[1] Occasionally a component in ayahuasca decoctions, it is used as a folk medicine in some parts of Brazil, often as an antifebrile (anti-fever) remedy.

[4][8] In addition to being used as a febrifuge (anti-fever remedy),[1] bathing in an infusion of the plant is said to combat the evil eye, panemice (a curse or disease where the victim is afflicted by bad luck), headaches, or “thick blood,” and the juice of the plant is used to treat gastritis, stomach ulcer, and skin eruptions.

Some sources[1] reference an early paper by Alfonso Ducke as the source of this claim, but Ducke said that although the plant was used in “popular medicine and sorcery,” he did not know whether it “has any narcotic property.”[11] In 1928, the German botanist Franz Josef Niedenzu, a specialist in the Malpighiaceae, published comments on some specimens housed in the Berlin herbarium.

[6] The Italian missionary Giuseppe Emanuele Castrucci reported in 1854 that he had observed the use of this liana (indicated as supay-guasca) for divinatory purposes through visionary effects within an ethnic group residing at the mouth of the Rio Napo.

Woody vine or climbing shrub 3-15 m high; stems glabrous or slightly sericeous, terete, olive-green to dull brown; pith white and spongy, or absent; interpetiolar ridges present.