This most varied group of plants is now believed to comprise from 19, to 32, species. Algae have been found in pre-Cambrian fossils dating from one to more than three billion years of age.
These procaryotic blue-green algae Collenia represent the oldest known form of life on Earth. Consequently, they may have a right to be known as the "most important" plants. Estimates of their extent vary. Most botanists hold that there are , to , species in families. Other estimates, probably more realistic, calculate , species. There ar. The monocotyledons are usually credited with one quarter of the total. Some sections of the Plant Kingdom are of great importance from the point of view of biodynamic species with compounds of significance to medicinal or hallucinogenic activity.
The fungi are of increasing interest: almost all antibiotics in wide use are derived from fungi. They are also employed in the pharmaceutical in- dustry in the synthesis of steroids and for other purposes. The importance of fungi as sources of aflotoxins of foods has only recently been recognized.
Algae and lichens, interestingly, have as yet not yielded any species reported as hallucinogens. An societies, although several ferns are employed in South America as additives to hallucinogenic drinks Ayahuasca. Of the spermatophytes, the gymnosperms exhibit few biodynamic elements. They are known primarily as the source of the sympathomimetic alkaloid ephedrine and the very toxic taxine.
Many are of economic importance as sources of impressive number of new biodynamic com- resins and timber. This group of seed plants is rich pounds, some of possible medical value, have already been isolated from algae. Recent research has heightened the promise of isolation of active principles from lichens: they have yielded a large number of bacteria-inhibiting compounds and also in physiologically active stilbines and other compounds that act as protective agents against heartwood decay essential oils.
From many points of view, the angiosperms are the important plants: as the dominant and most have been shown to be rich in chemovars. There numerous group and as the elements basic to are persistent reports of hallucinogenic lichens em- man's social and material evolution. They repre- ployed in northwesternmost North America, but as yet no identifiable specimens or reliable sent the source of most of our medicines of vegetal origin; most toxic species are angiospermous; and information has been forthcoming.
In South America, a lichen Dictyonerna is used as a psychoactive. The bryophytes have been phytochemically neglected; the few that have been studied have gi- almost all hallucinogens used by man, as well as other narcotics, belong to this group.
It is easy to understand why angiosperms have been chemically more assiduously studied; but what is not fully recognized is the fact that the angiosperms themselves have been merely superficially examined. It is clear that the Plant Kingdom represents an only partially studied emporium of biodynamic principles. Each species is a veritable chemical factory.
Although indigenous societies have discovered many medicinal, toxic, and narcotic properties in their ambient vegetation, there is no rea- ven little hope as sources of biodynamic compounds. Similarly, in ethnomedicine, the mosses and liverworts seem to have been ignored. Some ferns appear to be bioactive and psychoactive.
However, phytochemical investigation has been far from exhaustive. Very recent investi- gations have indicated a hitherto unsuspected wealth of biodynamic compounds of potential interest to medicine and commerce; sesquiterpinoid lactones, ecdyosones, alkaloids, and cyanogenic glycosides. A recent survey for antibacterial activity of extracts from 44 Trinidadian ferns indicated the surprising fact that 77 percent were positive.
No hallucinogenic constituents have yet been discovered in laboratory research or by indigenous son to presume that their experimentation has brought to light all the psychoactive principles hidden in these plants. Undoubtedly new hallucinogens are lurking in the Plant Kingdom and, in them, possible consti- tuents of extreme interest to modern medical practice.
The two major scientific disciplines that concern elimination of excess nitrogen. If this theory were true, one would expect all plants to contain such themselves with these plants, however, are botany and chemistry. This chapter describes the work of chemists who analyze the constituents of plants used in religious rites and in the magic of medicine men and discusses the potential benefits from such research.
The botanist must establish the identity of plants that in the past were used as sacred drugs or which are still employed for that purpose today. The next step to be explored by scientists is: What constituents—which of the substances in those plants—actually produce the effects that have led to their use in religious rites and magic?
What the chemist is looking for is the active principle, the quintessence or quinta essentia, as Paracelsus called the active compounds in plant drugs. Among the many hundreds of different sub- nitrogenous constituents: that is not the case. Many of the psychoactive compounds are toxic if taken in large doses, and it has therefore been suggested that they serve to protect the plants from animals.
But this theory likewise is hardly convincing, because many poisonous plants are in fact eaten by animals that are immune to the toxic constituents. It remains, therefore, one of the unsolved rid- dles of nature why certain plants produce substances with specific effects on the mental and emotional functions of man, on his sense of perception, and actually on his state of consciousness. Phytochemists have the important and fascinat- ing task of separating the active principles from the rest of the plant materials and of producing them in pure form.
