I’ve worked with many different types of Rapé / Rapeh, but I’ve had a number of dreams about Tsunu rapeh / rapé. This is the type of rapeh that my guides usually recommend to our health coaching clients. In fact, there are many types of rapé, but this is the one that a lot of people need to work with right now in the modern, Western world.
The Tsunu tree (also known as Platycyamus regnellii or Pau Pereira) is a plant that’s used in Amazonian medicine by indigenous communities that live in the rainforest. Each dose contains a tiny amount of Mapacho (a pure form of tobacco) in addition to ashes from the Tsunu tree. It is administered by blowing a very minute dose of it up inside the nose and onto the nasal bulb.
Mapacho / Tobacco: Is Tsunu Rapé Addictive?
Tobacco is regarded as the first of the sacred indigenous medicines that humans worked with to evolve into the sophisticated creatures we have become in the modern world. In its pure, unadulterated form, which is sometimes referred to as Mapacho, it is used in tiny doses. Indeed, in large doses, Mapacho can make a person feel sick. Shaman work with Mapacho to slowly increase how much of it they can work with at one time because, as a sacred medicine, it is a powerful Guide. But the average person who works with Tsunu rapé (even if they dose it several times per day) administers such a tiny dose of Mapacho that no, it is not addictive.
Let me explain this further so that it makes more sense as many people in today’s world are understandably concerned about engaging with a medicine like tobacco that might “hook them”.
Nicotine patches are used by people to stop using nicotine-based tobacco products. When I say “nicotine-based” tobacco products, I have to explain the idea that the tobacco found in a box of cigarettes has been altered in a very specific way that we’ll describe below to increase nicotine content, throwing its presence in tobacco out of balance with the other medicinal substances found in this plant that normally serve to balance out the effects of nicotine such that the nicotine does not become addictive.
The nicotine patch works to help people stop using tobacco-based products because it supplies nicotine in progressively lower doses to help the body get rid of a nicotine addiction. If low-dose nicotine was addictive, the nicotine patch system would not work to wean people off nicotine. But nicotine patches do work (my own husband used them to stop his own smoking addiction many years ago), which demonstrates that nicotine in very low doses administered over the course of 24 hours is NOT addictive.
That nicotine in low doses is not addictive is an important thing to understand if you’re wondering, “ Is pure tobacco addictive?” In a normal, unadulterated tobacco leaf, nicotine exists in naturally low doses and importantly, it exists in balance with other substances that are present in the tobacco leaf. The other substances found in a normal, healthy tobacco leaf that has not been adulterated in a lab, help to moderate how much tobacco a person can consume before they get sick. Also, many of these other substances are medicinal and can be used to cure serious diseases. When a natural tobacco tincture, rapé snuff, or smoke in the form of Mapacho, for example, is administered under a trained shaman, it contains nicotine along with a host of other substances that balance the effects of nicotine and that allow the tobacco leaf to produce medicinal effects that do not happen when a person smokes a cigarettes or “chews”.
In fact, pure nicotine is a substance that can be used in low or normal doses to detoxify the nicotinic receptors in the cholinergic system. The detoxifying effects of nicotine on the nicotinic receptors has a lot to tell us about how tobacco works as a ceremonial sacred medicine that can clear negativity from our energetic field. If you’re the type of person who’s skeptical about things like “energetic fields” read more about the cholinergic nervous system to understand a more scientific and historical view of how this system has been proven to work to “pull our energies forward” or “push energy deep inside of our bodies”. The use of nicotine patches, for example, has been extremely valuable as a natural treatment for autism aggression. It can help us express our vulnerabilities to other people without letting our boundaries down too far. Nicotine patches and Mapacho in the form of Tsunu rapé (and other forms of rapé) help people manage their own boundary between Self and Other which often manifests as more honest body language and facially expressed communications in a conversation that can support the words that a person is using. This may seem like hogwash if you’re not familiar with the science behind body language and facial expression, including microexpressions and the fact that most of us barely listen to another person’s words to decide whether we believe what they’re saying or not. We watch their facial expressions and body language for cues about honesty to decide whether we want to listen to a person’s words and ideas.
In cigarettes, nicotine is administered in high doses. Most people who smoke, tend to smoke more than one cigarette per day, right? Each cigarette is equivalent to approximately 7 mg of nicotine. When a cigarette is smoked, it is usually smoked within 30 minutes or less. So a person who smokes one cigarette is administering a dose of at least 7 mg of nicotine all at once – within a 5-30 minute time period. That’s a fairly high dose of nicotine for the body to take in all at once. But actually, most cigarettes contains more than 7 mg of nicotine.
So-called tobacco-based products should, in most cases, be called “nicotine-based” products. The high-dose nicotine administration that happens when a person is using cigarettes, vaping, or chew, is what makes these products addictive. Let me explain how regular, non-addictive tobacco leaves can be altered to make high-nicotine tobacco leaves that are very addictive.
