Ubulawu dream roots

Names

To the amaXhosa (Xhosa), ubulawu means "medicinal extracts from certain special roots of herbs." The plural, izilawu, refers to the plants as a group, while isilawu is the word for the white foam.

In Western countries people also say ubulawu, but African dream root appears to be the more common name. It usually refers to a single species, Silene undulata, which is also widely published as Silene capensis.

What it is

Ubulawu isn't one plant but a category: plants whose roots, and sometimes stems or bark, foam when whisked in water. The best known is African dream root, which is also described as the ubulawu plant most commonly used in South Africa's Eastern Cape. It's a perennial herb of southern Africa and a member of the carnation family, with leaves that can be wavy-edged and pale flowers that open at night. The root is the part that's used.

Other species are classed as ubulawu too, and published accounts describe roots used both on their own and in mixtures, so there's no single recipe that defines it. What these roots have in common is the foam.

How it works

The foam is easy to explain. African dream root contains saponins, soap-like plant compounds that lather when the powdered root is whisked in water. Traditionally, it's this foam that people consume.

Why the root might affect dreaming is a much more open question. A 2024 laboratory analysis reported several beta-carboline alkaloids in a root extract, including harmine and harmaline, the same family of compounds found in the ayahuasca vine. In the same study, computer modelling suggested that some of these compounds could act on the brain's serotonin 5-HT2A receptor, which classic psychedelics also target.

That's a lead, not an answer. It comes from a single study, the receptor activity was predicted by software rather than measured, and the findings haven't been repeated or tested in people.

Saponins are often named online as the cause of the dream effects, but no research has shown this. No compound has been established as responsible for the reported effects, and the many plants grouped as ubulawu aren't known to share one active ingredient. For now, accounts of vivid or unusual dreams rest on traditional knowledge and personal reports, not controlled studies.

Effects on the mind

Ubulawu is described as an oneirogen, a substance said to produce or intensify dreams. People report its effects mainly during sleep, although some scholarly accounts also link it with heightened awareness and visionary use. It isn't known as a classic psychedelic, a deliriant or a dissociative.

People describe vivid, memorable dreams, sometimes lucid ones in which the dreamer knows they're dreaming. Some take these dreams to be meaningful or prophetic, though no ability to foresee events has been demonstrated.

Most of these accounts come from users and fieldwork rather than controlled studies. They don't establish how common any of these experiences is, how long the effects last, or how often the dreams are frightening or disturbing.

In tradition

Fieldwork in South Africa's Eastern Cape during the 2000s documented Xhosa diviner-healers called amagqirha, most of them women, eating the white foam and washing with it throughout ukuthwasa, their initiation. The purpose was specific: so that their ancestors' instructions would come through clearly in dreams.

Today

African dream root is now used outside Xhosa practice too, including by people in Western countries who are interested in dreaming. Scientific research is limited, and even the chemistry of these plants has had little study. Well-controlled human studies haven't established whether the root changes dreaming.

Traditions that use it

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