Isolation of a Potent Naturally Occurring Hallucinogen, Salvinorin A, from Salvia divinorum and Investigation of Its Photo-degradation
Luann Wong, S. Stevens, M. Hengel, T. Shibamoto
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Laboratory experiment |
|---|---|
| Topics | Salvia divinorum |
| Key findings | Salvinorin A degrades rapidly under UV light, with a half-life of 5.7 minutes in ethyl acetate, and natural sunlight degrades 50% in 8 hours; three photodegradation products were tentatively identified. |
Abstract
Salvinorin A, which is present in the natural plant Salvia divinorum, is a unique non-nitrogenous compound with hallucinogenic activity. When salvinorin A isolated from leaves of Salvia divinorum was irradiated with 300 nm UV light in ethyl acetate, it degraded from 100 μg/mL to 2.84 ± 0.05 μg/mL in 30 min. The calculated average rate constant k of this degradation was 0.12/min and the half-life was 5.7 min. When authentic salvinorin A was irradiated by UV light in an organic solution or an aqueous solution, it degraded over 90% within 40 min, whereas when it was irradiated by natural sunlight, it took 8 h to degrade 50% both in an organic and an aqueous solution. Three photodegradation products were tentatively identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Their structures were similar to that of salvinorin A, suggesting that they are also candidate non-nitrogenous hallucinogens.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on salvia divinorum, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salvinorin A: a potent naturally occurring nonnitrogenous kappa opioid selective agonist. | 2002 | Experimental study | |
| Salvinorin A, an active component of the hallucinogenic sage salvia divinorum is a highly efficacious kappa-opioid receptor agonist: structural and functional considerations. Cloned human kappa-opioid receptors expressed in human embryonic kidney-293 cells and... | 2004 | Experimental study | |
| Synthesis and κ-opioid receptor activity of furan-substituted salvinorin A analogues. Animal model | 2014 | Experimental study | |
| Identification of the molecular mechanisms by which the diterpenoid salvinorin A binds to kappa-opioid receptors. | 2005 | Experimental study | |
| Dopamine D2High receptors stimulated by phencyclidines, lysergic acid diethylamide, salvinorin A, and modafinil. Rat brain striatum homogenates | 2009 | Laboratory experiment |
Citations in the library
Cites 9
- Salvinorin, a new trans-neoclerodane diterpene from Salvia divinorum(Labiatae) Journal of the Chemical Society Perkin Transactions 1 1982
- Divinorin A, a psychotropic terpenoid, and divinorin B from the hallucinogenic Mexican mint, Salvia divinorum The Journal of Organic Chemistry November 1, 1984
- Pattern of use and subjective effects of Salvia divinorum among recreational users. Drug and Alcohol Dependence November 8, 2006
- Salvinorin A: from natural product to human therapeutics. Molecular interventions October 1, 2006
- College student use of Salvia divinorum. Drug and Alcohol Dependence April 1, 2008
and 4 more in the library