FAMILY :: CONVOLVULACEAE
$200 pesos
OLOLIUHQUI, COAXIHUITL, XTABENTÚN: A perennial, tender (keep from freezing), rapidly growing vine with many small (1-2″ long) white trumpet flowers and dark green heart-shaped leaves.
A strained cold water infusion of 60-100 ground seeds was used by Oaxacan shamans to induce hallucinations. Be aware, though, that in 1620 the Catholic Church declared the use of Ololiuhqui to be heresy and ordered all known plants destroyed (God only knows where I found these specimens).
“The Indians grind the seeds on the metate (grinding stone) until they are reduced to flour. Then the flour is soaked in cold water, and after a short time the liquor is passed through a cloth strainer and drunk. If taken whole, the seeds give no result, or even if they are cracked. They must be ground to flour and then the flour soaked briefly in water.” ~ R. Gordon Wasson
Likes warmth, moisture, sun and rich soil. Grows quickly in the right situation (grows well in Vallarta).
Medicinally, the seeds were used as ecbolics and uterine hemostatics because of their high content of ergot-like alkaloids.
XTABENTÚN is the Mayan name for T. corymbosa and the name of a commercially available liqueur in Mexico distilled from fermented honey made by bees from the flowers of this plant.
This plant has been previously classified botanically as Rivea corymbosa and Ipomoea sidafolia.
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