Boracherro: The Flower That Charms & Harms

Boracherro is a beautiful decorative tree from Colombia. Its seeds are a powerful deliriant psychedelic with a dark side that sends most psychonauts packing.

Aug 24, 2023

Devil’s Breath, Drunken Binge Plant, and the Borrachero tree — these aren’t just poetic names — they’re chilling monikers for two species of nightshade trees that lurk in city parks and gardens all around Bogota, Colombia.

In stark contrast, the gardening world cherishes a more benign name for this plant — “angel's trumpets” — a name inspired by its enchanting flowers.

But don’t let its alluring appearance fool you — this beautiful plant conceals a more dangerous and sinister side.

The borrachero tree’s powerful psychoactive potential has drawn a lot of young thrill-seekers pursuing mind-altering experiences from this common garden variety.

While this plant certainly has traditional uses, which are steeped in the wisdom of ancient practices — it’s best left in the hands of experienced shamans. It takes many years to develop the skills and experience necessary to navigate this plant’s inherent risks.

Trip reports from psychonauts daring enough to use this plant are almost always nightmarish — sometimes even deadly.

Let’s explore the complicated dualistic nature of the borrachero tree.

Meet The Brugmansia Genus

Brugmansia is a genus of 7 species of shrubs that produce beautiful, ornamental flowers. All 7 species are considered extinct in the wild by the IUCN Red List — but are abundant in cultivation. Brugmansia species are all revered garden varieties for their vibrant colors and large trumpet-shaped flowers.

You can find these trees growing in city parks and gardens in places like Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Spain, Australia, and other regions with tropical climates. These small trees do best in cloud forest environments and can grow at altitudes up to 3000 m (10,000 ft).

The giant flowers of brugmansia come in all sorts of colors — vibrant reds, golden yellows, and pristine whites.

Brugmansia is a member of the nightshade family of plants (Solanaceae) — which makes it related to other psychoactive species such as tobacco, datura, belladonna, and mandrake.

Many species of nightshade contain psychoactive or toxic alkaloids. Even common vegetables in this family contain poisonous elements — such as solanine in potato and eggplant leaves or tomatine in tomato leaves.

The 7 species of Brugmansia include:

Brugmansia arborea
Brugmansia aurea
Brugmansia insignis
Brugmansia sanguinea
Brugmansia suaveolens
Brugmansia versicolor
Brugmansia vulcanicola

The Borrachero Tree (Brugmansia arborea)

The borrachero tree usually refers to a single species — Brugmansia arborea — but some communities also consider Brugmansia sanguinea “borrachero.”

Both species contain similar active ingredients.

Most of the folklore around this plant associates it with the devil. Children are often advised not to fall asleep under the borrachero tree in places like Colombia and Brazil.

This plant is indeed psychoactive — and also very deadly.

Just 50 mg of the active ingredient, scopolamine, is enough to kill a full-grown adult.

Borrachero is closely related to datura and belongs to the deliriant class of drugs. As the name suggests, these compounds cause a person to become delirious and act out their delusions in the real world. Users lose the ability to interface with reality — they see things that aren’t there.

Unlike conventional hallucinogenics like LSD, magic mushrooms, or ayahuasca, people under the effects of deliriants don’t know they’re hallucinating.

Reports of how this manifests can range from eating phantom food or smoking phantom cigarettes to engaging in entire conversations with people who aren’t there.

What Does Borrachero Feel Like?

In a word — terrible. The tropane alkaloids contained within the seeds inhibit the parasympathetic nervous system, causing a dramatic shift in body temperature, vision, vital signs like heart rate and blood pressure, as well as consciousness.

The physical toll of borrachero is far greater than many other drugs.

Borrachero side effects are similar to other anticholinergics like datura, belladonna, diphenhydramine (DPH), and mandrake.

There’s a famous rhyme summarizing the effects of anticholinergic plants like borrachero:

Blind as a bat (blurry/fuzzy vision)
Dry as a bone (dehydrated, especially in the mouth)
Full as a flask (can’t urinate)
Hot as hell (feverish)
Red as a beet (flushing)
Mad as a hatter (delirium)
Tacky as a leisure suit (tachycardic — or having a high heart rate)

For the common psychonaut, tales of intense visuals and hallucinations are enough to sell the experience. However, the dark side of borrachero makes it a poor choice for people looking to experiment. The effects of this plant are rarely fun and often leave lasting psychological damage to people who have used it.

Take it from renowned psychonaut Terrance McKenna, who spoke in his book True Hallucinations. He once said of the closely related plant, datura, that:

It’s very hard to keep control of it. It erodes the core processes of the self so that you lose track of who you are, where you are, and what has happened… I just felt it was telling me that I’m not for it… It was clearly not for me. But then I observed other people. And they didn’t seem to be handling it too well either.

While many people enjoy the feeling of intoxication and altered states of consciousness, delirium is not fun. Your ability to interpret the environment becomes null, and your actions afterward are entirely unpredictable.

The plant also causes intensely realistic hallucinations, which almost always take on a malicious flavor and are notoriously uncomfortable.

Borrachero Risk Reduction

As with all psychedelic drugs, users can cut down a lot of the risk by educating themselves and treating this plant with the respect it deserves. This is not a plant to be used willie-nillie — it’s a sacred plant teacher with a particularly tough lesson to share.

