Jurema is a plant, a drink and, for some communities, a sacred presence. Botanically, jurema preta is Mimosa tenuiflora, a spiny shrub or tree whose native range Kew gives as southern Mexico to Venezuela and northeastern Brazil (POWO). Mimosa hostilis is an older synonym for the same species. “Jurema” is also a looser folk name: a 2008 review lists at least 19 species called jurema in Brazil, some of which contain no tryptamine alkaloids at all (Souza et al., 2008).
According to that review, jurema was used in religious practice by Indigenous peoples of northeastern Brazil long before Portuguese colonization, and was later taken up by Afro-Brazilian religions. Today it appears in a festival called the Toré, with tobacco, candles and traditional songs (Souza et al., 2008). Afro-Brazilian jurema is less documented, by design: its use is usually kept private.
Analyses of the bark report DMT, plus tannins and a compound called yuremamine. That raises a puzzle. Swallowed alone, DMT is broken down by the enzyme MAO-A, and jurema has no vine supplying MAO inhibitors as ayahuasca does. The 2008 review concludes there is no firm evidence yet that the drink is hallucinogenic by itself (Souza et al., 2008). In Canada, DMT is in Schedule III of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act; the plant is not named. This is not legal advice.
Sources
- Plants of the World Online (Kew): Mimosa tenuiflora
- Souza et al., 2008, Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology: jurema-preta review
- Vepsäläinen et al., 2005, Planta Medica: isolation of yuremamine
- Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (Justice Laws)
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