THE PHARMACOLOGY OF AYAHUASCA
Chemical Synergism Mariri/Chacrona:
DMT was produced in the laboratory in 1931. From the beginning, it was discovered that the substance produced intense effects when applied intramuscularly in tiny doses of a few milligrams (on the order of 0.7 mg per kg of weight), but on the other hand was inactive orally even in doses 1,000 times higher. Once its oral inactivity was well established, the need arose to explain how tiny doses of approximately 29 mg of DMT, typically ingested in an Ayahuasca Ceremony, were capable of producing intense effects.
The enzyme Monoamine Oxidase (MAO) is the key to the mystery. This enzyme, physiologically present in the digestive system, has the function of destroying the various monoamines naturally contained in foods in order to protect the various brain functions mediated by neuro-receptors activated by endogenous monoamines. Being a monoamine, DMT is oxidized and decomposed by the MAO enzyme at the intestinal level as soon as it is ingested. But, in the case of the composite Ayahuasca brew, it happens that the other alkaloids present in the potion — the Beta-carbolines brought by the Mariri — reversibly inhibit the intestinal MAO enzyme to the point of preventing the degradation of the accompanying DMT in the digestive area, thus making it available for absorption and penetration into the bloodstream and central nervous system.