Culture - Honest to god genuine evidence if ethnobotanicle use of banana peels!

[Potter]

Been reading Tobacco and Shamanism in South America by Johannes Wilbert, and ran across a mention of the use of fucking banana peels as a snuff admixture!!!

There are a number of unsurprising mentions of use of the leaves as a cigar wrap, considering their edibility, size, ease of rolling, this makes sense.

But on page 55 we read

In the very south of the region the Tucuna prepare a snuff mixed with cacao bark ash, bark ash of pau mulato (Capirona sp.), ash of the fruit rind of envira de matamata (Eschweilera coriacea{ A.P. de Candolla} Mart. ex Berg) ash of banana peel, and a yellow lichen (but not with parica) and take it durind female puberty rites.

I know this has nothing to do with with "bananadine" but after years of laughing at people doing all sorts of dumb things with banana peels, I couldn't help but feel this would be appreciated.

I'll be reviewing this book along with a number of others in the review section in the next week. It's a pretty incredible source on the subject, albeit a dry one. Incredibly well researched with almost 80 pages of bibliography. Possibly the only book published with more then 2 pages on pre-colombian tobacco use. A must for your library.