This is a literal repost from my blog ( go there if you want to see the pictures )

"An anthropologist reported to me that Brazilian quilombolas, probably located in the state of Santa Catarina, are smoking Zanthoxylum sp. rootbark ( the species in the picture ). They do this so that they can obtain mild hallucinogenic effects.

He told me that they take young plants off the ground entirely, and then proceed to smoke their rootbark.

DMT has already been detected in the leaves of Zanthoxylum arborescens. Now, it seems that maybe a blend of DMT and other alkaloids is also present in the rootbark of such Zanthoxylum plants.

EDIT: After this post got published in social media, some people are questioning its authencity, as it was published by some random WordPress blogger. Therefore, I’ll just copy and paste the answer I gave to one of these people below.

I’m neither trolling nor trying to get people read my blog; this would be pointless, as most of you can’t even understand what’s written in the blog in the first place ( it’s almost entirely written in Portuguese ). I have posted this information in my blog instead of something such as a pastebin so that people can contact me through the comments.

This information is real and it was published in a Facebook community called “Identificação de Plantas”. The anthropologist was asking people precisely what kind of Zanthoxylum is this ( it turns out it’s probably Zanthoxylum procerum ) as he saw that quilombolas in his local area were smoking its rootbark and reporting mild hallucinogenic effects.

I’m not the anthropologist in question, and there aren’t any academic papers published about Zanthoxylum sp. usage among such communities yet, as this person is probably one of the few hundred people in the planet who even know these quilombolas are smoking this plant’s root material.

I’m publishing this information so that, in case the said anthropologist chooses to not officially publish his findings in the near future, the world public won’t be deprived from accessing this information, and therefore, research can be resumed later on by someone else, elsewhere in the planet. There’s a certain likelihood that he won’t publish this data, or that it won’t become very widely known, as psychedelic research is still a taboo subject among most of the Brazilian academia.

I hope this post was enough to clarify the matter and my intentions in posting it here."

Please post original portugese post; I have a friend in Brazil who could translate it for us.

There's a picture of the original post in the blog post now ( I've updated it ).

But if you're talking about the article I've posted, it was originally written in English.

I'm also Brazilian myself.

Would there be any means of collecting some of these special species' seeds to spread around the western world?

I think I'd be more viable to simply perform acid-base tests on the rootbark of other suspect Zanthoxylum sp. species so as to see if there are any psychoactive alkaloids in them.

Zanthoxylum trees are spread all over the world, so you can test whatever is more acessible to you.

Zanthoxylum arborescens is highly suspect as DMT was already detected in its leaves.

But if you know somebody in Brazil, getting Zanthoxylum rhoifolium seeds will be very easy, as it can grow very fast almost anywhere in the country. Just tell him you want "mamica de cadela" seeds.

I'm not suggesting you actually smoke this, I'm suggesting you test it for the compounds. I don't know about you but I wouldn't smoke a plant nobody knew until a couple of days ago.

Are you familiar with Sharetheseeds.me ? It's a forum dedicated to sharing seeds of all ships, shapes and sizes all around the world. If possible, I would appreciate it if you may be able to source some out locally and share it via that forum; such a method of approach would be a breakthrough move towards enhancing our collective knowledge of cultivation and cultural use of this plant. I would humbly request that you (as well as any other Brazilian/South American members with access to these plants) may consider and/or take the initiative to share those seeds from sea to shining sea, such that our collective knowledge of this obscure family of novel entheogens may be better explored/cultivated at an exponential rate. Remember: Science isn't about why--it's about WHY NOT!?!?

Are samples hard to obtain?

The best bet would be to soak bark samples in various volatile solvents and then proceed to inject each into a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry system.

-eg

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18855734
Chemistry and pharmacology of collinin, active principle of Zanthoxylum spp.
Epifano F1, Genovese S, Marcotullio MC, Curini M.

Is this related?