Skilled shamans train to use this plant over many years — taking only small amounts at a time.

While we certainly recommend avoiding this psychoactive plant, there are some ways to minimize the damage and use it responsibly.

Reddit user u/HermesTrismegistus1 published a review on trip reports for a closely related plant, datura. He read through dozens of Erowid posts marked as “trainwreck” experiences and cataloged patterns of use.

In doing so, they made some interesting findings:

At least 96% of users didn’t properly test with smaller dosages beforehand.
75% of the reports came from first-time users.
At least 66% were college-aged or below.
While 64% of cases ended in hospitalization, only 26% seemed to require it.

Finally, the poster casts doubt on some of the reports, which seem to exaggerate or fabricate experiences. Does this mean that borrachero is safe and all of the concern around it is unwarranted?

Almost certainly not.

While it is a drug that some may have approached responsibly and learned to use properly, the very real risks are always present and will forever make it unsafe.

Traditional Use of Borrachero

There’s a rich history of shamanic use of borrachero throughout South America, where the plant likely originated.

One study explored the use of borrachero with shamans in Northern Peru who use the plants for various reasons.

The main uses the shamans mentioned included:

Divination — Either with the San Pedro cactus or alone, this plant was a common tool for seeing the future and deciding fates.
Topical therapeutic use — Depending on the need, a shaman would apply borrachero to different areas of the body.
Initiation – Specifically, initiation of “shamans chosen on the grounds of psychophysical characteristics.”
Curing Sickness — This is often a last-ditch effort since the effects can be serious.
Black magic rituals – Namely, curses.

There are reports of the plant being used as a method of punishment for children. Given the belief that the plant could help the user commune with their ancestors, one has to wonder if the intent was to allow the great patriarchs of the past to scold the children.

How Does Borrachero Work?

Currently, research has uncovered 59 alkaloids, 50 volatile compounds, and at least 25 other components of the plant.

The main alkaloids responsible for the characteristic effects of this plant are scopolamine, atropine, and hyoscyamine — all of them tropane alkaloids identical to those found in datura, mandrake, and belladonna.

Scopolamine, atropine, and hyoscyamine may have applications in medicine, but only in very small doses. All of these alkaloids cause delirium and death in high enough doses.

Let’s dive into each of these a bit further:

1. Scopolamine

The World Health Organization has scopolamine on its list of essential medicines thanks to its anti-nausea effects. It’s been around for a long time, and this has been one of the largest uses of the drug.

Scopolamine is a drug with limits; overdose is possible and has happened many times before. It’s important to make sure you don’t overdo it.

One of the most concerning effects of scopolamine is its ability to remove one’s sense of free will. In a state of scopolamine intoxication, users become open to suggestability. Thieves are alleged to dose people with the drug and ask them to give up their belongings or pull money out of a nearby ATM. Victims comply without appearing intoxicated.

For the same effect, scopolamine is often used as a date rape drug. The memory loss from scopolamine could be due to its nature as an antagonist — meaning it stops the activity — of the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR).

One of the responsibilities of the mAChR receptor is to help with memory and neuroplasticity. This binding also likely leads to the deliriant effects of the drug, though the exact mechanism for this is yet unknown.

Scopolamine is also an antagonist of the 5-HT₃ receptor, which makes it useful in preventing nausea and vomiting. This is the most common use of the drug, especially after surgery.

2. Atropine

This alkaloid has a place in medicine as well. Physicians often prescribe atropine to decrease saliva production and increase heart rate.

For the most part, the main reason doctors use atropine is to prevent certain types of poisoning.

While it’s not the primary compound in borrachero, it still plays an important role in the plant’s overall effects. Atropine interacts with the same receptors as scopolamine, competing for the spot.

Additionally, like scopolamine, overdosing on this drug can prove fatal. Anytime something increases your heart rate, it’s important to limit how much of it you take — the heart can only beat so fast before it starts taking damage.

3. Hyoscyamine

The primary use of hyoscyamine in a medical context is to treat the symptoms of gastrointestinal tract disorders. Like the others, hyoscyamine is a competitive antagonist of the mAChR receptors, and doctors may use it to treat mild nausea and hyperactive bladder.

As with the others, overdosing on hyoscyamine is fatal.

There’s at least one report of a person using large doses of this drug to terrifying effect.

Borrachero vs. Datura

We’ve mentioned datura a few times throughout this article as a stand-in for borrachero, and it’s important to note how similar these two plants are. They have many of the same alkaloids; both operate as deliriants and are toxic in large amounts, and both feature distinct trumpet-shaped leaves.

The main physical differentiator of these plants is the placement of their flowers. Borrachero flowers droop downward, while datura flowers point up.

The subjective experiences of both plants are nearly identical. Much of the language describing the differences between these plants relies on the description of “feelings” rather than experiences.

Specifically, many reports claim that the “feeling” from borrachero is more intense or violent.

The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants by Christian Rätsch lists borrachero as more toxic — but this hasn’t been confirmed. Both plants vary widely in alkaloid content depending on growing conditions, the time of the year, and various other factors. Some samples are very strong; others are weak — it’s difficult to compare which is more dangerous because of this phenomenon.