Salvia divinorum is a smokeable herb with psychoactive and entheogenic effects that can be soaked in alcohol to extract salvinorum, the substance that’s responsible for producing the entheogenic effects of this herb. People extract the salvinorum substance from the leaves of the Salvia divinorum plant and then spray the dried Salvia divinorum leaves with salvinorum to increase the dose of salvinorum that’s administered when a person smokes the herb. The same type of “extraction” and subsequent dose augmentation is possible with nicotine as a substance that’s found in tobacco. Like salvinorum, a person can extract nicotine from the tobacco plant. The leaves of a regular tobacco plant can then be sprayed with extra nicotine to make make the tobacco more addictive. So when you smoke a commercial cigarette, if the brand that you choose to smoke is spraying the tobacco leaves with extra nicotine that’s been extracted from the tobacco leaf, the nicotine is no longer working in balance with the other substances in the tobacco. Nicotine is then present in very high quantities in relation to any positive medicinal substances that are naturally found in regular tobacco.
Natural tobacco is a medicinal herb that contains, not just nicotine, but also other substances like Solanesol and Anatabine, to name just two. So you can’t talk about nicotine (as a substance that’s found in tobacco) and tobacco as a whole plant as though they’re synonymous because they are not. Yet the Tobacco-industry has created a vernacular around cigarettes and other nicotine-based products that lead people to believe that pure tobacco is the enemy. After all, if people were working with pure, natural tobacco in ceremonial settings in the form of rapé, or peace pipes, for example, we give power to the people to solve their own problems, heal relationships, and overcome issues like anger management problems.
In fact, like many medicines, tobacco is only bad if you take too high of a dose within a very short period of time. Tobacco as a whole plant will make you very sick if you try to consume too much of it in one setting which is the built-in braking system in this plant-medicine that prevents it from becoming addictive the way that commercial cigarettes are addictive.
Leave it to the pharmaceutical industry and the “Tobacco Industry” to indoctrinate the entire globe into a smear campaign against something as important to humans in the natural world as pure tobacco / Mapacho.
The third stage of a nicotine-patch cessation program administers only 7 mg of nicotine over the course of 24 hours. This is why third-stage, 7 mg nicotine patches can be used to treat Sezary syndrome at home, a very painful cancer-related rash or autism / ASD aggression without causing addiction. This is also why low-dose nicotine patches can be used to treat inflammatory bowel disease without causing addiction. Indeed, nicotine patches often help people to communicate better and express their natural emotional boundaries with greater clarity and a reduced need for anger in complex social situations. The low-dose nicotine is administered via the patch over the course of a very long period of time (24 hours). But if you’re not inclined toward working toward nicotine patches, you can work with Tsunu rapé instead. Indeed, Tsunu rapé contains more than just tobacco as a medicinal agent. Below we talk about the medicinal value of Tsunu rapé in treating various health and mental health issues, as well as issues such as social phobia:
Tobacco is a plant that contains nicotine as well as other substances. These additional substances include:
- Solanesol – An important medicinal substance with anti-inflammatory, brain protective (neuroprotective), antimicrobial (antifungal, antibacterial, and antiviral), antiulcer, and antioxidant effects. Solanesol as a medicinal agent is found in the highest quantity in Tobacco plants over any other type of plant. Solanesol is an essential intermediary substance in the production of nutrients like coenzyme Q10, vitamin K2 / MK-7 (two nutrients that are no longer produced by staple GMO plants like wheat, corn, and soy), and other anticancer agents. Solanesol from tobacco is used to produce the supplement called ubiquinone, a form of coenzyme Q10 that’s vital for heart and circulatory system health. Solanesol derivatives have been used in conventional medicine to treat heart disease, osteoporosis (due to its vitamin K2 content), AIDs, and wounds that resist healing. So while the Tobacco Industry would have you believe that tobacco is always a cancer-causing, heart-disease-causing herb, in fact, in clinical trials, Solanesol is being remove and isolated as a medicinal substance from pure tobacco and then resold back to the public as an anticancer agent, and as a drug that can help reduce heart disease and circulatory system disease.
- Anatabine – This pyridine alkaloid has anti-inflammatory effects. It has been studied as a medicinal agent that’s able to treat inflammatory bowel disease naturally as well as Alzheimer’s disease.
- Harmala alkaloids – There are a number of harmala alkaloid substances that are found in various medicinal plants, including Ayahuasca. All of the harmala alkaloids have a similar chemical structure. Harmala alkaloids can cause a trauma-release response that involves tremor and shaking so as to release somatically stored trauma from the physical body. Harmala alkaloids are able to cure Parkinson’s disease via ingestion of Ayahuasca, in part, through their ability to release trauma that has reached critical mass.
- Harmine – Harmine was once known as “telepathine” because of its ability to enhance telepathy and a collective, shared experience among those who are ingesting this substance (as tobacco or as Ayahuasca). The presence of harmine in tobacco leaves explains why pure tobacco tends to lead to gatherings of pairs or groups of people. Harmine is also an MAOI-A inhibitor that has antidepressant effects in the body.