Once active principles are thus available, it is possible to analyze them to deter- stances that make up the chemical composition of a plant, only one or two occasionally up to half a mine the elements of which they are composed; dozen compounds are responsible for its psychoactive effects.
The proportion by weight of these active principles is usually only a fraction of 1 percent, and frequently even of one part per thousand of the plant. The main constituents of fresh plants, usually more than 90 percent by oxygen, nitrogen, etc. Carbohydrates such as starch and various sugars , proteins, fats, mineral salts, and pigments make up several more percent of the plant.
Together with these normal components, they constitute practically the whole plant, and they are common to all higher plants. Substances with unusual physiological and psychic effects are found only in certain special plants. These substances as a rule have very different chemical structures from those of the usual vegetal constituents and common metabolic products.
It is not known what function these special substances may have in the life of the plant. Various theories have been offered. Most psychoactive principles in these sacred plants contain nitrogen, and it has therefore been suggested that they may be waste products of metabolism—like uric acid the relative proportions of carbon, hydrogen, cular structure in which these elements are arranged.
The next step is the synthesis of the active principle: that is, to make it in the test tube quite independently of the plant. With pure compounds—whether isolated from the plant or synthetically produced—exact phar- macological assays and chemical tests can be made. This is not possible with whole plants because of the varying content of the active principies and interference from other constituents. The first psychoactive principle to be produced in pure form from a plant was morphine, an alkaloid present in the opium poppy.
This new compound was named for the Greek god of sleep, Morpheus, because of its sleep-inducing properties. Since then, enormous strides have been made in developing more efficient methods for the separation and purification of active principles, with the most important tech- niques evolving only during the last decades.
The methods isolated in pure form and crystallized as a salt with used in qualitative analysis and to establish the hydrochloric acid. By determining the presence or absence of psilocybine and psilocine, an objective method was now available for distinguishing true hallucinogenic mushrooms from false ones.
The chemical structure of the hallucinogenic principles of the mushrooms was determined see structural formulas in the next chapter , and it was found that these compounds were closely related chemically to substances serotonin occurring naturally in the brain that play a major role in the regulation of psychic functions. As the pure compounds can be given in exact doses, their pharmacological actions could now be studied under reproducible conditions in animal experiments, and the spectrum of their psychotropic actions in man determined.
This was gone fundamental changes in recent years. Formerly, several generations of chemists would be needed to elucidate the complex structures of natural compounds. Today, it takes just a few weeks or even only days to determine them with the techniques of spectroanalysis and X-ray analysis.
At the same time, improved methods of chemical synthesis have been developed. The great advances made in the field of chemistry, and the effi- cient methods now available to plant chemists, have in recent years made it possible to gain appreciable knowledge of the chemistry of active principles found in psychoactive plants. The contribution made by chemists to the study of sacred plant drugs may be illustrated with the example of the Magic Mushrooms of Mexico.
Ethnologists had found Indian tribes in the southern parts of Mexico using mushrooms in their religious ceremonies. Mycologists identified the mushrooms used in these rituals. Chemical analyses showed clearly which species were psychoactive. Albert Hofmann tested one species of mushroom on himself; he discovered that it was psychoactive, that it could be grown under laboratory conditions, and he was able to isolate two active compounds.
The purity and chemical homogeneity of a compound can be demonstrated by its ability to crystallize, unless of course it be a liquid.
The two hallucinogenic principles now known as psilocybine and psilocine, found in the Mexican Magic Mushroom Psilocybe mexicana, were obtained in the form of colorless crystals. The greater part of this content is psilocybine, with psilocine present usually only in traces. The median effective dose for humans is 8 to 16 milligrams of psilocybine or psilocine.
Instead of swallowing 2 grams of the dried mushrooms, which have a rather unpleasant taste, one merely needs to take about 0. Once the active principles were available in pure form, it was possible to study their use and Similarly, the active principle of the Mexican effective application in medicine.
One might think that with the isolation, struc- tural analysis, and synthesis of psilocybine and psilocine, the mushrooms of Mexico had lost their magic. Substances that because of their effects on the mind had led Indians to believe for thousands of years that a god dwelt in those mushrooms can Psilocine crystallized from methanol Many alkaloids crystallize poorly as free bases.
