Ethnomedical, Botanical and Phytochemical Aspects of Natural Hallucinogens

Abstract

More than 200 species and/or varieties of higher plants, as well as numerous species of basidiomycetes, are reported in the literature to have been used for their hallucinatory and/or euphoriant effects.Due to a paucity of research, only a few of these have been confirmed as definitely hallucinogenic in man or animals.This article reviews all of those plants now known to have a scientific basis for producing hallucinogenic effects in man or for which reliable ethnobotanical data are available to indicate that they could be hallucinogenic.Those plants alleged to be hallucinatory, but where substantive proof of this effect may be lacking, are summarily included for completeness and in the hope of stimulating investigation.The hallucinogens of higher plant origin alone are found in 146 genera in more than 50 families.In virtually every instance in which the active constituents are known, their chemical skeletons are unique to a specific genus or to a very closely related genus.It is interesting to note that of more than 200 species of hallucinogenic plants only two are legally prohibited from use in the United States by Federal law: Cannabis sativa and Tabernanthe Iboga.Two or three others are illegal in a few states.