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Summary/Abstract

The latest findings from the Beckley/Sant Pau Research Program.
Scientists find that Ayahuasca, a hallucinogen from the Amazon, stimulates the birth of new brain cells.

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Our collaborator Dr Jordi Riba presented these ground-breaking results at the Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelics Research last week in Amsterdam.  The results are, as yet, unpublished but you can have a sneak peak at the slides from Jordi Riba’s presentation here.

The study was conducted within the framework of the Beckley/Sant Pau Research Programme and in collaboration with the Spanish National Research Council. In the study participated the following researchers from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC): Jose Morales-García, María Isabel Rodriguez-Franco, Ana Pérez-Castillo and Mario de la Fuente Revenga. They found that harmine and tetrahydroharmine, the alkaloids present in highest amounts in ayahuasca, stimulate the growth and maturation of neurons and promote their birth from the stem cells.

For a long time, a dogma has persisted that no new neurons are born in the brains of adults. Since the late 1990’s, this dated paradigm has been challenged by experimental evidence. The birth of new neurons, known as neurogenesis, occurs in two brain areas: around the ventricles and in a region of the hippocampus. The hippocampus plays a key role in important cognitive tasks such as learning and memory. Its function declines with the normal aging process, but does so much more dramatically in the presence of certain devastating neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.

This is the first study ever conducted that demonstrates that components of the Ayahuasca brew have potent neurogenic properties.  Although the results are preliminary, they show that the addition of harmine and tetrahydroharmine to cell cultures containing neural stem cells dramatically increased their differentiation, and their maturation into neurons.

We are currently conducting additional experiments to discern the magnitude of the observed effects, as well as undertaking studies on live animals.

The replication of the present findings in vivo would open a totally new avenue of research for ayahuasca and its active principles. Potential applications would range fromtreating neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders, to redressing brain damage associated with stroke or trauma.

Watch the space for latest updates on the progress of this study.

Amanda Feilding - Director of the Beckley Foundation and Co-director with Jordi Riba, of the Beckley/Sant Pau Research Programme