They will separate as a crystallized salt, however, when neutralized with a suitable acid, either by cooling the saturated solution or by evaporation of the solvent. Crystallization of substances from solutions is carried out mainly fpr purification, since by-products remain in the solvent. As each substance has its own specific crystalline form, this form serves for identification and characterization of a substance. A modern method for the elucidation of chemical constitutions is the X-ray structure analysis.
For the application of this method, alkaloids and other substances must be available in crystallized form. It should be remembered, however, that scientific investigation has merely shown that the magic properties of the mushrooms are the properties of two crystalline compounds.
Their effect on the human mind is just as inexplicable, and just as magical, as that of the mushrooms themselves. This also holds true for the isolated and purified active principles of other plants of the gods. By little and little, I began to comprehend that in a forest which is practically unlimited— near three millions of square miles clad with trees and little else but trees, and where the natives think no more of destroying the noblest trees, when they stand in their way, than we the vilest weed, a single tree cut down makes no greater a gap, and is no more missed, than when one pulls up a stalk of groundsel or a poppy in an English cornfield.
Right: "There were enormous trees, crowned with magnificent foliage, decked with fantastic parasites, and hung over with lianas, which varied in thickness from slender threads to huge python-like masses, were now round, now flattened, now knotted and now twisted with the regularity of a cable.
Of the probable halfmillion species in the world's flora, only about one thousand are known to be employed for their hallucinogenic properties.
Few areas of the globe lack at least one hallucinogen of significance in the culture of the inhabitants. Nightshade family. The fungus Ergot, a parasite on rye, frequently poisoned entire regions if accidentally milled into the flour. Such attacks led hundreds of citizens to go mad and suffer hallucinations, often causing permanent insanity, gang- rene, or death. This plague was known as St. Anthony's fire. Although Ergot was apparently and parts of the Congo in the Bwiti cult.
The never purposefully used in medieval Europe as a hallucinogen, there are suggestions that the Eleusinian mysteries of ancient Greece were associated with this fungal genus. The famous and widely employed Kava-kava is Bushmen of Botswana slice the bulb of Kwashi of the Amaryllis family and rub it over scarifica- hypnotic narcotic. Despite its size and extremely varied vegetation, Africa appears to be poor in hallucinogenic plants. The most famous, of course, is Iboga, a root of the Dogbane family employed in Gabon not a hallucinogen but has been classified as a tions on the head, allowing the active principles in It is in the New World that the number and the juice to enter the bloodstream.
Kanna is a mysterious hallucinogen, probably no longer chewed the plant material used: the cultural significance of hallucinogenic plants are from two species of the Ice Plant family that induced gaiety, laughter, and visions.
In scattered regions, relatives of Thorn Apple and Henbane were used for their intoxicating properties. In Eurasia there are many plants employed for their hallucinatory effects. Most significant, it is the home of Hemp, today the most widespread of all narcotics: as Marijuana, Maconha, Daggha, Ganja, Charas, etc. The most spectacular Eurasiatic hallucinogen is the Fly Agaric, a mushroom consumed by scattered tribesmen in Siberia and possibly the sacred god-narcotic Soma of ancient India.
Datura was employed over wide areas of Asia. The rhizome of Maraba, a member of the Ginger family, is believed to be eaten in New Guinea. In Papua, natives ingest a mixture of leaves of Ereriba of the Arum family and bark of a large tree, Agara, to produce a sleep during which visions occur.
Nutmeg may once have been taken in India and Indonesia for its narcotic effects. Tribesmen in Turkestan drink an intoxicating tea made from the dried leaves of a shrubby mint, Lagochilus.
The heyday of the use of hallucinogens in Eur- ope occurred in ancient times, when they were used almost exclusively in witchcraft and divination. The major plants involved—Thorn Apple, Mandrake, Henbane, Belladonna—belong to the overwhelming, dominating every phase of life among the aboriginal peoples. There were some hallucinogenic species in the West Indies.
In fact, the early indigenous popula- tions used mainly the snuff known as Cohoba; and it is believed that this custom was imported by Indians invading the Caribbean Islands from the Orinoco regions of South America. Similarly, North America north of Mexico is quite poor in hallucinogens.
Various species of Datura were employed rather widely, but most intensely in the Southwest. The Indians of the region of Texas and adjacent areas used the Red Bean or Mescal Bean as the basis of a vision-seeking cere- mony. In northern Canada, Indians chewed the roots of Sweet Flag as medicine and supposedly also for the hallucinogenic effects.
