Food A sweetened drink is made from the bark.
Tannin ''A. colubrina's''
tannin is used in industry to process animal hides. It is also believed that the ground beans were used as a snuff by the
Tiwanaku. There have been reports of active use of vilca by
Wichi shamans, under the name
hatáj. Between 2013 and 2017,
archaeological excavations at the Quilcapampa site in
southern Peru, found that the
Wari used seeds from the vilca tree and combined the hallucinogenic drug with
chicha, or
beer made from the
molle tree.
Archaeological evidence shows
Anadenanthera colubrina beans have been used as hallucinogens for thousands of years. The oldest clear evidence of use comes from pipes made of
puma bone (
Felis concolor) found with
A. colubrina beans at Inca Cueva, a site in the
Humahuaca gorge at the edge of the
Puna of
Jujuy Province, Argentina. The pipes were found to contain the hallucinogen DMT, one of the compounds found in
Anadenanthera beans.
Radiocarbon testing of the material gave a date of 2130 BC, suggesting that
Anadenanthera use as a hallucinogen is over 4,000 years old.
Snuff trays and tubes were found in the central Peruvian coast dating back to 1200 BC. Archaeological evidence of insufflation use within the period 500-1000 AD, in northern Chile, has been reported.
Traditional medicine . The tree's bark is the most common part used medicinally.
Wood In northeastern
Brazil, the tree is primarily used as
timber and for making wooden implements. "It is used in construction and for making door and
window frames,
barrels, mooring masts,
hedges, platforms, floors, agricultural implements and railway sleepers." The wood is also reportedly a preferred source of
cooking fuel, since it makes a hot and long-lasting fire. It is widely used there in the making of fences, since
termites seem not to like it. At one time, it was used in the construction of
houses, but people are finding it more difficult to find suitable trees for that purpose. == Chemical compounds ==