This entry focuses on the 'Ayahuasca brew; for information on the vine of the same name, see Banisteriopsis caapiAyahuasca (ayawaska in the Quechua language) is any of various psychoactive infusions or decoctions prepared from the Banisteriopsis spp. vine, usually mixed with the leaves of the Psychotria bush. It was first described academically in the early 1950s by the late Harvard ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes who found it employed for divinatory and healing purposes by Amerindians of