DISTRIBUTION: Endemic to the Mazatec zone
of the Sierra Madre Oriental of the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
ECOLOGY: On black soil in ravines close to
primary or secondary cloud forest and tropical evergreen forest, 300-1800
m elevation; flowering sporadically from September to May.
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION: Perennial
herb, 0.5-1.5 m tall, flowering stems 1-2(-3) m tall. Stems hollow,
quadrangular, flanged angles, hirtellous, green, translucent and crisp.
Leaves opposite, elliptic to ovate, apex acuminate to caudate, base
attenuate, 10-25(-30) cm long, 5-10 cm wide, glabrous above, below
glandular-punctate, irregularly serrate or crenate-serrate margins.
Racemes erect, simple, 30-40 cm long, internodes 2-4 cm; cymules having
3-6(-12) flowers; rachis hirsute, glabrate. Bracts ovate, concave,
sessile, basally rounded, apex acuminate-caudate, 1-2(-3) cm long, 0.6-1
cm wide, tardily deciduous, mainly violet. Pedicels hirsute, slender,
straight, violet, 4-9 mm long. Calyx with subequal lips, 10-12 mm long,
glabrate to glandular-puberulent, violet; upper lip 1.5 mm long with 3
major veins. Corolla 28-32 mm long, sigmoid, densely villous with
translucent multicellular hairs 0.5-2 mm long, white, glabrous within,
lips becoming tinged with blue in age; tube 19-22 mm long, 2 mm high, 1.5
mm wide at narrowest near throat; galea 8-9(-10) mm long; lower lip
cupped, 5 mm long and 7 mm wide when flattened, middle lobe emarginate.
Stamens glabrous, white, slightly arcuate, 15-16 mm long, rudders 10-11 mm
long, entire, anthers 2 mm long; pollen white. Style 27-32 mm long,
densely bearded below stigma, white. Gynobase horn 3 mm long, 1.2 mm wide,
white, glabrous. Nutlets 1.8-2 mm long, 1(1.2) mm wide at maturity, dark
brown, unknown in wild collections [From amendment by Reisfield 1993].
BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS: The scientific name
of the genus comes from Latin salvus = safe; the specific name "which
means "of the seers", refers to the curious use to which the
plant is put by the Mazatec Indians", to wit, as a shamanic inebriant
or entheogen in divination, especially of the causes of illness (Epling &
Játiva-M. 1962; Wasson 1962). Unfortunately, the original type
description (collected by A. Hofmann & R.G. Wasson 8 September 1962 in
San José Tenango, Oaxaca, México;
Herb.Univ.Cal., Los Angeles; duplicate in
Econ.Herb.Oakes Ames) was in error regarding corolla color ("cyanearum"
or cyan-blue), which was amended to "pure white" by Emboden in a
popular book (Emboden 1979); then more fully amended by Reisfield, who
described reproductive parts in detail, including the nutlets, noting that
the corolla "lips become tinged blue with age" (Reisfield 1993).
This amendement as to corolla color was unfortunately not before three
separate color paintings of the plant had been published, mistakenly
showing it with cyan-blue corollas. The first was by Frances Runyan as
Plate 50 in the first edition of Embodens Narcotic Plants (Emboden
1972) (in the second edition Emboden amended the description and replaced
the erroneous painting with a close-up color photograph of the decidedly
white flowers as Plate 40) (Emboden 1979). There were also two separate
color paintings by Harvard Botanical Museum artist Elmer W. Smith
depicting the flowers as cyan-blue. The first was in Richard Evans
Schultes 1976 Hallucinogenic Plants, which even depicted an
enlarged, all-blue flower (Schultes 1976); the error being repeated in the
French (Schultes 1978) and (pirated) Spanish translations (Schultes 1982).
Finally, in their 1980 poster Plant Hallucinogens, illustration No. 23
likewise depicted S.divinorum with blue corollas (Schultes & Smith
1980). Suprisingly, for such a rare plant, two additional color paintings
have been published, correctly depicting the flowers as white: by F.