Mexico represents without a doubt the world's richest area in diversity and use of hallucinogens in aboriginal societies—a phenomenon difficult to understand in view of the comparatively modest number of species comprising the flora of the country.
Without any question the Peyote cactus is the most important sacred hallucinogen, although other cactus species are still used in northern Mexico as minor hallucinogens for special magico-religious purposes.
At least twenty-four species of these fungi are employed at the present time in southern Mexico. Below: Visions revealed by hallucinogens can be subsequently processed and rendered artistically. In this way the experience is carried into and connected with everyday life. There are many hallucinogens of secondary importance: Toloache and other species of the Datura group; the Mescal Bean or Frijolillo in the north; Pipiltzintzintli of the Aztecs; the diviner's sage now known as Hierba de la Pastora; Genista among the Yaqui Indians; Piule, Sinicuichi, Zacatechichi, the puffballs known by the Mixtecs as Gi'-i-Wa; and many others.
South America ranks a close second to Mexico in the number, variety, and deep magico-religious significance of hallucinogens. In Peru and Bolivia a columnar cactus called San Pedro or Aguacolla is the basis of the drink ci,nora, used in a vision-seeking ceremony. Research has indicated the use in various parts of the Andes of the rare shrub Shanshi, Taique Desfontainia , the and the fruits of Hierba Loca and Taglli, both of the Heath family.
Most recently, a type of Petunia has been reported as an intoxicant used in Ecua- dor. Many cultures had several. Some of these—especially Tobacco and Coca—rose to exalted positions in the sacred native pharmacopoeias. These major hallucinogens are culturally significant in the areas indicated by the symbols.
This photograph was taken at the holy mountain Kalinchok 4, m in the Himalayas of Nepal. The Indians of northern Argentina take a snuff—CebIl or Vilica—prepared from seeds of a species closely related to Yopo. Employed ceremonially in the western Amazon and in several localities on the Pacific coastal areas of Colombia and Ecuador, it is made basically from several species of lianas of the Malpighia family. Brunfelsia, a member of the Nightshade family, known widely in the westernmost Amazon as Chiricaspi, is taken for hallucinatory purposes.
There are more plants utilized as hallucinogens in the New World than in the Old. Nearly species are known to be used in the Western Hemisphere, whereas in the Eastern Hemisphere the number reaches roughly Botanists have no reason to presume that the flora of the New World is richer or poorer than that of the Old in plants with hallucinogenic properties. Some species that are reported to have "narcotic" or "intoxicating" uses are included as well.
The plants are arranged alphabetically according to the Latin name easily visible characteristics of the plant. Whenever space permits, additional information of historical, ethnological, phytochemical, and, very occasionally, psychopharmacological interest is added.
In this way, an attempt has been made in this introductory lexicon to give as broad an interdisciplinary view as possible. The illustrations in the lexicon are of two kinds: some of them are watercolors made whenever followed in view of the many differ- possible from living plant material or herbarium specimens.
Most are direct reproductions of color photographs. A number of the plants de- of the genus. This order has been ent vernacular names in the great picted here are illustrated for the variety of native languages.
If a particular name is not listed, it may be first time. Inasmuch as this volume is written for the general reader, the botanical descriptions are intentionally brief, stressing the obvious and most The purpose of the lexicon is of the extensive knowledge from The botanical investigation of medicinal plants has, over the years, become more and more exact and sophisticated.
In , the writer of one of the most beautifully illustrated herbals, Leonard Fuchs, presented this accurate sketch of Datura stramonium, the Thorn Apple left. Some three hundred years later, Kohler, in his Medizinal Pflanzen, published a more detailed pharmacognostic rendering of this very important therapeutic plant center. In the years since the establishment of Linnaeus's herbarium and the binomial system of nomenclature, our herbaria have greatly enhanced the understanding of the morphological variation of vegetal species through the collection of dried specimens around the world.
The third illustration depicts a typical herbarium specimen of the Thorn Apple representing the kind of material that now authenticates botanical identification. Modern technology for example, the electron-scanning microscope is making available morphological details, such as the leaf surface hairs of the Thorn Apple, which provide greater accuracy in the work of plant identification. The lexicon is in alphabetical order by genus name.
The species known to contain hallucinogenic properties orto be used as hallucinogens will be found in the reference section "Overview of Plant Use," pages 65—80, which is organized by common name. This reference section!
Common names are listed here below with the number designating each plant's location in the lexicon. This alkaloid-rich plant has been cultivated and used for psychoactive purposes for centuries or even millennia. The Indians caution against the thoughtless use of this plant, which causes such strong hallucinations and delirium that only experienced shamans can use it for divination and healing.
