Journal of Ethnopharmacology,
12 (1984) 331-333
Elsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd
Short Communication
E.B. Britton
27 Galway Place, Deakin, Canberra ACT 2600 (Australia)
(Accepted August 28, 1984)
The purpose of this note is to draw attention to
a long forgotten observa-
tion which points to the existence of a new hallucinogen, unique in
that its
source is an insect.
Augustin de Saint-Hilaire (1779-1853) travelled
extensively in eastern
Brazil between 1816 and 1823 and after his return to France published
valuable observations on the geography, ethnology and natural history
of the
country. In two of his unpublished works Saint-Hilaire (1824, republished
Jenkins, 1946, p. 49; 1830, pp. 432-433) described the use of an insect
as
food and medicine by the Malalis, natives in the Brazilian province
of Minas
Gerais.
The relevant passage (1824) (translated) is
as follows:
When I was among the Malalis, in the province of Mines,
they spoke much of a grub
which they regarded as a delicious food, and which is
called bicho de tacuara (bamboo-
worm), because it is found in the stems of bamboos, but
only when these bear flowers.
Some Portugese who have lived among the Indians value
these worms no less than the
natives themselves; they melt them on the fire, forming
them into an oily mass, and
so preserve them for use in the preparation of food.
The Malalis consider the head of
the bicho de tacuara as a dangerous poison; but
all agree in saying that this creature,
dried and reduced to powder constitutes a powerful vulnerary
(for the healing of
wounds). If one is to believe these Indians and the Portugese
themselves it is not only
for this use that the former preserve the bicho de
tacuara . When strong emotion makes
them sleepless, they swallow, they say, one of these
worms dried, without the head
but with the intestinal tube; and then they fall into
a kind of ecstatic sleep, which often
lasts more than a day, and similar to that experienced
by the Orientals when they take
opium in excess. They tell, on awakening, of marvellous
dreams; they saw splendid
forests, they ate delicious fruits, they killed without
difficulty the most choice game;
but these Malalis add that they take care to indulge
only rarely in this debilitating
kind of pleasure. I saw them only with the bicho de
tacuara dried and without heads;
but during a botanical trip that I made to Saint-Francois
with my Botocudo, this
young man found a great many of these grubs in flowering
bamboos, and set about
eating them in my presence. He broke open the creature
and carefully removed the
head and intestinal tube, and sucked out the soft whitish
substance which re-
mained in the skin. In spite of my repugnance, I followed
the example of the young
savage, and found, in this strange food, an extremely
agreeable flavour which recalled
that of the most delicate cream.
If then, as I can hardly
doubt, the account of the Malalis is true, the narcotic
property of the bicho de tacuara resides
solely in the intestinal tube, since the sur-
rounding fat produces no ill effect. Be that as it may,
I submitted to M. Latreille the
description of the animal I had made, and this learned
entomologist recognised
it as a caterpillar probably belonging to the genus 'Cossus'
or to the genus 'Hepiale'.
These observations
are repeated in Saint-Hilaire (1839, pp. 432-433) with
the addition of the information that the "bicho de taquara" are half
as long
as the index finger.
The intoxicating
effect of the larvae from bamboo has apparently been
forgotten in Brazil and the seven volume Handbook of South American
Indians (Steward, 1946-1959) while referring briefly to the observation
of
Saint-Hilaire in Vol. 5 (p. 557) gives no additional references. This
is perhaps
not surprising as the Malalis were a near-coastal tribe long ago overrun
by the
advance of civilisation. The name "bicho de taquara" is, however, still
in use
and according to Ihering (1932, p. 236) and Costa Lima (1936, p. 266;
1967, p. 246) refers to the larva of the moth Myelobia (Morpheis)
smerintha
Huebner (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae : Crambinae).
Costa Lima (1967, p. 246) states that the
larvae feed in common bamboos
including Nastes (=Nastus) barbatus Trin., "taquara lixa" (Merostachys
Rideliana Rupr.), "taquara poca" (Merostachys Neesii Rupr.)
and "taquaras-
su" (Guadua sp.) (Hoehne, F.C. et al.). The larvae feed inside
the internodes
of the bamboo and attain a maximum length of about 10 cm. The moth
emerges in September and has frequently appeared in plague proportions.
There are 24 species of Myelobia in South America, one
in Mexico and one
in Guatemala. The statement by Saint-Hilaire that the larvae are only
found
when the bamboo is in flower probably means that the host bamboos flower
annually (as do a number of Brazilian species) and it is at that time
that the
larvae reach their maximum size. As the adult moth emerges in September
this is probably in July or August.
It appears from the observations of Saint-Hilaire
that the active substance
is not destroyed by drying, and the need to remove the head and gut
to
avoid intoxication suggests that it is contained in the salivary glands.
The
active material could therefore be concentrated initially by removing
the
head plus salivary glands and part of the gut, discarding the rest
of the body.
In view of the interest in the pharmacology of hallucinogens
and the
medicinal use of the dried and powdered larvae it would seem to be
woth-
while to investigate what appears to be a new source, and as the insect
is
large and common it would be well suited to biochemical study. It is
of
particular interest that this would be the first hallucinogen of insect
origin.