Here's what Wikki has to say about it.
Nicotiana rustica, known in South America as
mapacho, in Russia as
makhorka and in Vietnam as
thuoc lao (
thuốc lào), is a rainforest plant in the
Solanaceae family. It is a very potent variety of
tobacco. The high concentration of
nicotine in its leaves makes it useful for producing
pesticides.
Uses
Rustica is often used for
entheogenic purposes by
South American shamans.
[2] It contains up to nine times more nicotine than common species of
Nicotiana such as
Nicotiana tabacum (common tobacco). Other reasons for its shamanic use are the comparatively high levels of
beta-carbolines, including the
harmala alkaloids harman and
norharman. Most commonly, in South American ethnobotanical preparations, it is allowed to soak or be infused in water, and the water is then
insufflated into the stomach in a preparation known as
singado or
singa; it is also smoked in
cigars, used as an
enema, made into a lickable product known as
ambil, and made into a snuff with the bark of a species of
Theobroma, creating
nu-nu. In the southeast part of Turkey, people use this herb and ashes of some tree bodies to make a moist snuff called
maraş otu. They use this by putting the mixture under their lips like Swedish
snus or Afghan
naswar. It is also a common admixture of
Ayahuasca in some parts of the Amazon.
In Russia,
N. rustica is called "makhorka" (махорка). It was smoked casually by the lower classes before normal tobacco became widely available (after WWII), and is still sometimes smoked by peasants and farmers.
N. rustica leaves have a nicotine content as high as 9%, whereas
N. tabacum leaves contain about 1 to 3%.
[3]