Maiden's Acacia Acorus calamus L. Sweet Flag Amanita muscaria L. Sweet Flag is a semiaquatic herb with a long, aromatic, creeping rootstock producing shoots of erect, linear, swordlike leaves up to 6ft 2m in length.
The tiny flowers are borne on a solid, lateral, greenish yellow spadix. The rootstalk or rhizome contains an essential oil responsible for the plant's medicinal value. It has been suggested that the active principles are a-asarone and There is a structural resemblance between asarone and mescaline, a psychoactive alkaloid.
No evidence has ever been produced, however, that asarone can be associated with psychotomimetic activity. Amanita muscaria is a beautiful mushroom growing in thin forests usually under birches, firs, and young pines. It may attain a This tree grows 9—50ft 3—18m and has an almost black bark The genus Acacia is widely distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It encompasses for the most part medium-sized trees with pinnate, occasionally smooth leaves.
The flowers grow in clusters and the fruit is pea-like. Some of the species are suited for the preparation of Ayahuasca analogs. Numerous Australian species A. Acacia maidenii, a beautiful erect tree with a silvery splendor, contains different tryptamines.
The bark contains 0. The leaves are usable as a DMT-delivering component of Ayahuasca analogs. These acacias are easy to cultivate in temperate climates such as in California and southern Europe.
Fly Agaric height of 8—9 in. The somewhat viscid, ovate, hemispheric, and finally almost flat cap measures 3—8 in. There are three varieties: one with a bloodred cap with white warts found in the Old World and northwestern North America; a yellow or orange type with yellowish warts common in eastern and central North America; and a white variety that is found in Idaho.
The white valve adheres to the base of the stem. The gills vary from white to cream color or even lemon yellow. This mushroom, perhaps man's oldest hallucinogen, has been identified with Soma of ancient India. The leaves are finely locular and reach up to 1 ft 30 cm long.
The yellowish white flowers are round. The seeds have been used as a hallucinogen by the Indians of the southern region of the Andes for approximately 4, years. They are either worked into a snuff powder, smoked, or used as an additive for beer. Primarily they are used in shamanism. The seeds of the CebIl or Villca contain tryptamines, especially bufotenine. False Peyote Convovulaceae LegumiflOSae Pea Family 5 Tropical zones of South America, West Indies Anadenanthera pore grina is a mimosa-like tree, mainly of open grasslands, attaining a height of 65ft 20m and with a trunk 2ft 60 cm in diameter.
The blackish bark is coarsely armed with conical mucronate projections. The leaves have from 15 to 30 pairs of pinnae with many very small hairy leaflets. Many minute white flowers in spherical heads arranged in terminal or axillary clusters comprise the inflorescence.
Flat, thin, glossy black, roundish seeds occur in rough, woody pods, from 3 to 10 in a pod. A potent hallucinogenic snuff is made from the beans of Anadenanthera peregrina in the Orinoco basin, where it is called Yopo. Its former shamanic and ritual use in the West Indies, under the name Cohoba, was reported as early as Sadly, this use has disappeared due to the exploitation of the native people.
The shamanic snuff is made from cultivated trees in addition to other substances and plant ashes. The shaman of the rain forest people of the Orinoco region for example, the Piaroa cultivate this tree which is not native to that area.
That way they secure their snuff supplies. The stemmed, heart-shaped leaves are finely haired and have a silvery appearance due to a dense white down that covers the young stems and the leaf undersides. The funnel-shaped flowers are violet or lavender and are carried in the leaf axis.
Their sepals are finely haired. The round fruit are berrylike and contain smooth brown seeds. In each seed capsule there are 1— 4 seeds. The plant originates in India, where it has been used medicinally since ancient times. A traditional use as an entheogen has not yet been discovered.
Phytochemical research is to thank for the awareness of its potent psychedelic constitution. The seeds contain 0. Most psychonauts describe LSD-like effects after taking 4—8 seeds. These plants are small, grayish green to purplish gray or brown- Mexico, Texas ish cactuses, 4—6in. They hardly appear above the ground. Often called Living Rocks, they can easily be mistaken for rocks in the stony desert where they grow.
Their horny or fleshy, umbricated, three-angled tubercles are characteristic of the genus. Dense masses of hair often fill the areoles. Indians in northern and central Mexico consider A. Several psychoactive phenylethylamine alkaloids have been isolated from A. Robinson et Small Atropa belladonna L. Deadly Nightshade Banisteriopsis caapi Spruce ex Griseb. The ovate leaves attain a length of 8in.
