary foray of ancestral jurema rituals.

The influences Catimbó would integrate depended on the ethnic diversity of each region at the time — for example, in Rio Grande do Norte, where there was no port, African slaves were not present in large numbers, so early Catimbó in that region mixed ancestral indigenous pajelança (shamanism) wisdom with elements of Iberian witchcraft as well as some traces of Jewish Kabbalah and African Quimbanda.

In parts of the Northeast where the African slaves were more numerous, Catimbó practices heavily integrated elements of African religions, including their cosmology and ancestral ways of worshiping spiritual entities such as orixás. With both belief systems deeply rooted in reverence toward nature, this fusion of indigenous and African knowledge became and remained a hallmark of the Catimbó lineage.

While Catimbó did evolve as a syncretic tradition, it is not considered a spinoff or addendum to other Afro-Brazilian spiritual traditions like Santo Daime, Umbanda, or Candomblé. It draws some similarities with, and coexists alongside the many other cults and religions in Brazil, but it stands as an independent tradition with its own set of beliefs, rituals, and ceremonies.

Additionally, although the fusing of indigenous practices with Catholic influences in the form of Catimbó did help the survival of jurema rituals, officially, Catholicism has always condemned it as witchcraft and a demonic cult.

Catimbó Rituals and Cosmology

The understanding of the spiritual universe in Catimbó does not align with traditional Catholic concepts of heaven, hell, and purgatory. Instead, it centers around the mythical realm of Jurema, where the spirits of jurema Masters and their subordinates reside.

As per Catimbó belief, the realm of Jurema consists of a number of villages and states, which are organized hierarchically. Each village is home to three Masters, and twelve villages make up a state; depending on regional interpretations, there are five or seven states in the realm.

Aside from the Masters, the villages are inhabited by a variety of spiritual entities, including caboclos, who have been sent to Jurema in order to assist the Masters in carrying out their work. Caboclo spirits are typically invoked by the catimbozeiro at the beginning of any jurema ritual, and their role is to prescribe medicinal herbs, baths, and prayers for protection and healing.

The Masters themselves are believed to be former jurema practitioners who, upon their passing, became “divine” and got transported to the mystical kingdom of Jurema. Living catimbozeiros are able to summon them into their own bodies for the duration of the ceremony, foregoing control of their physical and emotional faculties and merely acting as mediums for their wisdom and power.

After drinking vinho da jurema, the invocation of caboclos and Masters is initiated with tocas, the ritual songs of Catimbó, which induct the catimbozeiros into a deep trance, facilitating spiritual contact. Toca songs are devoted to a wide, syncretic range of idols, from the caboclos to Catholic figures like Mary Magdalene and Saint Francis.

The Masters are thought to be neutral entities able to perform both positive and negative actions depending on the intention of their summoner. Unlike in the Jurema Cult, whose core orientation is positive, in several states in northeastern Brazil, Catimbó rituals are sometimes associated heavily with black magic practices.

The MAOI Mystery

It’s long been known, however, that vinho da jurema is used to catalyze entheogenic trance possessions in sacred jurema rituals — how exactly that happens if the potion is prepared exclusively from Mimosa hostilis (plus, optionally, a few minor admixtures) has been a long-standing conundrum.

One of the assumptions was that the answer might lie in the chemical composition of the jurema plant, i.e. that there could be a compound within it which may have an effect similar to the MAOI alkaloids in ayahuasca.

The first indication of this was a mention of MAOI alkaloids found in the plant in 1990, supposedly as a result of endogenous conversion of its tryptamines. However, the researchers failed to elaborate on this statement and no subsequent study has ever mentioned the possibility again.

Then, in 2005, a novel molecule named yuremamine was isolated from Mimosa hostilis. It was believed to be a newly discovered type of pyrroloindole alkaloid and was suggested as a potential oral DMT facilitator. However, a decade later it was shown to be just a flavonoid derivative, a class of compound not likely to have the chemical impact needed for MAO enzyme inhibition.

A concurrent theory was that vinho da jurema preparations might include admixture plants that may have the needed effect, the most plausible candidate being the ayahuasca vine .

While this might have been the case in ancient times (and perhaps closer to the Amazonian regions where the vine could have actually been found), this knowledge may have been lost meanwhile, especially to the juremeiros of the arid sertão regions of Northeast Brazil, thousands of miles away from the jungle.

Other theories supposed that some alternative MAOI-containing admixtures might be incorporated in traditional recipes. Passionfruit, for example, contains MAOIs and is known to be added to vinho da jurema by some shamans. However, while it might be marginally helpful, the infused concentrations of MAOI are likely far too low to catalyze sufficient enzymatic inhibition.

The Power of the Ritual

In the communities she visited in 1997, Yatra da Silveira Barbosa confirmed that not only is vinho da jurema traditionally prepared without any admixtures which could potentially catalyze the bioactivity of the DMT within the plant, but that it’s also often made using jurema branca, which is lower in DMT content compared to jurema preta.

The conclusion was that the ritualization surrounding the use of vinho da jurema as well as, perhaps, the copious amounts of cachaça (a type of aguardiente — local alcoholic sugar cane-based beverage), which are usually drunk during the ceremonies or mixed with jurema in a preparation called cauim, might be sufficient to access and maintain a trance state.

In her report, Barbosa expressed belief that an MAOI ingredient must have, at some point in the past, been a part of vinho recipes. In order to demonstrate the effect of this ancestral synergy to the locals she was drinking with, she offered them a brew made from Syrian rue seeds, an excellent source of MAOI alkaloids, to combine with jurema.

For the first time, they had experienced the revered fusion of MAOI and DMT; reportedly, it catalyzed the most profound journeys of their lives. “We finally found the roots of our tradition,” Barbosa quotes touchingly.

Mimosa Hostilis Root Bark Legality

While jurema root bark does contain DMT, which is a scheduled substance in most Western countries, the bark itself remains legal to purchase and possess throughout much of the world, with a few exceptions including: Bulgaria, Canada, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine & the UK.

Where to Buy Mimosa Hostilis Root Bark Legally?

Here at Maya Ethnobotanicals, we offer a range of traditional medicinal plants which have been used by indigenous peoples for a variety of purposes since ancient times.

Our products are organically grown, sustainably harvested, and sourced through fair trade, and we sell them with the intention to promote ethnobotanical enthusiasm throughout the world.

We do not advocate for the use of any of our products in illegal ways, nor do we ship any of our botanical samples to countries where they are illegal. We advise our customers to inform themselves thoroughly about their local regulations before placing an order.

If you’re looking for Mimosa Hostilis Root Bark (MHRB) for sale, we have several varieties available in our webshop: 

We also stock two different types of Acacias, which are botanically and chemically almost identical to Mimosa hostilis: