Lophophora diffusa

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. 

A number of very important natural and synthetic biochemicals belong to the phenylethylamine family. Two of these compounds, dopamine and epinephrine (adrenaline), are neurotransmitters, substances that carry chemical messages through the nervous system of humans and other animals. A third phenylethylamine, tyrosine, is an essential amino acid. And a familiar phenylethylamine found in plants is mescaline, whose chemical name is 2-(3,4,5-trimethoxy-phenyl)ethylamine. The primary natural sources of mescaline are four varieties of cactus two peyote species (Lophophora wiUiamsii and Lophophora diffusa), the San Pedro cactus (Trichocereus pacha-noi), and the Peruvian Torch cactus (Trichocereus peruvianus). 

Peyote, a slow-growing, unobtrusive and acrid-tasting cactus, appears to be native to two areas of northern Mexico, each with its own species. The yellow-green Lophophora diffusa grows in a high desert in the state of Querdtaro, some three hundred miles south of Laredo, Texas. The green-blue Lophophora williamsii inhabits approximately one hundred thousand square miles south of the Rio Grande. 

In Lophophora diffusa, 90 percent of its alkaloids are in the form of "pellotine and there are only trace amounts of mescaline (the first synthesized psychedelic compound). It has larger and whiter flowers than its more familiar relative L williamsii and appears to be an earlier evolutionary form. Its growing range is less than fifty miles in diameter, and it is relatively little-known and unavailable to most people. 

In 1967, a botanical description of another Lophophora species was proposed Lophophora diffusa. The plant in question appears to be restricted to a tiny area in the state of Querdtaro in central Mexico. Yellow-green rather than blue-green in color and lacking ribs, L diffusa seems to have a considerably different chemical makeup, and some botanists now think it is an earlier evolutionary form of the more familiar L williamsii. 

The concentration of mescaline is reported to lie in the range 680-1010 mg per 100 g of fresh plant material [9], The presence of mescaline allows differentiation from the very similar Lophophora diffusa, from which mescaline is absent and pellotine is the dominant alkaloid. 

Source Lophophora diffusa, Trichocerus species. Molecular formula Cn Hn NO3. 

Gymnocalycium gibbosum Islaya minor Lophophora diffusa... 

Lophophora diffusa (Croizat.) H. Bravo Anhalamine, anhalonidine, lophophorine, peUotine, 0-methylpeUotine... 

Lophophora diffusa is a species closely related to L.williamsii This cactus mainly contains phenolic tetrahydroisoquinoHnes and very little of non-phenolic tetrahydro-isoquinolines and phenethylamine derivatives (Bruhn and Holmstedt 1974). 

Peyote is a common term for two species of cactus, Lophophora williamsii and L. diffusa, native to Mexico and Texas. Archaeological specimens suggest that peyote has been used ceremonially for perhaps as many as 8,000 years. Known to the Aztecs as peyotl, the ritual use of this cactus has persisted among... 

Tliis led to some early confusion in chemical studies, and the tendency, later vindicated, to separatepeyotl into two distinct species. What is now considered to be L. diffusa was earlier identified in some chemical studies as Anhalonium wiUiamsii-, whereas the true j4- wiUiamsii (now knows as L. wiUiamsii) was sometimes incorrecdy called A lewinii. There are anatomical and ecological differences, apart from the chemical variations, distinguishing the two species of Lophophora (Anderson 1969 Anderson 1980 Bruhn 6c Holmstedt 1974)-... 

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