All parts of the plant contain potent alkaloids. It grows in thickets and woods on lime soils and is naturalized especially near old buildings and hedges. It is believed that Belladonna figured as an important ingredient in many of the witches' brews of antiquity. There are, of course, numerous records of accidental and purposeful poisoning associated with the Deadly Nightshade.
The Scots destroyed the Scandinavian army by sending them food and beer to which "Sleepy Nightshade" had been added. The main psychoactive constituent is atropine but lesser amounts of scopolamine and trace amounts of minor tropane alkaloids are also present. The total alkaloid content in the leaves is 0.
In addition to the usual Belladonna there is a rare, yellow blooming variety var. Iutea as well as lithe known related kinds. Belladonna is still cultivated for the pharmaceutical production of atropine. These giant forest lianas are the basis of an important hallucinogenic drink Ayahuasca ritually consumed in the western half of the Amazon Valley and by isolated tribes on the Pacific slopes of the Colombian and Ecuadorean Andes.
The bark of Banisteriopsis caapi and B. Both species are lianas with smooth, brown bark and dark green, chartaceous, ovate-lanceolate leaves up to about 7 in. The inflorescence is many-flowered. The small f lowers are pink or rose-colored. The liana contains MAO inhibitors. The flesh of the cap is lemon-colored. The stipe varies from orange at the top, to a marbled green and gray-rose in the middle, to a green at the base.
The spores, which are elongated ellipsoidal, have a yellow membrane but are olivecolored within. Hallucinogenic properties have not yet been proven.
The flowers are nodding, not wholly pendulous, usually 7—9 in. The trumpet-shaped corolla flaring broadly at the mouth is white or golden yellow, its slender basal part completely enclosed by the in. The elongate-ovoid, smooth, green fruit, which is variable in size, remains fleshy, never becoming hard or woolly. In addition to their use as hallucinogens, all species have played major roles as medicines for a large spectrum of ills, especially in the treatment of rheumatic pains.
They contain potent hallucinogenic tropane alkaloids. Blood-Red Angel's Trumpet 1 2 Colombia to Chile 11 Closely related to Datura, the species of BrugmansIa are arborescent, and it is suspected that they are all cultigens unknown in the wild. Biologically very complex, all species appear to have been used as hallucinogens for millennia.
Insignis occur in warmer parts of South America, especially in the western Amazonia, where they are employed alone or mixed with other plants, usually under the name Too. Most of the species, however, prefer the cool, wet highlands above 6, ft.
The most widespread species in the Andes is Brugmansia aurea, with both yellow and, more commonly, white flower forms. In the horticultural literature it has frequently been misidentified as Brugmansia or Datura arborea, which is in reality a much less common plant.
Don This perennial Brugmansia is heavily branched and reaches 6— 16 ft 2—Sm , developing a very woody trunk. The gray-green leaves are furry and roughly serrated at the edge. The Blood-Red Angel's Trumpet does not emit scents in the night.
Usually the flowers are green at the base, yellow in the middle, and have a red edge around the top. There are also green-red, pure yellow, yellow-red, and almost completely red varieties. The smooth oval fruits are bulbous in the center and pointed at the ends and are usually partially protected by the dried calyx. In Colombia this powerful shaman plant was ritually used in the cult of the sun of pre-Columbian times.
The plant is still used as a hallucinogen by the shamans and Curanderos of Ecuador and Peru. The entire plant contains tropane alkaloids. The flowers contain essentially atropine and only traces of scopolamine hyoscine. In the seeds approximately 0. This and several other species of Cacalia have been referred to in parts of northern Mexico as Peyote and may possibly have once been employed for hallucinatory purposes.
In Mexico Cacalia cordifolla is a presumed aphrodisiac and cure for sterility. An alkaloid has been reported from the plant, but there is no evidence of a chemical constituent with psychoactive properties. This little researched plant is apparently often confused with Calea zacatechichi. Caesalpinia sepiaria Roxb. Dog Grass Cannabis sativa L. The roots, flowers, and seeds also have value in folk medicine.
The earliest Chinese herbal— Pen-ts'-ao-ching——stated that the "flowers could enable one to see spirits and, when taken in excess, cause one to stagger madly? The large, erect, unbranched showy racemes, 21 in. An alkaloid of unknown structure has been reported from Caesalpinia sepiaria. Tropical zones of northern 1 6 South America, Mexico Known in Mexico as Zacatechichi "bitter grass" , this inconspicuous shrub, occurring from Mexico to Costa Rica, has been important in folk medicine.