Lucerne Coray on page 55 of Schultes and Halbert Hofmanns
coffee-table book Plants of the Gods (Schultes & Hofmann 1979) and by
D.D. Dowden in S. Fosters Herbal Bounty (Foster 1984)! Besides this
plethora of color paintings of an obscure plant, there have also been
published two different botanical illustrations, by John Stanwell-Fletcher
(Schultes 1967; Stafford 1977) and Irene Brady (Mayer 1977; Schultes 1972;
Schultes & Hofmann 1973), plus many black-and-white photographs of the
plant (Díaz 1975;
Valdés et al. 1983, 1987a; Wasson
1963, 1966), and a sketch (Heffern 1974), and the above-cited color
photograph.
AGRONOMIC DATA: There exists
agronomic controversy over the status of S.divinorum as a cultigen. The
type specimen was a cultivar, and the botanical discoverer of the plant
said it "seems to be a cultigen", noting: "We were on the
watch for S.divinorum as we criss-crossed the Sierra Mazateca on horseback
in September and October of 1962, but never once did we see it. The
Indians choose some remote ravine for the planting of it .. whether it
occurs in a wild state (except for plants that have been abandoned or have
escaped) we do not know" (Wasson 1962). Valdés, who made
ethnographic and phytochemical study of this plant his thesis project, has
challenged this, stating that his informant Don Alejandro "indicated
that the plant grows wild in the fairly inaccessible highlands of the
Sierra Mazateca" admitting, however, that all plants he saw were "apparently
originally started by humans" (Valdés 1994). Valdés
failed to cite Reisfields thorough botanical and horticultural study
of the plant, which concluded that the plant was a cultivar:
"Hybridity is suggested, although
intermediacy between two known species has not been recognized"
(Reisfield 1993), while Epling & Játiva-M. (1962) noted an
affinity with Salvia cyanea Lamb. ex Benth. Although Valdés had
been able to obtain 4 seeds from 14 cross-pollinated flowers (28%), these
were killed by overheating in a greenhouse, before viability could be
assessed (Valdés et al. 1987a). Valdés also noted that D.J.
Siebert had obtained viable seed from cultivated plants in Hawaii
(Valdés 1994), but the seedlings were very weak and of dubious
viability in wild conditions (Siebert 1993-94). Reisfield found more than
50% of the pollen grains examined from S.divinorum to be unviable. He
obtained only 11 nutlets from 108 self-pollinations, each potentially
yelding 4 fruits, or a success rate of 11/432 (2.5%); while in 190
cross-pollinations, only 24 fruits developed (24/760 or 3%), commenting "at
no time was a legitimate pollinator observed visiting flowers", even
in a nocturnal "stakeout", althought mature seeds thus obtained
produced some "vigorous seedlings [which] developed into plants
indistinguishable .. from their parents". In his botanical
description of the plant, Reisfield noted its habit of "trailing
along rocky stream banks, sometimes in running water, rooting copiously at
the nodes" (Reisfield 1993).
CULTIVATION: Propagation is
vegetative, and the plant requires rich soil and much moisture, tolerating
sun if moisture is high. Cultivation is possible in northern latitudes,
as, for example Valdés work in Michigan, transplanting from
outdoor gardens into greenhouses in the winter, with 10°C minimum
temperature maintained (Valdés et al. 1987a). This plant has come
to be widely cultivated by North American "basement shamans",
and has been commercially available in the United States since the early
1980s (Foster 1984) and circulated non-commercially in the previous decade
(Grubber 1973;
Superweed 1972). The so-called "Wasson
clone" (from the Hofmann and Wasson 1962 type collection) is the most
commonly sold, along with at least one so-called "palatable clone",
which is far less bitter than the type clone, and was collected by Bret
Blosser in Llano de Arnica, Oaxaca (Blosser 1991-93; Ott 1995b).