-eg

Ok, so it's Zanthoxylum rhoifolium root bark specifically...

http://www.scielo.br/sci...=S0100-40422012001100013
Alkaloids of root barks of Zanthoxylum spp
Sandra Virgínia Alves HohlemwergerI; Edijane Matos SalesI; Rafael dos Santos CostaI; Eudes da Silva VelozoI,*; Maria Lenise da Silva GuedesII
IDepartamento do Medicamento, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Rua Barão de Jeremoabo, s/n, 40170-115 Salvador - BA, Brasil
IIHerbário Alexandre Leal Costa, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Rua Barão de Jeremoabo, s/n, 40170-115 Salvador - BA, Brasil

---

Misc. Information




http://www.academicjourn...32883_Negi%20et%20al.pdf
This PDF was pretty good...



-eg

Use scihub to bypass this paywall.

No psychoactive effects were reported for collinin.

Maybe they actually found psychoactive compounds but didn't report them because they were rather interested in the way this rootbark is used in traditional medicine.

Or maybe they didn't find them at all as they weren't specifically looking for them.

collinin



i.e. not an alkaloid, although it is related to scopoletin and scoparone - the latter of which has been found to be a vasodilator and immunosurpressant. Of course, herbalists among us may be familiar with several other species of Zanthoxylum, namely Z. americanum, Prickly Ash, which has notable vasodilatory properties and Z. simulans and Z. bungeanum, which are known as Sichuan pepper. If you've tasted Sichuan pepper you'll know that it has noticeable local anaesthetic properties.

The head space obtainable from prickly ash bark (as a tea) is kind of interesting but in no way psychedelic despite feeling rather like the very beginnings of a mushroom trip when there is a sensation of opening up.

I've often wondered if there might be a frost-hardy species of Zanthoxylum which might yield alkaloids of interest somehow but only ever got as far as picking through my Sichuan pepper to see if any viable seeds were present (they weren't).

incredible asdroeido! thank you.

Prickly Ash/Toothache Tree is located all over the U.S. and looks similar,
and i would imagine has similar properties.. Picture of Prickly Ash tree..

There are at least two websites selling Zanthoxylum rhoifolium seeds in Brazil:

http://ibflorestas.org.b...nte-mamica-de-porca.html

Contact form:: http://ibflorestas.org.br/loja/contacts/

https://www.clickmudas.c...thoxylum-rhoifolium.html

Contact form: http://www.clickmudas.com.br/contacts/

You could also just join Brazilian seed exchange groups on Facebook and ask for a donation to be sent overseas.

This plant is everywhere in this country, it's almost impossible you won't find someone who has them.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/147406102274140/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/troca.de.sementes/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/198079200525056/

You don't necessarily have to write a Portuguese request; if you communicate in plain English, they will find out a way to understand what you're saying. Most Brazilians have enough of a grasp of the English language to understand a simple seed request.

And of course, you don't necessarily have to mention in your request that is plant is a "suspect hallucinogen".

For those searching the literature, or thinking of doing so, be aware that very occasionally this genus is spelt "Xanthoxylum". (I never did get why it was spelt with a "z" in the first place!)

Zanthoxylum arborescens, chemically is the most interesting of the Zanthoxylums.

Though Basic Principles of Forensic Chemistry
By JaVed I. Khan, Thomas J. Kennedy, Donnell R. Christian, Jr.
Cites Zanthoxylum procerum and Zanthoxylum arborescens as containing DMT in its leaf

So, Zanthoxylum procerum and Zanthoxylum arborescens both contain DMT.

Zanthoxylum arborescens


-eg

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jo00134a027
Interesting post from 1982 journal of organic chemistry describing the DMT content of the leaves, and of the mystery alks found as well.
I applaud all efforts in maintaining existing resources sustainably, and finding new ones..

Thanks for this info, it made my day!
Of course, as some of you are discovering through the web, Zanthoxylums are loaded with various alkaloids, and of those which have been analysed (a lot of species!) indoles don't show up much, and even when they do, they are (with arborescens and procerum) accompanied by a host of other alkaloids which may not be as desirable. Quinolines and phenethylamines are rather more common in the genus. It may be premature to assume that whatever activity this plant has, is due to DMT, or DMT alone.

A depiction of a few of the compounds commonly found in Zanthoxylum species:
(I'll post more when I have the time, as there are many more...)

-eg

what % concentration are the alkaloids in the plant?

Chemical constituents and biological activities of the genus Zanthoxylum

http://www.academicjourn...32883_Negi%20et%20al.pdf

This PDF should answer your questions.

-eg