It has also been valued as an insecticide. Recent reports suggest that the Chontal Indians of Oaxaca take a tea of the crushed, dried leaves as a hallucinogen. Believing in visions seen in dreams, Chontal medicine men, who assert that Zacatechichi clarifies the senses, call the plant ThIe-pelakano, or "leaf of god?
The inflorescence is densely many-flowered usually about No constituent with hallucinatory properties has as yet been isolated from C. The plant contains germacranolides.
The subtile psychoactive effect can be described as dreamlike. The sexes are normally on separate plants, the staminate weaker and dying after shedding pollen, the pistillate stockier and more foliose.
The flowers are borne in axillary or terminal branches, dark green, yellowgreen, or brownish purple. Cannabis indica is pyramidal or conical in form and under 4— 5ft —cm in height. Cannabis ruderalis is small and is never cultivated. Lady of the Night Claviceps purpurea Fr. The spines near the top of the plant are yellow-brown. Measuring 4—5 in.
The numerous small seeds are black and shining. Although there are no reports of the Saguaro as a hallucinogen, the plant does contain pharmacologically active alkaloids capable of psychoactivity. Carnegine, 5-hydroxycarnegine, and norcarnegine, plus trace amounts of 3-methoxytyramine and arizonine a tetrahydroquinoline base , have been isolated from Saguaro.
The native people make a wine from the pressed fruit. Cestrum parqui has been used medicinally and ritually for shamanic healing since preColumbian times by the Mapuche in southern Chile. The plant has the power to withstand attacks of sorcery or black magic. The dried leaves of Cestrum parqui are smoked. The shrub grows to 5ft 1.
The bell-shaped yellow flowers have five pointy petals. They hang from the stem in clusters. The flowers bloom in Chile between October and November and release a powerful, heady aroma.
The plant has small oval berries that are a shiny black color. Cestrum parqui contains solasonine, a glycoside steroid-alkaloid, as well as solasonidine and a bitter alkaloid Farquin's formula C21 H39N03 , which has a similar action to strychnine or atropine.
Ergot is a fungal disease of certain grasses and sedges, primarily of rye. Meaning "spur," Ergot refers to the sclerotium or fruiting body of an ascomycete or sac fungus. The fungus produces psychoactive and toxic alkaloids.
There are two distinct periods in the life cycle of this fungus: an active and a dormant stage. The Ergot or spur represents the dormant stage. When the spur falls to the ground, the Ergot sprouts globular heads called ascocarps from which grow asci, each with threadlike ascospores that are disseminated when the asci rupture.
In the Middle Ages and earlier in Europe, especially where rye was used in bread-making, whole areas frequently were poisoned, suffering plagues of ergotism, when fungus-infected rye kernels were milled into flour. Two species of Coleus have significance in Mexico. Related to Salvia divinorum is La Hembra "the woman" ; C. Recently, salvinorine-like substances diterpene were discovered. The chemical structure has not yet been determined, It is possible that by drying or burning the diterpene, its chemical structure is modified into potent material.
The chemistry and pharmacology must be re- searched further. Psilocybine has not as yet been isolated from this species, but Conocybe cyanopus of the United States has been shown to contain this psychoactive alkaloid. This beautiful mushroom, up to about 3m. The gills are saffron-colored or brownish orange with chrome yellow spores. Many species of the genus Conocybe contain psilocybine, are psychoactive, and are used ritually.
Recently a rudimentary cult around Tamu a Conocybe species, "Mushroom of Awareness" has been discovered. Conocybe siligeneoides is an obscure mushroom which has not been found or analyzed again since its first description.
It has been feared in the Andean countries as a plant toxic to browsing animals. Human deaths have supposedly followed ingestion of the fruit. Reports from Ecuador, nevertheless, suggest that the fruit shanshi may be eaten to induce an intoxication characterized by sensations of soaring through the air. Coriaria thymifolla is a shrub usually up to 6ft 1. The small, dark purple flowers occur densely on long drooping racemes.
The round purplish black fruit is composed of five to eight compressed fleshy parts, or carpels. The whole shrub has a fernlike appearance. No psychoactive properties have been isolated yet. It is hardly visible in the sandy soil where it occurs. Introduction The neurobiology of consciousness is a new area of investigation although neurochemicals have been used for thousands of years to alter Plants of the gods and shamanic journeys Elaine K.
