Curr Top Behav Neurosci
2018
Dennis J. Mckenna, Jordi Riba
67 citations
New World indigenous peoples are noted for their sophisticated use of psychedelic plants in shamanic and ethnomedical practices. The use of psychedelic plant preparations among New World tribes is far more prevalent than in the Old World. Yet, although these preparations are botanically diverse, almost all are chemically similar in that their active principles are tryptamine derivatives, either...
Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences
2015
Dennis J. Mckenna, Jordi Riba
31 citations
New World indigenous peoples are noted for their sophisticated use of psychedelic plants in shamanic and ethnomedical practices. The use of psychedelic plant preparations among New World tribes is far more prevalent than in the Old World. Yet, although these preparations are botanically diverse, almost all are chemically similar in that their active principles are tryptamine derivatives, either...
J Neural Transm (Vienna)
April 26, 2013
Ede Frecska, Attila Szabo, Michael J. Winkelman et al.
107 citations
N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is classified as a naturally occurring serotonergic hallucinogen of plant origin. It has also been found in animal tissues and regarded as an endogenous trace amine transmitter. The vast majority of research on DMT has targeted its psychotropic/psychedelic properties with less focus on its effects beyond the nervous system. The recent discovery that DMT is an...
Int J Drug Policy
March 27, 2012
Brian T Anderson, Beatriz C. Labate, Matthew Meyer et al.
26 citations
Statement on ayahuasca.
Open Collections
2010
Dennis J. Mckenna
3 citations
Ethnobotanical, phytochemical, and pharmacological investigations of two Amazonian hallucinogens are presented. The extant literature on the botany, chemistry, and ethnopharmacology of the Malpighiaceous and Myristicaceous hallucinogens is reviewed. The hallucinogenic beverage ayahuasca is prepared from the woody liana Banisteriopsis caapi (Malpighiaceae) and various admixture plants which...
J Anal Toxicol
July 1, 2006
James C. Callaway, Charles S. Grob, Dennis J. Mckenna et al.
33 citations
A demand for clarity regarding a case report on the ingestion of 5-methoxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) in an Ayahuasca preparation.
J Psychoactive Drugs
June 1, 2005
Dennis J. Mckenna
2 citations
In this essay, the author shares his personal reflections gleaned from a lifetime of research with ayahuasca, and speculates on the societal, political, planetary, and evolutionary implications of humanity's aeons-old symbiosis with this shamanic plant. The thesis is developed that at this critical historical juncture, ayahuasca has developed a strategy to broadcast its message to a wider...
Pharmacol Ther
May 1, 2004
Dennis J. Mckenna
299 citations
Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic beverage that is prominent in the ethnomedicine and shamanism of indigenous Amazonian tribes. Its unique pharmacology depends on the oral activity of the hallucinogen, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which results from inhibition of monoamine oxidase (MAO) by beta-carboline alkaloids. MAO is the enzyme that normally degrades DMT in the liver and gut. Ayahuasca has...
Journal of Ethnopharmacology
June 1, 1999
James C. Callaway, Dennis J. Mckenna, C S Grob et al.
N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), harmine, harmaline and tetrahydroharmine (THH) are the characteristic alkaloids found in Amazonian sacraments known as hoasca, ayahuasca, and yajè. Such beverages are characterized by the presence of these three harmala alkaloids, where harmine and harmaline reversibly inhibit monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) while tetrahydroharmine weakly inhibits the uptake of...
Journal of Analytical Toxicology
October 1, 1996
James C. Callaway, Lionel P. Raymon, William Lee Hearn et al.
158 citations
Harmine, harmaline, tetrahydroharmine (THH), and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) were quantitated in plasma from 15 healthy male volunteers after the ingestion of ayahuasca, a beverage that has been used for religious purposes in Brazil since pre-Columbian times. A growing awareness of the interest in this ancient shamanistic practice in modern urban cultures and the widespread popular...
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
February 1, 1996
Charles S. Grob, Dennis J. Mckenna, James C. Callaway et al.
333 citations
A multinational, collaborative, biomedical investigation of the effects of hoasca (ayahuasca), a potent concoction of plant hallucinogens, was conducted in the Brazilian Amazon during the summer of 1993. This report describes the psychological assessment of 15 long-term members of a syncretic church that utilizes hoasca as a legal, psychoactive sacrament as well as 15 matched controls with no...
Psychopharmacology
November 1, 1994
James C. Callaway, Mauno M. Airaksinen, Dennis J. Mckenna et al.
79 citations
The binding of [3H]citalopram to the platelet 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) transporter was measured in a group of healthy male drinkers of ayahuasca, a psychoactive sacrament indigenous to Amazonia, and a group healthy male controls. An increased number of binding sites (Bmax) in the platelets of ayahuasca drinkers was found, while the dissociation constant (Kd) remained the same for both groups....
Journal of Ethnopharmacology
April 1, 1984
Dennis J. Mckenna, G.h.n. Towers, F. S. Abbott
399 citations
Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic beverage derived by boiling the bark of the Malpighiaceous liana Banisteriopsis caapi together with the leaves of various admixture plants, viz. Psychotria viridis, Psychotria carthagenensis , or Diplopterys cabrerana . B. caapi contains harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine while the admixtures contain N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT). DMT, a potent hallucinogen,...