The Uitoto and other neighbouring groups from the Colombo-Peruvian Amazon used not to consume mineral salt ^ sodium salt, NaCl. They have learned to eat it since the middle of the twentieth century following their incorporation into market relations through the rubber industry and, latterly, Catholic Mission education and permanent contact with non-Indians. Formerly, they extracted salts from plants, mainly palms, and they continue doing so today. To obtain these vegetable salts, the plant matter (buds, £owers, bark) is burned, water is ¢ltered through the ashes to leach out the minerals, and the resulting brine is boiled down until the salts are desiccated. These vegetable salts are potassium salts very rich in microelements. Indians use them mostly as an alkaline mixture for tobacco paste ( yera), as well as for healing and some limited culinary consumption.