Indians of the Amazon-especially of the northwest Amazon -and of adjacent parts of the Orinoco have employed various species of the myristicaceous genus Virola for many years as the bases of hallucinogenic preparations.A resin-like liquid of the inner bark of the trees is elaborated into an intoxicating snuff and is prepared in pellets for oral consumption; it is even on occasion ingested raw...
Mescaline, anhalonine, lophophorine, pellotine, and anhalonidine have been identified in alkaloid extracts of a prehistoric specimen of Lophophora from a burial cave in west central Coahuila, Mexico. The specimen is associated with radiocarbon dates of A.D. 810 to 1070 and is one of the oldest materials ever submitted to alkaloid analysis.