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The ritual ceremony of purgahuasca - November 2019

The ritual ceremony of purgahuasca is one of the therapeutic procedures from the traditional medicine of the Awajún ethnic group that was included in the therapeutic protocol of the Takiwasi Center, thanks to the teachings provided by the master healer Walter Cuñachi. Purgahuasca is a little concentrated ayahuasca preparation that is taken as in a purge session. This preparation mainly has a great vomitive effect, with secondary visionary or teaching effects. In the Awajún tradition, purgahuasca is an initiation ritual, so that through this means young people can discover their vocation and know the way to follow in their adult lives. More information: Drug addiction treatment by the traditional medicine of the Awajún tribe.

Author : Gary Saucedo, Fabio Friso

Audio : Spanish

Subtitle : English, Français, Italiano

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Cat’s Claw – From the forest to the world - November 2019

Takiwasi Laboratory has been working since 2011 with Chirik Sacha native community located in the Peruvian Amazonian region of San Martin to formalize the commercial use of Cat’s Claw. Cat’s Claw (Uncaria tormentosa) is one of the most studied Amazonian medicinal plant in the world. Thanks to these studies we were able to understand the biological mechanisms that lie beneath the many properties that Amazonian inhabitants have identified in this plant since ancient times. Cat’s Claw stimulates and strengthens the immune system, it’s an adjuvant in treatments for aids, cancer and autoimmune diseases, it’s an anti-inflammatory for joints and effective against arthritis, arthrosis, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. After several years of legal procedures, and with the support of National Forest Authority, Serfor, in November 2018 the Cat’s Claw forest management plan has been officially approved. This will give to the Chirik Sacha native community the chance of generating a new source of economic income through the responsible use of the Cat’s Claw trees and at the same time conserving its communal forest. Surprisingly, it is also a great achievement for the country as whole, as it is the first exploitation license of a non-timber forest medicinal resource in the entire Peruvian Amazon.

Author : Lenin Quevedo

Audio : English

Subtitle : Español, Francés

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The Forest of the Nuwas - October 2019

The Nuwas Forest is a successful example of a process involving recovering biodiversity and ancestral knowledge. With the help of Indecopi and Takiwasi Laboratory, and the financial support of Conservation International, the Nuwas (women) of the native Awajún community of Shampuyacu, in the Peruvian Amazon, have managed to identify and register 110 species of medicinal and aromatic plants. Since 2015, the Nuwas, with the help of Takiwasi technicians, specifically investigate which plants could be used to be marketed as infusions. The infusions, registered under the brand “Nuwa” and owned by the community, are based on clavo huasca and ginger, combined with aguaymanto, cocoa husk and vanilla. They have already been presented at some local fairs such as ExpoAmazonica in Iquitos, and will be released for commercial sale in 2020.

Author : Oscar Miranada & Andrés Merino

Audio : Spanish

Subtitle : English, Français, Italiano

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Retreat/Diet Testimonial - Eugenio - October 2019

In his testimonial about the retreat/diet in Takiwasi, Eugenio tells us that diet is one of those experiences that marks a before and after. This process allows to find in the plants some travel fellows that provide particular characteristics such as sensitivity, emotions and firmness, useful to walk the path of life.
More testimonials about the retreat/diet: Testimonials.

Author : Gary Saucedo, Fabio Friso

Audio : Spanish

Subtitle : English, Français, Italiano

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Forest management plan of Cat’s claw - October 2019

Cat's claw (Uncaria tormentosa) is one of the best-known Amazonian medicinal plants. It stimulates and strengthens the immune system, it is an adjuvant in treatments for AIDS, cancer and autoimmune diseases, it is an anti-inflammatory and effective against arthritis, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The Takiwasi Laboratory has been working since 2011 with the native community of Chirik Sacha, located in the Amazon region of San Martín, to formalize the sustainable use of Cat's Claw through a forest management plan approved by Serfor. The work of Takiwasi Laboratory is oriented to guarantee the integral quality of the product, which goes from taking care of the quality of the raw material to the protection of the ecosystems where Cat's Claw grows, and in this way invite customers to participate in the conservation of the Amazon rainforest through their responsible consumption.

Author : Lenin Quevedo

Audio : Spanish

Subtitle : English

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The Voice of Intelligence in the Ayahuasca session - September 2019

Lecture by Jacques Mabit, MD, during the workshop "Local Knowledge and Traditional Medicine", VI International Book Fair of Cusco, September 4, 2019. During the Ayahuasca sessions, the person that drinks this medicine comes into contact with an intelligence that communicates with him/her and provides information as a teaching. After the ayahuasca ceremony, it is very common to listen participants say "Ayahuasca told me this or that thing", "I was told or shown or taught this or that thing", etc. In this short presentation, we would like to draw a synthetic profile of this Voice or rather Intelligence that expresses dialogically with the people that drink Ayahuasca. Link to the full text of the intervention: The Voice of Intelligence in the Ayahuasca session.

Author : Antropología & Cultura

Audio : Spanish

Subtitle : English

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Retreat/Diet Testimonial - Sasaba - August 2019

Sasaba Zazopoulos is a clinical psychologist and yoga teacher. After having gone through a grieving process she approached the world of medicinal plants and found Takiwasi where she volunteered for some months and participated in several sessions with plants, including a retreat/diet. In this testimony we can appreciate some of her considerations on the therapeutic work carried out thanks to the master plants taken according to the ritual practices of traditional Amazonian medicine as applied in Takiwasi. Among the most important features Sasaba points out the intention and attitude that one must have when working with plants, the importance of the post-diet process and the integration facilitated by the accompaniment of therapists and the tangible benefits that have to do with a profound change in each of us, especially in the way we relate to ourselves, and how this change can be perceived directly also by the family and social environment.

Author : Gary Saucedo, Fabio Friso

Audio : Spanish

Subtitle : English, Français, Italiano, Ελληνικά, Português

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Traditional Amazonian medicine, ayahuasca, medicinal plants and shamanic practices - July 2019

Reflections by Matteo Politi, pharmaceutical chemist, and Giorgia Tresca, anthropologist, after attending the World Ayahuasca Conference 2019. An overview on traditional Amazonian medicine and the cosmology that characterizes and permeates this region where shamans have used extraordinary natural healing techniques for millennia.

Author : Olos Life

Audio : Italian

Subtitle : -

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Master Plants: Chiric Sanango - June 2019

Chiric Sanango is a teacher plant known among Amazonian healers for its ability to "eliminate the cold". The name comes from the Quechua word chiri which means cold. Chiric Sanango helps fight physical cold such as rheumatism, arthritis, and also emotional cold, such as fear, shyness, introversion, lack of confidence, frozen emotions, allowing to open up emotionally. It also helps coping grieving processes and it increases self-confidence.

Author : Fabio Friso

Audio : Spanish

Subtitle : English, Français, Italiano, Português

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Ayahuasca and beyond: herbal traditional Amazonian medicine for human therapy and planetary health - June 2019

Matteo Politi, pharmacologist and Scientific Director of Takiwasi, participated at the third World Ayahuasca Conference organized by Iceers, with an oral presentation analyzing the dangers of trying to transform Ayahuasca in an evidence-based medicine that has to fit into laboratory standards.

Author : Iceers

Audio : English

Subtitle : -

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