The Duboisia Genus, Australian Aborigines and Suggestibility Marlene Dobkin de Rios, Ph.D: & Ronni Stachalek, M.A:* Abstract-Plant hallucinogens, such as those of the Duboisia genus called pituri, have been used by tribal elders in Australian aboriginal populations to create managed states of consciousness, to provide their youth with a' fast-paced educational experience, and to inculcate values, beliefs and religious tenets. Use of the suggestible states created by such substances (particularly in pubertal initiatory rituals marking the transition to manhood) are part of this process, which contributes to cultural cohesiveness and survival; their effectiveness is due to the unique ability of the biochemical properties of the plant to evoke suggestibility in those who ingest them. This article draws on research about suggestibility as a psychological characteristic of altered states of consciousness as well as a normal human psychological phenomenon, and examines in great detail the use of the pituri plant, deriving data from a 100-item bibliography generated by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra. Botanical/chemical data on use of the Duboisia genus up to the end of the nineteenth century is examined, as well as the way in which this hallucinogen was utilized as a "psychotechnology." Keywords-Australian aborigines, Duboisia genus, hallucinogens, pituri, suggestibility In a recent study by Grob and Dobkin de Rios (1992), biochemical properties of the pituri plant to evoke suggest- it was shown that plant hallucinogens have been used by ibility in those who ingest them made these plants ideal tribal elders to create managed states of consciousness to catalysts of this process. provide their youth with a fast-paced educational experi- This article, drawing on research on suggestibility as a ence where values, beliefs and religious tenets have been psychological characteristic of altered states of conscious- inculcated. One of the societies that exemplified this pro- ness as well as a normal human psychological phenomenon, cess is the Australian aborigines of the central desert region. examines in great detail the use of the plant pituri (various In sharp distinction from their often irreverent and danger- Duboisia genus) among Australian aborigines. Thanks to ous use in contemporary society, plant hallucinogens the good offices of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal -particularly the pituri plant-were utilized by Australian and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra, a bibliogra- aborigines within a ritualized, sacrosanct, socially-sanctioned phy of over 100 items was available to aid in reconstructing context with the intent to contribute to group cohesiveness the use of this powerful hallucinogen as an agent of sug- and survival, particularly in pubertal initiatory rituals mark- gestibility in adolescent male initiation rituals. These rituals, ing the transition to manhood. The unique ability of the to be described shortly, are connected to austerities that include genital surgeries (circumcision and subincision) *Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California, Irvine. during which time the pituri plant was utilized as an anes- *·Department of Biology, California State University, Fullerton. thetic. Please send correspondence and reprint requests to Marlene Dobkin In this article, the authors examine the botanical! de Rios, Ph.D., 2555 East Chapman Avenue, Suite 407, Fullerton, California 92831. chemical data on the Duboisia genus as used by native Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 155 Voume 31 (2), April - June 1999 Dobkin de Rios & Stachalek Duboisia Genus, Australian Aborigines and Suggestibility peoples of Australia up to the end of the nineteenth BOTANYANDCHEMISTRY OF PITURI century; summarize very briefly the data on hallucinogens and suggestibility; and finally, suggest the way in Duboisia belong to the plant family Solanaceae. Plants which this powerful plant hallucinogen was utilized as a of the Duboisia genera contain tropane alkaloids (Cronquist "psychotechnology" (see Tart 1985) to manage youthful 1981) which are often associated with medicinal, halluci- altered states of consciousness didactically to inculcate con- nogenic and poisonous uses. The D. hopwoodii is a formity and adherence to group norms in order to aid in the three-to-four meter tall shrub bearing attractive flowers and survival of the social polity. Elders assumed a major role in berry fruits.It is distributed in the arid regions of all main- managing and regulating the induction of hallucinogenic land Australian states except Victoria. The tropane alkaloids experiences in adolescents to facilitate optimally construc- in D. myoporides and D. lechihardtii vary in the types and tive outcomes. amounts produced; these variances depend on geographi- cal source, time of collection and different raceslhybrids. DISTRIBUTION OF DUBOISIA GENUS The primary alkaloids are hyoscine (a levorotatory form of scopolamine), hyoscamine and norhyoscyamine (Evans There are three species of Duboisia in Australia: D. & Peterson 1979). Their effects on the body are depres- myoporides (corkwood), D. leichhardtii, and D. hopwoodsii. sion, immunity to pain and altered states of consciousness. The first has a natural distribution along Australia's eastern Hyoscine was widely used as a childbirth anesthesia in coastal region. The second was found at higher elevations North America until the 1940s. of Queensland, particularly the southeast and the Mulligan- There are differences in the alkaloid content of the Georgiana Rivers areas. D. hopwoodii was found in central plants from different areas. The most commonly traded and western Australia (Griffin 1985). The Duboisia genus pituri had nicotine as its main alkaloid, while plants from was one of the few alkaloid-bearing plants used by the . other areas were high in the more toxic compound aborigines. nornicotine (Low 1987). Pituri was used from the northeastern boundaries of There is a genetic/environmental relationship to the the Simpson Desert of West Queensland and traded over a alkaloids produced in the plant. Although hyoscine and region of 500,000 sq. km., passing along trade routes run- hyoscamine are present together, the proportions of each ning south to Lake Eyre, north to Cloncurry and West into can be manipulated based on the particular plant and envi- the Northern territory. Birket-Smith (1957) delineated trade ronmental conditions to which it is exposed (Hills 1948). routes that linked tribes who traded pituri; they ran from Aborigines favored D. hopwoodii from certain locations the east coast through grasslands down the Diamantina and over those of others. Cooper Creek Rivers to the country around Lake Eyre, and The leaves and the ends of stems were used, and the on to the south coast. Routes from Arnheim Land and Kim- ash of an acacia bush called wirra was added to activate berly to the southwest part of Australia detoured around the the tropane alkaloids (Bonython 1971).Finely ground dried interior deserts. These trade routes (to be discussed under leaves and stems were mixed with wood ash. The ash binds native use) were very important in the redistribution of the with the nicotine and increases its absorption through cel- plant throughout the country. Not all of the plants, how- lular membranes in the mouth when the mixture is chewed. ever, were believed fit for human consumption (Watson, The harvested leaves and young stems were dried by Luanratana & Griffin 1983). pituri clans at intertribal feasts. The rights to process the Different tribes would go on joint expeditions of up to pituri had a totemic basis, involving the same pituri clans 450 km. to gather the D. hopwoodii from the MuIIigan- that comprised the pituri expeditions (Aiston 1937). Georgina Rivers area. According to Griffin (1985), the pituri Details of drying process and temperature and time were located in this area and traded among different hunter/ part of a sacred ritual knowledge possessed by older men. gatherer tribes was the preferred species for human use and It was said that pituri empowered people. The plant was most likely had nicotine as the predominant alkaloid. not harvested until the tribal elders said that the fires were Unlike the two other genera, it was low in nornicotine. burning at an appropriate level, to minimize the loss of Birdsville on the Diamantina River was once a big pituri alkaloids due to halted enzyme action after the material market, and people traveled as far as 650 km. to reach the was picked. market (Low 1989). Many pituri-gathering tribes shared a There was a pituri clan hierarchy in relationship to totemic (mythical) hero who established the route that the the preparation of the plant in the Lake Eyre district. Mem- expedition would take (Watson, Luanratana & Griffin 1983). bership in a pituri clan was by birth, and preparation of the Johnston and Cleland (1933a) indicated that there were pituri was limited to men only. The term pituri was used 19different spellings of the word pituri, since the p/b and dI for the names of members of the pituri patrilineal totemic t are allophonic in native languages. After pituri, a second cult clan. Men and women went to the area where the plant common usage was pitcherie, meaning good, which grew, but only old men with gray beards gathered the pituri expressed the natives' beliefs in its excellent qualities. and prepared it for use; this changed in the 1890s when Journal vi Psychoactive Drugs 156 Volume 31 (2). April - June I999 Dobkin de Rios & Stachalek Duboisia Genus, Australian Aborigines and Suggestibility (after contact with pastoralists and as the result of a degra- direct information is available, and much of the present dation of traditional lifestyle ) plant materials were sun dried data has been reconstructed from botanists' reports in the by women. In the old days, younger men and women late nineteenth and early twentieth century. remained at the water supply and made dilly bags and found The first missionaries reached Lake Hope near Coo- food, while the old men camped near the trees and made per Creek in 1866 searching for the Dieri tribe, containing large fires.