This species was described by Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin in 1760, who provided additional data in 1763.

[citation needed] Additionally, it is often used in preparation of ayahuasca, a South American psychoactive brew.

[citation needed] As regards other applications, it is noted for its pleasant smell and as a source of coumarin, which it produces in plenty, and which in combination with umbelliferone is responsible for many of its notable properties.

stenophylla might also be hallucinogenic in certain preparations; it is known to wajacas (shamans) of the Krahô tribe in Brazil, who know that variety as mashi-hiri and consider it a potent entheogen, not to be taken by the uninitiated.

[4][5] The wajacas (shamans) refer to the leaves of the Dianthera pectoralis var.