For most of the 20th century, neuroscientists agreed on one thing: the adult brain does not grow new neurons. You were born with what you had, and every decade — and every hard night — you had a little less.
That consensus started breaking apart in the late 1990s. Researchers discovered that two specific regions of the adult brain — the hippocampus and the subventricular zone — could, in fact, produce new neurons throughout a person’s lifetime. This process is called neurogenesis, and it turns out it matters enormously for memory, learning, emotional regulation, and depression.
Here’s where it gets interesting.
In 2017, a team of neuroscientists published a study in Scientific Reports examining the alkaloids inside Banisteriopsis caapi — the vine at the root of every traditional Amazonian healing tradition. Their question: do the compounds inside this plant have any effect on the brain’s ability to generate new neurons?
What they found was striking. Harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine — the three main alkaloids preserved inside our Caapi extract — all demonstrated the ability to stimulate neural stem cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation into adult neurons in the hippocampus. The researchers concluded that “modulation of brain plasticity could be a major contribution to the antidepressant effects of ayahuasca.”
Read that again. A vine that Amazonian healers have called the vine of the soul for thousands of years contains compounds that appear to stimulate the growth of new neurons in the exact part of the brain most associated with depression, memory, and emotional healing.
They weren’t looking for this. They found it anyway.
What Caapi Actually Is (and Why Most People Get It Wrong)
Most people know Caapi only as one ingredient in ayahuasca — the vine that “activates” DMT. That framing makes it sound like a supporting actor, a mechanism rather than a medicine. The Shipibo people of the Amazon would disagree. They call it the teacher, not the tool. Traditional curanderos have used B. caapi on its own — without DMT, without ceremony framing — specifically for healing, clarity, and emotional repair.
The three beta-carboline alkaloids inside the vine have distinct effects. Harmine is the primary MAOI — it inhibits monoamine oxidase A, which means it raises serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine by slowing their breakdown. This is precisely the mechanism behind many pharmaceutical antidepressants, but arriving through a plant that has been doing this work for millennia. Tetrahydroharmine (THH) specifically targets serotonin reuptake, making it functionally similar to SSRIs at the molecular level. Harmaline appears to have the strongest direct effect on neural stem cell activity.
Together, they do something no single pharmaceutical currently does: simultaneously inhibit MAO, support serotonin reuptake, and appear to stimulate the birth of new neurons in the hippocampus.
How We Make Ours
Our Caapi is a full spectrum liquid extract, made with alcohol and water extraction specifically designed to preserve all three alkaloids intact — harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine in their natural ratios. No isolates, no shortcuts. Just the vine, as it was intended to be used.
It is a ceremonial medicine. We mean that. Not “ceremonial” as a marketing word — but as an honest instruction. It rewards intention, a quiet setting, and patience. Most people notice it first as a deep settling of the nervous system. Then, over time, something else: a kind of clarity that doesn’t announce itself loudly, but shows up in how you process things, what you notice, what no longer grips you.
5-15 drops, start low. Do not combine with SSRIs, MAOIs, or stimulants. Best in a grounded, intentional setting.