Anhalonium williamsii

Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) is a small, spineless cactus that grows in the deserts of northern Mexico and the Rio Grande valley (Anderson 1996 Schultes and Hofman 1980) (figure 9.5). It was originally classified as Anhalonium williamsii, until reassigned to the Lophophora genus. Another related species is Lophophora diffusa. 

One part is the large collection of psychoactive compounds known as the phenethylamines. The first known plant psychedelic was mescaline, or 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine. This simple one-ring alkaloid was discovered in the North American dumpling cactus Peyote (Anhalonium williamsii) in the late nineteenth century, and is now known to be a component of over fifty other cacti. Over a dozen other cactus phenethylamines have been isolated and identified, and there are perhaps a hundred synthetic analogues that are now also known to be psychedelic in action. This body of information has been published by my wife Ann and me as a book entitled "PIHKAL A Chemical Love Story." PIHKAL stands for Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved. 

A great deal of botanical pother about the peyote plant results from its having been classified first by Lemaire in 1845 as Echinocactus williamsii, then by Voss in 1872 as Anhalonium williamsii and then by Coulter in 1891 as belonging to the Mammillaria genus. By the end of the nineteenth century, botanists had placed it in five separate genera. It was only in 1894 that it began to be known by its present name Lophophora. The name Lophophora derives from that tuft in the center it means "crest-bearer. ... 

An alkaloid obtained from the cactus Lophophora williamsii (= Anhalonium williamsii = A. lewinii) (Cactaceae), which grows in the northern regions of Mexico. The cactus is also known by the names peyote or peyotl and dried slices of the cactus are called mescal buttons . 

In chemical literature Anhalonium lewinii, A. williamsii Lem. and A. jourdanianum Lewin are mentioned as different species. However, botanists definitely recognize only one species Anhalonium williamsii Britton and Rose Lophophora williamsii (Lemaire) Coulter). It would be worth while to investigate, using fresh and well-identified material, whether only pellotine is present in A. williamsii, as stated by Heffter. Such findings may give support to a revision of the taxonomy of these cacti. 

Pellotine was isolated by Heffter (9) from Anhalonium williamsii (0.74 % of the fresh plant) and was found later by Kauder (5) in A. lewinii. The... 

Mescaline is an alkaloid isolated from the peyote cactus, species Lophophora williamsii or Anhalonium lewinii, that grows in the southwestern United States and in Mexico. Mescaline is found in buttons that grow on top of the plant. Aztec and Native American Indians used the buttons in religious rites and for treatment of snakebite, flu, and arthritis. Some street names include bad seed, blue caps, cactus buttons, devils root, mesc, moon, peyote, shaman, and tops. 

Anhalonium Bad seed Big chief Button Cactus Indian dope Lophophora williamsii Mesc Mescal Mescal button Mescaline Moon tops Peyotl Turnip cactus... 

EXTENSIONS AND COMMENTARY Mescaline is one of the oldest psychedelics known to man. It is the major active component of the small dumpling cactus known as Peyote. It grows wild in the Southwestern United States and in Northern Mexico, and has been used as an intimate component of a number of religious traditions amongst the native Indians of these areas. The cactus has the botanical name of Lophophora williamsii or Anhalonium lewinii and is immediately recognizable by its small round shape and the appearance of tufts of soft fuzz in place of the more conventional spines. The dried plant material has been classically used with... 

Anhalonkim alkaloids. A group of isoquinoline alkaloids from the Mexican cactus species Anhalonium (Lophophora) williamsii (Peyotl) and A. lewinii, with... 

Peyote (payote, peyotl, from Aztec. nahuatl pey-otl=caterpillar). A small woolly-hairy hedgehog cactus (Lophophora williamsii, Cactaceae) widely distributed in northern central Mexico. The most important constituents responsible for the hallucinogenic activity of P. include Anhalonium or cactus alkaloids such as mescaline and the isoquinoline alkaloids iopho-phorine and pellotine (see Anhalonium alkaloids). Slices of the plant ( mescal buttons ) are eaten or extracts therefrom are drunk to achieve the narcotic state. The Christian Native Church uses P. for ritual purposes. 

The sliced and dried heads of the cactus, Anhalonium lewinii Lopho-phora williamsii) have long been used as an intoxicant by the natives of Mexico and the southwestern part of the United States. Interest in the cactus alkaloids arose when the remarkable use by the Indian tribes and the strange pharmacological properties of this little plant became known. 

Peyote Lophophora williamsii, syn. Anhalonium williamisii) is a cactus and member of the family Cactaceae, and grows wild in the deserts of Mexico and the southern United States [Ij.The cactus is also cultivated in Japan as a decorative plant and known as Ubatama. ... 

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