Lluvia Sagrada

After weeks of grease, alcohol, or altitude food, Andean practice reaches for a bitter cup that makes the mouth pucker and the bile move. Lluvia Sagrada is our house version of that wash. Sacred rain is an image. This is not a hospital cleanse and not a centuries-old named rite.

• Hercampuri (Gentianella alborosea and allies)
  High bitter. Bussmann et al. 2013 (PMC3738155, PMID 23718140): Lima markets sold four Gentianella species as hercampuri; the literature species G. alborosea was not even on the stall that week. Folk use: liver, fat, sugar. Dose and identity wander.

• Flor de Arena (Tiquilia paronychioides)
  Sand flower, cooling, kidneys and “hot blood.” Formal papers are scarce.

• Manayupa (Desmodium molliculum)
  Softer, urinary and gut ease. Softens the other two.

Drink short courses with extra water and plain food. Not for pregnancy, not for a failing liver or kidney, not with a pile of hepatotoxic drugs.