ETHNOBOTANICAL DATA: S.divinorum is
employed as a shamanic inebriant by the Mazatec Indians of the Mexican
state of Oaxaca, first described in the ethnographic literature in 1939 by
J.B. Johnson, who noted the use of Hierba María in Mazatec "witchcraft",
parallel to the use of divinatory mushrooms and morning glory seeds
(Johnson 1939). Subsequently described as Yerba de María by Roberto
J. Weitlaner (1952), it was the great pioneer in shamanic studies R.
Gordon Wasson who first collected identifiable material of this novel
species, and became the first outsider to sample its visionary powers, in
Ayautla, Oaxaca, on 12 July 1961. Wasson described customary ingestion of
pairs of the leaves, known as Ska Pastora or La Hembra, by chewing and
shallowing, and also described preparation of a visionary potion by making
an aqueous infusion/suspension of the leaves via hand squeezing, much as
Weitlaner had described "rubbing" the leaves in water (Wasson
1962; Weitlaner 1952). Wasson also photographed use of a metate to express
and infuse the leaves (Hofmann 1990; Wasson 1963, 1966), giving a dose as
6-68 leaves; whereas Weitlaner had said 50-100. Ott reviewed reports of
pharmacology of the leaves, with a dose being described in a dozen sources
as varying from a low of 6 to a high of 240 leaves (Ott 1995b). Building
on the pioneering ethnographic work of Wasson, the group of J.L. Díaz
and L.J. Valdés have conducted the most detailed ethnobotanical
studies of this plant (Díaz 1975, 1977, 1979; Valdés 1983;
Valdés et al. 1983, 1987a). Although shamanic use of S.divinorum
has not been observed outside of the Sierra Mazateca, Wasson proposed that
the plant represented a mysterious Mexica or Aztec entheogen, known in Náhuatl
as pipiltzintzintli, the "most noble little prince" (Wasson
1963). It was further suggested by Emboden that the plant was depicted on
the headdress of a deity found in the Mayan Dresden Codex (Emboden 1983).
Although Valdés, following Aguirre Beltrán and Díaz,
alleged that S.divinorum couldnt have been pipiltzintzintli (Aguirre
Beltrán 1963; Díaz 1979;
Valdés et al. 1987a), alternate
candidates proposed are impossible - the first, Cannabis sativa L., is a
post-conquest introduction to México (Schultes & Hofmann 1980);
while the second, ololiuhqui (seeds of coaxihuitl or Turbina corymbosa
(L.)Raf.) was identified by one primary source of information on
pipiltzintzintli, Friar Agustín de Vetancurt, in his 1698 Teatro
Mexicano, as a plant sometimes mixed with pipiltzintzintli (Vetancurt
1698). My recent review of the pertinent evidence concluded that
S.divinorum "remains our best guess for the identity of the lost
Aztec entheogen" (Ott 1995b). I also cited the rather crude and
demonstrably inefficient Mazatec method of preparing the entheogen and its
lack of a true indigenous name in Mazatec (noting its association with
sheep, a post-conquest introduction supporting its identity with
pipiltzintzintli, since other Mesoamerican Indians were the likeliest
source of this introduction (Ott 1995b). Nevertheless, until the plant is
found elsewhere or in truly wild conditions, or until the hypothetical
parents of this presumed hybrid are identified, it will remain an
ethnobotanical enigma. Wasson noted that S.divinorum was la hembra, "the
female" in a family including el macho "the male", Coleus
pumila Blanco and el nene or el ahijado, "the child" or "the
godson", Coleus blumei Benth. - since both are Asiatic species
introduced post-conquest to Mesoamerica, this datum strenghtens the
argument for non-native status of S.divinorum in the Sierra Mazateca
(Wasson 1963).
BIOCHEMICAL DATA: Like many other
members of the genus, S.divinorum contains unusual terpenoid compounds.
Following up the finding of salviarin and splendidin, novel
trans-clerodane diterpenes, in the Brasilian species Salvia splendens
Sellow ex Roem. et Schult. (Savona et al. 1978, 1979), the Mexican group
of Alfredo Ortega, using no bioassay, isolated a novel trans-neoclerodane
diterpene from S.divinorum, naming the compound salvinorin, and determined
its structure by X-ray crystallography (Ortega et al. 1982). Two years
later, the American group of Valdés isolated the same compound, as
presumed visionary principle of S.divinorum leaves, along with its
inactive desacetyl derivative, giving these compounds the name divinorin A
and divinorin B (Valdés et al. 1984). Again, structure elucidation
was carried out by X-ray crystallography, confirming the structure
established by the Ortega group, and in a note added in proof to their
1984 article, the Valdés group conceded priority, noting the
correct names for the compounds were salvinorin A and salvinorin B. Valdés
subsequently reported his isolation from S.divinorum of the ant-repellant
loliolide, originally from Lolium perenne L. and of unknown human
pharmacology (Valdés 1986). Finally, the absolute stereochemistry
of salvinorins A and B was established by collaborators of Valdés
(Koreeda et al. 1990). Unlike the well-known culinary sage, Salvia
officinalis L., some strains of which contain the volatile psychotropic
terpenoid thujone (Tucker et al. 1980), steam distillation of fresh leaves
of S.divinorum failed to detect thujone (Ott 1993). The volatile nature of
this compound, famous psychoactive agent in Artemisia absinthium L. and
absinthe liqueurs, makes culinary sage potentially psychoactive by simply
smelling the fresh herb (Duke 1987).