Perry and Valerie Laws Among agents which alter the boundary between conscious and non conscious cognition, the ritualistic use of plant species often in a spiritual context, Each chapter opens with a short version of a classical myth, then links the tale to plant names, showing how each plant "resembles" its mythological counterpart with regard to its history, anatomy, life cycle, and conservation.
Your children will learn exciting lessons about God and His creation, from the way that the sun's rays become a plant's fuel to the role of bees in spreading a plant's pollen. Men ceased to eat and the beasts stopped grazing; all creatures were about to perish because of the famine. Indeed, Bahn and Helvenston cite Plants of the Gods frequently for instance at the beginning of their footnote on The authors elaborate in vivid detail 91 plants, focusing on 14 that have had profound significance on human beings.
Included are rare photos of the plants and the people who have used them as well as ceremonies, sculpture, paintings, pottery, and weavings relating to the ritual use of these sacred hallucinogens. Author : Michael J. Over 3, species of plants can be found here, within a diversity of ecological habitats.
Because of this, Belize is paradise for ecotourists, hosting over , visitors annually, who enjoy the natural habitat and friendly people of this nation. Many of the plants of Belize have a long history of being "useful," with properties that have served traditional herbal healers of the region as well as those who use plants as food, forage, fiber, ornament, in construction and ritual, along with many other purposes.
Michael Balick and Rosita Arvigo give us the definitive resource on the many species of plants in Belize and their folklore, as well as the natural history of the region and a detailed discussion of "bush" uses of plants, including for traditional healing and life in the forest, past and present. Both Balick and Arvigo bring important perspectives to the project, Balick as ethnobotanical scientist from The New York Botanical Garden, and Arvigo as a former apprentice to a Belizean healer and an experienced physician.
The book has been decades in the making, a culmination of a biodiversity research project that The New York Botanical Garden and international and local collaborators have had in motion since Balick, Arvigo and their colleagues have collected and identified thousands of plants from the region, and have worked extensively with hundreds of Belizean people, many of them herbal healers and bushmasters, to record uses for many of the species.
This collaboration with local plant experts has produced a fascinating discussion of the intersection of herbal medicine and spiritual belief in the area, and these interviews are used to compliment and contextualize the numerous species accounts presented. The book is both a cultural study and a specialized field guide; information is provided on many different native and introduced plants in Belize and their traditional and contemporary uses including as food, medicine, fiber, in spiritual practices and many other purposes.
Richly illustrated with over images and photographs, Messages from the Gods: A Guide to The Useful Plants of Belize will serve as the primary reference and guide to the ethnobotany of Belize for many years to come.
Undertakes an ethnographic survey of several nonindustrialized societies in which people engage in the ritual use of hallucinogens, observing the pilgrimages, rites, prayers, songs, and dances Author : Richard Evans Schultes Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies ISBN: Category: Social Science Page: View: Read Now » Undertakes an ethnographic survey of several nonindustrialized societies in which people engage in the ritual use of hallucinogens, observing the pilgrimages, rites, prayers, songs, and dances.
They provide a fascinating testimony of these "plants of the gods," tracing their uses throughout the world and their significance in shaping culture and history. In the traditions of every culture, plants have been highly valued for their nourishing, healing, and transformative properties.
The most powerful of those plants, which are known to transport the human mind into other dimensions of consciousness, have always been regarded as sacred. The authors detail the uses of hallucinogens in sacred shamanic rites while providing lucid explanations of the biochemistry of these plants and the cultural prayers, songs, and dances associated with them. Includes DMT, which is found in psychedelic snuff; Amazonian ayahuasca, which is a bitter tasting beverage that triggers visionary experiences with plant gods; Ibogain, which is a yellowish root ingested by indigenous peoples to achieve visionary experiences; and Belladona, Yohimbe and Kava-Kava.
For each group Stafford provides the history, botany, chemistry, mental and physical effects, preparation and use, and legal considerations. The authors detail the uses of hallucinogens in sacred shamanic rites while providing lucid explanations of the biochemistry of these plants and the cultural prayers, songs, and dances associated with them. The text is lavishly illustrated with rare photographs of plants, people, ceremonies, and art related to the ritual use of the world's sacred psychoactive flora.
Get BOOK. Plants of the Gods. The authors elaborate in vivid detail 91 plants, focusing on 14 that have had profound significance on human beings. Included are rare photos of the plants and the people who have used them as well as.
Gnostic Visions.
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