Sinicuichi (or Sinicuiche), also known by its Latin name of Heimia salicifolia, has historically been linked to the Aztec god of spring and desire, Xochipilli. Naturalistic flower elements that appear on the legendary Aztec statue of Xochipilli have always been assumed to be the flora of sinicuiche. Although no documented proof is available regarding its ritual use, anecdotal evidence does show that it has been used in fertility ceremonies, as well as spiritual cleansing rituals said to rid one of evil and ward away evil spirits.
 
Heimia salicifolia is a perennial herb bush that often grows to over ten feet tall (or more than three meters), and has numerous wooden branches and slender green leaves that range in length from just under an inch to almost four inches (or approximately two to nine centimeters). It has tiny, yellow flowers with petals that span about an inch in diameter. Its small, ribbed, pod shaped fruits contain tiny seeds. Native to the highlands of Mexico, it also can be found throughout Baja California, as well as South America as far south as Argentina.

Cultivation of the sinicuichi (sinicuiche) plant occurs through propagation of plant cuttings, as well as through planting its tiny seeds. The seeds need to be sown in garden beds set aside especially for their germination, or in pots filled with soil. The soil must be of a fine texture and pressed down gently with a flat garden spade or some other type of object. The seeds should be only slightly moistened with water by using a fine mist sprayer, and most definitely not watered by pouring water directly on them. The soil should be kept slightly moist until the seeds have germinated. The seedlings should not be exposed to direct sunlight, but kept in indirect sun to semi-shade. Only when the seedlings have developed full leaves should they be placed in the sun and watered thoroughly. The plant thrives in loosely packed soil that dries quickly, in areas that are warm and arid.

Its popular name, sinicuiche, is used for both the plant and the drink that is made from the plant. The plant also goes by folk names including anchinol, chapuzina, escoba del rio, flor de San Francisco, granadillo, hanchinoli, hierba de San Francisco, jara, quiebra yugo, and xonoxhilli, among many others. In reference to the drink, the name sinicuiche refers to the Mexican “magical drink which causes oblivion,” that was immortalized by German supernatural fiction author Hanns Heinz Ewers in his tome The Blue Indians (translated to English from its native title, Die blauen Indianer).

The drink has been reported to cause mild euphoria, slight auditory hallucinations, tunneling visualizations and occasional tunnel vision. It has also been reported to lend a yellow cast to one’s vision, as well as induce a “time warp” effect where the drinker loses all sense of space and time. Sinicuiche imbibers often forget events that happened only a few hours ago, and will frequently repeat a story after telling it to listeners only a short time before, but have no recollection of their previous recount.

In addition, thoughts and remembrances from years ago can be precisely recalled as if they are in the present. Some claim that they can accurately remember incidents that took place during the first few days of their lives. Still others purport to recall events that happened in the days, months and years before their birth, such as experiences of their ancestors, and recount these incidents as if they were their own memories. 

Sinicuiche the drink is made from compressed, wilted Heimia salicifolia leaves, ground into a pulp, then added to cold water. This concoction is left in the warm sun for several days, allowing the brew to ferment. This cold water extraction method is used to produce a sticky extract that is added to and mixed with clear, clean water, and then imbibed. A tea may also be made from its fresh or dried leaves, using the plant in this manner both by itself as well as combined with other herbs. A tincture can also be made by creating an extract using fresh sinicuiche leaves added to a 60% to 80% ethanol base, then distilling the mixture.

Heimia salicifolia has a long history of use in Mexican folk medicine. They use it to this day as a narcotic, a diuretic, a fever reducer and as a general inebriant. It has also been used as a medicinal bath additive. Mexican folk medicine practitioners brew a tea from sinicuiche leaves that is drunk to promote digestion, as well as create a tonic that is used to treat rabies as well as counteract the “evil eye.” A preparation of the plant is also used traditionally to treat the sexually transmitted disease, syphilis.

The plant’s primary use in Mexican folk medicine, however, is for the gynecological purposes of fertility. Infertile women are said to be helped by soaking in a bath prepared with sinicuiche leaves among other herbs and essential oils. To promote conception, a tea is made from a combination of Heimia salicifolia twigs with other plant herbage and root extracts, then imbibed by women wanting to conceive. To treat sexual dysfunction, such as frigidity, and other sexual problems like sexual weakness, ovarian inflammations and cysts, and various uterine ailments, a woman’s vagina is exposed to the steam of a tea made with sinicuiche and rosemary. After giving birth, as well to treat the symptoms of a potential miscarriage, a concoction made from sinicuiche, cinnamon, agave (pulque), and piloncillo should be drunk by the woman afflicted.

The Maká Indians of of Chaco in Paraguay use fresh use fresh Haeimia salicifolia leaves to create an extract that they then make into a plant paste for treating would puncture and scrape wounds made by thorns that have remained in the wound. The leaves are believed to the extraction of the thorn easier, and also they reportedly speed up the healing of the wound. The Pilagá of Argentinean Chaco place sinicuiche leaves directly on sores. They also make a drink from the plant’s root that is imbibed to treat stomachaches, as well as a special bath additive that one would soak in to treat scabies.

TRADITIONAL PREPARATION: The leaves of sinicuichi are picked fresh from the plant, and then left for several hours to wilt slightly.   They are then crushed in water and the juice is set in the sun to ferment. The resulting drink has mildly intoxicating properties, usually devoid of unpleasant after-effects, with a slight feeling of giddiness followed by a drowsy euphoria characterized by a darkening of the partaker's surroundings, a great shrinking in size of the world around, auditory hallucinations, an altered sense of time and place, forgetfulness and a removal from a state of reality. Sounds seem to come distorted from a great distance.