Don't try this at home!

Phellinus igniarius (willow, or cushion, bracket) is not bound to draw the eye. It's a solid, lumpy brown shelf fungus that's found on willow trees in Europe, birch trees in North America. It doesn't look appetising and indeed it's not but neither would it kill you to chew upon. In fact it's reckoned to have antioxidant, antiviral, anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties.

But has a sinister secret  too. Burnt, its ash potentiates the hit of nicotine in narcotic leaves  and this was discovered by the indigenous people of North America long ago before Europeans arrived. But when tobacco became widely available and  used for trading, the mixture of Phellinus ash with tobacco really took off, especially among the people of the far north. The mixture, which is known as iqmik, can be smoked or chewed (wrapped in a tobacco leaf).   Women were expected to do the initial chewing before handing it over to the men, and the quids were kept in little decorated boxes made for the purpose and acting as status symbols. "To possess iqmik was to show the world that you were a successful hunter with a full storehouse. You were able to take time off from subsistence activities and you were also willing to share your iqmik with others."


Iqmik is still sold over the counter today and it's estimated that about 50% of the Yupik people in some parts of Alaska use it. It carries serious health risks and there are public health campaigns against it. Of particular concern is that fact that iqmik  is the preferred smoking material of pregnant women in those areas, since they reckon that the 'all natural' ingredients are less harmful to the foetus than commercial tobacco. They are wrong. It delivers a huge nicotine hit to mother and baby and the consequences on the health of both may be permanent.


Of course, it's still a nice little earner for the hunters who collect the fungus in the forest and can then either process it themselves or sell it on for commercial production. Mood-altering substances are as old as humankind and aren't going to go away any time soon.


Read more in an excellent essay here and another fascinating article here plus material about contraindications for adults and babies here and here.