Chilean Holly (Desfontainia spinosa) is an evergreen shrub native to South America. Its leaves look similar to common holly and it has orange, trumpet-like flowers.
Chilean Holly contains spinosides which are cytotoxic chemicals (toxic to cells) and can cause confusion and death if enough is consumed. Little else it known of its chemical constituents.
Despite its toxic attributes, the plant is sometimes employed by shamans or medicine men to induce altered states of perception, to induce visions and diagnose illness. A strong tea is brewed and drunk while smoking a cigar filled with leaves. It is said that one can truly go crazy with this plant, much like with Datura, another powerful plant medicine.
Sometimes chicha (an alcoholic beverage) is brewed from the fruit of Chilean Holly. It is also used as an Ayahuasca admixture which is a DMT containing, medicinal brew.
It is not widely used due to its dangers and the fact that its not cultivated so must be harvested from wild growing plants.
There is not a whole lot of information about this plant. There are accounts of travelers attempting to learn about the traditional use from shamans of native communities but the shamans were not willing to speak of it. Perhaps this is because it is a plant for psychonautic professionals, not for experimentation or for casual ingestion.
Personal Experience with Chilean Holly
I've yet to make a tea from Desfontainia Spinosa but have smoked the leaves on many occasions, usually mixed with tobacco because the smoke is very harsh by itself. To the best of my knowledge, the spinosides are destroyed by high heat. The most notable effects of smoking this plant include a mild, marijuana like high but with no anxiety or other side effects. I feel that my head is cleared of confusion and brain fog, and my mind and vision becomes sharper, cutting through situations with great clarity. My dreams are lucid and meaningful after smoking Chilean holly.
Recently, I made a 15x extract by simmering the leaves in water for about 90 minutes until most of the water was evaporated. I then strained out the leaves and put the remaining few ounces of water into a pyrex glass dish and slowly evaporated the water until a dark brown, sticky resin was left behind. I scraped the resin and dried it in the sun for a day. I smoke this resin on a bowl of tobacco, it has a pleasant taste and strong effect. Yesterday, I was feeling a lot of brain fog for some reason and after smoking a few hits of Chilean holly, I became mentally as sharp as a tack within 60 seconds.
I have a lot of experience with psychedelics and plant medicines in general so I trust my judgement in smoking Chilean Holly. I don't know if I'll ever drink the tea since I have access to other medicinal plants that are not dangerous. That being said, this article is not a recommendation and is for informational purposes. If you decide to work with Chilean Holly in any way, please do in depth research beforehand.
It is interesting to note the use of toxic substances across the world to induce visions or to heal. Some Native American tribes would drink the fresh juice of tobacco leaves and go into temporary comatose, on the verge of death. I suppose visions come to you when you're about to die. Another interesting medicine is Kambo, the poisonous skin secretions of a rainforest tree frog. The secretion is placed on small, shallow, self induced burns and causes one to vomit and defecate for an hour. However, the following days are marked by increased sense of smell, hearing, quick reflexes, relief of pain and healing of deep illness.
Overall, I feel that Chilean holly has its place in my medicine cabinet, used with clear intentions and with caution.