Journal of Natural Medicines
2014
Anna P Kowalczuk, Vijayasankar Raman, Ahmed M Galal et al.
13 citations
Salvia divinorum--a species traditionally cultivated in Oaxaca, Mexico--possesses hallucinogenic properties. It is legally recognized as a controlled substance and prohibited in many countries. The proper identification of the plant, both in fresh and dried forms, is an important issue in crime-prevention campaigns. This paper provides a thorough anatomical description of leaves, petioles, and...
Neuroscience Letters
December 3, 2008
Pieter Beerepoot, Vincent M Lam, Alice Luu et al.
Locomotor sensitization induced by the dopamine agonist quinpirole can be potentiated by co-treatment with the synthetic kappa opioid agonist U69593. The identification of salvinorin A, an active component of the psychotropic sage Salvia divinorum, as a structurally different agonist of kappa-opioid receptors raised the question of whether this compound would similarly potentiate sensitization...
The Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics
August 1, 2006
Michael Ansonoff, Jiwen Zhang, Traci Czyzyk et al.
101 citations
Salvia divinorum is a natural occurring hallucinogen that is traditionally used by the Mazatec Indians of central Mexico. The diterpene salvinorin A was identified as an active component of S. divinorum over 20 years ago, but only recently has biochemical screening indicated that a molecular target of salvinorin A in vitro is the kappa-opioid receptor. We have examined whether salvinorin A, the...
Neurogastroenterology and Motility
2006
Raffaele Capasso, Francesca Borrelli, F Capasso et al.
56 citations
Salvia divinorum is a widespread hallucinogenic herb traditionally employed for divination, as well as a medicament for several disorders including disturbances of gastrointestinal motility. In the present study we evaluated the effect of a standardized extract from the leaves of S. divinorum (SDE) on enteric cholinergic transmission in the guinea-pig ileum. SDE reduced electrically evoked...
The Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics
March 1, 2004
Charles Chavkin, Sumit Sud, Wenzhen Jin et al.
212 citations
The diterpene salvinorin A from Salvia divinorum has recently been reported to be a high-affinity and selective kappa-opioid receptor agonist (Roth et al., 2002). Salvinorin A and selected derivatives were found to be potent and efficacious agonists in several measures of agonist activity using cloned human kappa-opioid receptors expressed in human embryonic kidney-293 cells. Thus, salvinorin...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
September 3, 2002
Bryan L. Roth, Karen Baner, Richard B Westkaemper et al.
782 citations
Salvia divinorum, whose main active ingredient is the neoclerodane diterpene Salvinorin A, is a hallucinogenic plant in the mint family that has been used in traditional spiritual practices for its psychoactive properties by the Mazatecs of Oaxaca, Mexico. More recently, S. divinorum extracts and Salvinorin A have become more widely used in the U.S. as legal hallucinogens. We discovered that...