Psychoactive plants

Keywords. Salvia divinorum Salvinorin A Psychoactive plants Psychoactive compounds... 

The plant Cannabis sativa produces the psychoactive diug A9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Recreationally, THC is consumed in form of marijuana (dried flowers and leaves) or hashish (resin). The cultivation and possession of Cannabis for recreational use is not... 

This next example involves the well-known plant kawa. A psychoactive beverage made from the roots of this plant is used widely in the islands of the southwestern Pacific Ocean either for ritualistic or routine consumption. Kava is the common name for Piper methysticum Forst. f. from which several compounds responsible for the pharmacological activity have been isolated and identified. Representative structures of the family of styrylpyrones, commonly called kavalactones, are given in Fig. 6.6. The compounds are based upon a carbon skeleton consisting of a styryl function (C C ) attached to a six-membered lactone ring. The fundamental compound, kawain, is shown as structure [547]. Structural variants include... 

A9-THC (2.1 in Fig. 2) is the only major psychoactive constituent of C. sativa. It is a pale yellow resinous oil and is sticky at room temperature. A9-THC is hpophihc and poorly soluble in water (3 p,g mL ), with a bitter taste but without smell. Furthermore it is sensitive to light and air [4]. Some more physical and chemical data on A9-THC are fisted in Table 1. Because of its two chiral centers at C-6a and C-lOa, four stereoisomers are known, but only (-)-trans-A9-THC is foimd in the Cannabis plant [5]. The absolute configuration of the... 

Cannabis sativa, one of the oldest plants farmed by man, has been known for its medicinal properties for at least four millennia (Peters, 1999). The psychoactive-euphoric effects of this plant, as well as its facile and wide climatic range of cultivation, have rendered it a very popular recreational drug. Today, cannabis, or marijuana, is still the focus of strong social, legal, and medical controversy over its therapeutic utility. 

Another of the main systemic routes is oral (Table 3.2). Sometimes raw plant material is chewed in order to release the psychoactive compound into the mouth cavity. Examples include the chewing of coca leaves to extract cocaine (Chapter 4) and the tobacco leaf to extract nicotine (Chapter 5). The problem with this is that many other plant chemicals remain in the mouth, and many of these are carcinogenic. Tobacco leaf chewing leads to oral cancers of the mouth, lips, jaw and tongue, often... 

Marijuana (reefer, pot, grass, weed) is the most commonly used illicit drug. The principal psychoactive component is A9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Hashish, the dried resin of the top of the plant, is more potent than the plant itself. Pharmacologic effects begin immediately and last 1 to 3 hours. 

The roots of the sensitive plants of the genus Mimosa are supposed to be psychoactive. I hey are known to contain DMT. 

Because we are examining psychoactive plants, we must consider their effects in the human nervous system. Broadly, these fields fall under the rubric of neuroscience. Its subdisciplines tell us about more-specific actions of the drug. For example, neuroanatomy and neurophysiology... 

Psychoactive plants have been a part of human life since our beginning. Our first experiences with them probably came from foraging among plants for food. Through trial-and-error learning and behavioral reinforcement, experience has shaped our use of herbal drugs. Similarly,... 

The tobacco plant was long used by Native Americans before the arrival of Europeans. The word tobacco derives from tabacum, the Indian name for the pipe they used to smoke it. Nicotine, the principle psychoactive chemical in tobacco, was named after Jean Nicot de Villemain, a French diplomat who advocated its use in Europe in the late 1500s (Rudgley 1999). It is less commonly known that tobacco grew wildly in the interior of Australia, and was used by inhabitants there before Europeans arrived. 

Cocaine is the principal psychoactive alkaloid from the coca plant (figure 4.16). Other tropine alkaloids include c/s-cinnamoyl cocaine, trans-cinnamoyl cocaine, o-truxillin, and j truxillin (Gruenwald et al. 1998). 

Due to similarities in their names, the mescal bean is often confused with mescaline (Schultes and Hofman 1980, 1992). These derive from entirely different plants whereas mescaline derives from peyote cactus, the mescal bean grows on the shrub Sophora secundiflora. The mescal bean itself has psychoactive effects, and was used since prehistoric times by Indians in the Rio Grande basin. Samples have been found dating back... 

Psychotria viridis and P. carthagenensis Psychotria species contain DMT, A/-methyltryptamine, and N-methyltetrahydro-jS-carboline. However, a more recent study of P. carthagenensis showed the plant to be devoid of psychoactive alkaloids (Leal and Elisabetsky 1996). 

Toxicity from tropane alkaloids often results from their effects on autonomic function. Several species of Datura are freely available, either growing in the wild or cultivated as ornamental plants, such as angel s trumpet (Datura sauveolens). Periodic outbreaks of jimsonweed use occur, when adolescents learn about the psychoactive effects of the plant and intentionally ingest it. 

Cannabis is one of civiiization s oidest cuitivated nonfood plants, and does not seem to exist anymore in its wiid form (figure 10.1). In addition to its psychoactive effects, the cannabis plant has also been used for its fibers. Hemp fibers have been found in China dating from 4000 B.C.E., and hemp ropes were dated to 3000 B.C.E. in Turkestan, but it is not certain that cannabis was used for psychoactive purposes at those piaces and times (Schuites and Hofman 1992). 

Several products are derived from the cannabis plant (table 10.1). Hashish and charas are the dried resin exuded from the female flowers. These have the highest content of A9-tetrahydrocannabinol (TFIC) at 10-20% and have the most potent psychoactive effects. Ganja and sinsemilla are the dried tops of the female plants, which averages 5-8%. Marijuana and bhang are derived from the rest of the plant and have the lowest TFIC concentration (2-5%). 

There are approximately 400 chemicals in the cannabis plant, 61 of which are unique and may be called cannabinoids. The most common psychoactive cannabinoid is A9-tetrahydrocannabinol (A9-THC) (Robbers et al. 1996) (figure 10.4). Other psychoactive cannabinoids include A8-tetrahydrocannabinol (A8-THC), ll-hydroxy-A8-tetrahydrocannabinol (11-OH-A9-THC), and 9-nor-9 j8-hydroxyhexahydrocannabinol p-... 

Freedland CS, Mansbach RS. (1999). Behavioral profile of constituents in ayahuasca, an Amazonian psychoactive plant mixture. Drug Alcohol Depend. 54(3) 183-94. 

This is a list of texts and key articles that are especially valuable in the study of psychoactive plant drugs. They are highly recommended for those seeking further reading on the respective topics. General Neuroscience... 

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