Non-Alkaloid Hallucinogens

Question 1

Wormwood or Absinthe

BOTANICAL INFORMATION:

Answer 1

• Weed
• Aster family
• Eurasia

Question 2

Wormwood or Absinthe

HISTORY AS A MEDICINAL PLANT:

Answer 2

• Ebers Papyrus
• Dioscorides and Pliny-treating intestinal worms and gastrointestinal complaints
• Mixtures of alcohol and medicinal herbs
  
  • Wine and wormwood=absinthites
• Steam distillation
• Switzerland-contained in alcohol liqueur
  
  • Factory for commercial production
  • Steeping herb in strong alcohol, distillation, green liquid (natural chlorophyll)
• Prevent fevers
• Wealthy and intelligentsia
• True was expensive, cheap was distilled grain alcohol with cupric acetate or antimony choloride
• Terpenes-thujone
  
  • GABA blocker
  • Moderates firing of neural synapses, resulting in tremors and convulsions
  • Dazed condition, convulsions, enfeebled mind, terrifying hallucinations
• Aesthetic ritual

Question 3

Wormwood or Absinthe

MODERN UTILIZATION:

Answer 3

• Arles-high incidences of neurological disorders and stillbirths
• Banned in Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, and United States
  
  • France after WWI
• Symptoms caused by acute alcohol intoxication
• Vincent van Gogh-led to his suicide
• “true”=green colour, “bohemian”=blue colour
• Today higher in alcohol content

Question 4

Nutmeg

BOTANICAL INFORMATION:

Answer 4

• Tree
• Banda Islands-Indonesia present day
• European spice trade
• Nutmeg from seed, mace from fleshy aril

Question 5

Nutmeg

HISTORY AS A MEDICINAL PLANT:

Answer 5

• Added to betel nut preparations and chewing or snuffing tobacco
• Aphrodisiac in Yemen
• Madashaunda “narcotic fruit”-Ayurvedic medicine
• Medieval Muslim-listed with opium, hashish, henbane as an intoxicating drug
• Egypt-stimulant

Question 6

Nutmeg

MODERN UTILIZATION:

Answer 6

• North America-psychoactive drug
  
  • Used by jazz musicians in New Orleans
  • Prisoners in jails
• Swallowed
• Immediate gagging, vomiting, severe headache, dizziness, nausea, giddiness, visual and auditory hallucinations, detachment from reality, sensations of floating or flying, apparent separation of limbs from the body, coma-like sleep, severe body aches, depression
• Phenolics-myristicin and elemicin
  
  • Metabolized into amphetamine-like compounds:MMDA and TMM
  • Mild inhibitor of MAO

Question 7

Diviner’s Safe or Salvia

BOTANICAL INFORMATION:

Answer 7

• Herbaceous
• Mint family
• Oaxaca in Mexico
• Propagated vegetatively (shoot cuttings)

Question 8

Diviner’s Safe or Salvia

PLANT UTILIZATION:

Answer 8

• Shamaistic-Mazate
• Substitute for sacred mushroom or morning glory seeds
• Schultes and Wasson-enthogenic, ritualistic ingestion of leaves, shamanistic drink called yerba de maria
• Leaf-chewing
• Hallucinations, out-of-body sensations, visual distortions
• Terpenoids-salvinorin-A and B
  
  • Kappa opioid receptor KOR agonists

Question 9

Marijuana

BOTANICAL INFORMATION:

Answer 9

• East and Central Asia
• Separate male and female plants
  
  • Potent resin sensemilla from unfertilized female
• Hemp