Tryptamine derivatives are simple indole alkaloids widely present in biota. N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) (Fig. 1) was first synthesized in 1931, and was isolated from Mimosa tenuiflora by Oswaldo Gonçalves de Lima in 1942 [1]. Its hallucinogenic properties were confirmed in 1956. It can be found in a wide range of plants, as well as in the human body [2,3].
Species of the Mimosoideae, a botanical subfamily of the Fabaceae family, are found in northeast Brazil, where some of these plants are known as “jurema”. M. tenuiflora (Willd.) Poiret or “jurema-preta” (black jurema) is used as the main ingredient in “vinho da jurema” (jurema wine), since its inner barks of stems and roots are rich in DMT. The drink has indigenous origins, and is used in the rituals of several religious groups and neo-shamanic cults, due to the intermin- gling of Amerindian, African and European cultures [4,5]. Jurema wine, made from the inner bark of M. tenuiflora with addition of Peganum