Botanical

Botanical is a neutral, descriptive term for a plant or plant preparation, used when a secular or scientific register is appropriate rather than the religious language ECC uses to describe its sacrament. It appears, for example, in educational or comparative discussion of a plant's species, native range, or place within Amazonian ethnobotany.

ECC reserves the words "sacrament" and "sacred medicine" for the ayahuasca brew and its ceremonial admixtures as they are used and understood within the community's religious practice. "Botanical" is used instead in contexts that call for descriptive precision about a plant itself, without invoking that religious framing.