- Harmaline
- Harmalol
- Naphthaquinone – Naphthaquinones are a type of organic compound that have a particular chemical structure that includes a quinone group. They are antibacterial, anticancer, antifungal, antimalarial, antioxidant, neuroprotective, antidiabetic, cardioprotective, and antiinflammatory.
- Propionic Acid – Propionic acid is an antifungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory agent that can be used to treat metabolic disorders and autoimmunity.
What does Tsunu Rapeh / Rapé do? Tsunu Rapé Medicinal Effects
Mental and Emotional Effects
- Antidepressant – Tsunu rapé is particularly useful as a tool to get rid of negative thoughts and clear the energetic and mental-emotional field. This is why Tsunu rapé is used before working with other sacred indigenous medicines like psilocybin or Ayahuasca. Clearing the energetic field and the mental and emotional fields of fear, especially, helps people more easily get to the root of their trauma to release and integrate it.
- Clarifying – Tsunu rapé is used to clear the head physically (as a natural sinus-clearing medicine), but it is also used to clear the mind, particularly when a person is having a lot of mental chatter in a normal day. In ceremonial settings with psilocybin or Ayahuasca, Tsunu rapé is used to release negative thoughts and self-judgment so that a person can more easily access their feelings of vulnerability for the permanent release of trauma.
- Socializing -Tsunu rapé, as a Mapacho-containing herb, can be administered directly to the nasal bulbs to activate the brain in specific ways. Mapacho, one of the ingredients in Tsunu, for example, is an herb that was once used in Native American peace pipe ceremonies because of its ability to reduce self-judgment and judgmental thoughts toward others, clear negativity, and open the heart chakra so that problems can be solved with another person. Tsunu can be used before any type of socializing to help the body produce honest facial expressions and physical gestures that promote fluency in communication. In other words, Tsunu rapé can help you find the right words to express what you need and what you want in a way that won’t offend others or activate their triggers.
- Reduces Anxiety and Fear – Rapeh is used in Ayahuasca and psilocybin ceremonies to reduce fear and anxiety. It can also be used to control panic attacks and to lower social anxiety and reduce social phobias.
Physical Effects
- Antidiabetic – It works to slowly cure diabetes by awakening cells that have gone into a state of cellular dormancy. It should be combined with work involving other sacred medicines like Ayahuasca to cure diabetes (type 1 or type 2) and as well as herbal supplements like Melissa officinalis (which can also be used as a cure for gestational diabetes as well as diabetes type 1 and type 2) and Pasiflora incarnata (yet another herb that’s safe enough to be used during pregnancy as a natural cure for gestational diabetes as well as diabetes type 1 and type 2).
- Antibacterial – If you suffer with chronic or periodic sinus infections, tsunu rapé can be used to treat these infections via its antibacterial activity combined with its astringent action in the sinuses.
- Antifungal – If you suffer from fungal sinus infections, tsunu rapé can be used to get rid of fungal infection in the sinuses. It has antifungal properties and its astringent properties strengthen the tissues in the sinuses to make them resistant to various types of infection.
- Antiseptic and Antimicrobial – Tsunu also works against other types of pathogens because it has antiseptic properties. Use it to prevent infection during flu season or to treat viral respiratory infections at home.
- Diuretic – The diuretic effects of Tsunu rapeh demonstrates that this medicine works on the kidneys.
- Laxative – Tsunu rapeh can have laxative effects on the body.
- General Tonic – Tsunu rapeh specifically works as a general tonic in the body.
Tsunu Rapé Dosing and Administration
When you dose yourself with Tsunu rapé, you (or if you dose someone else) blow into either the kuripe (a self-administration pipe that’s shaped like a V so that it can fits into both your nostrils and your mouth at the same time) or the tepi, a slightly bent pipe that’s used in ceremonial settings to administer Tsunu rapé to another person.
When self-administering rapé, be aware that you DO NOT INHALE. You blow into the kuripe pipe. In other words, you exhale into the pipe to administer the powder to the nasal bulbs. This makes it so the powder goes into your nose and not into your lungs. The nasal bulbs are two exposed nerve bundles that are directly connected to the memory center of the brain. A number of medicinal agents can be administered to the nasal bulbs to accomplish different health and mental health-related goals.
Via the nasal bulbs, Tsunu can do many things in the body. It can cue the entire body to reduce inflammation and awaken cells that are “closed up” in terms of insulin, for example (thus it’s anti-diabetic effects). Tsunu has antibacterial and antifungal effects in the body which makes it valuable for treating infections, especially sinus infections and respiratory as well as digestive infections. As a natural treatment for sinus infection, Tsunu rapé helps to stop bleeding in the sinuses and also heal wounds that make the sinuses susceptible to infection.
Resources:
Castro, P. A. R. et al. (2020). Anatabine ameliorates intestinal inflammation and reduces the production of pro-inflammatory factors in a dextran sulfate sodium mouse model of colitis. Retrieved February 24, 2025 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7446176/
Paris, D. et al. (2011). Anatabine lowers Alzheimer’s A-beta production in vitro and in vivo. Retrieved February 24, 2025 from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014299911009836