TRADITIONAL MEDICINE USES: Besides
its primary use in shamanic divination by the Mazatecs of México,
S.divinorum infusions are also applied topically by the Mazatecs.
Weitlaner described bathing the patient in the same infusion of the leaves
that was previously ingested (Weitlaner 1952), and the Valdés group
described putting the extracted leaf residue on the patients head as
a cataplasm (Valdés et al. 1983). The Valdés group also
documented curative use of an infusion of 4-5 pairs of fresh or dry leaves
to cure or regulate digestive problems like diarrhea, as a stimulant or
tonic for the elderly, against headache and rheumatism, and to cure a
magical illness called panzón de barrego [sic] "big lambs
belly" (Valdés et al. 1983). Significantly, Friar de Vetancurt
mentioned that leaves of pipiltzintzintli were used both in the
preparation of a divinatory potion and were applied topically as a
poultice, a strong argument in favor of the identification of
pipiltzintzintli as S.divinorum (Vetancurt 1698).
PHARMACOLOGICAL DATA: Further to
laboratory studies the Valdés group hypothized that the
psychoactive principle present in the S.divinorum leaves is salvinorin A
(Valdés 1994, Valdés et al. 1984, 1987b). Nevertheless, it
is evident that this bioessay was too inspecific, and it is inexplicable
why the Valdés group, despite rather extensive psychonautic
bioassays with the leaves themselves, failed to employ a human
psychonautic bioassay to guide their phytochemical work, or at least to
conduct psychoanutic bioessays of salvinorin A to verify that it
represented the visionary principle of the leaves. Definitive proof that
salvinorin A represented the entheogenic active principle had to wait
another decade, when a group of "basement shamans" in California
were able to isolate a salvinorin A-enriched crude precipitate (which I
shortly thereafter established was about 50% salvinorin A), demonstrating
by vaporizing and inhaling the compound that it was indeed the visionary
principle of the leaves of Mary Sheperdess, seemingly active at about the
1 mg level! Subsequent tests showed that the threshold for activity of the
vaporized, inhaled compound was 200 mcg, making this an order of magnitude
more potent than psilocine, hitherto the most potent natural product
entheogen (Fischer 1963). Doses as high as 2.6 mg were administered by
this route, with bizarre and overwhelming out-of-body experiences common
above the 1 mg level (Siebert 1994). These "basement shamans"
had already established that the whole leaf was far more active via the "quid
method", that is, chewed and held in the mouth like coca with no
swallowing, than chewed and swallowed as the Mazatecs do - 10 leaves
chewed by the quid method were distinctly active in all volunteers,
whereas the same dose blended in water and swallowed was inactive in all
subjects (Siebert 1994). Young hipsters in México City, who
returned from sojourns fro mushroomic tourism in the Sierra Mazateca to México
City with dried leaves of S.divinorum, were observed to smoke these as a
sort of marijuana substitute, and I established in 1975 that the smoked
leaves were indeed active (Díaz 1976; Ott 1993). The dried leaves
may also be rehydrated and chewed by the quid method (Pendell 1995).
Although Siebert found orally-ingested capsules of crystalline salvinorin
A inactive at doses up to 10 mg, and 2 mg doses of buccal spray of a
dilute ethanolic solution of salvinorin A to be weakly active (Siebert
1994), I found sublingual application of salvinorin A in acetone and dmso
(Ott 1995c) to be highly active, with a threshold for physical effects of
100 mcg, definite psychoactivity at 250-500 mcg and visionary activity
above 1 mg. My review of some 2 dozen reports of human pharmacology of
S.divinorum and salvinorin A estimated the following descending order of
potency for the different routes of ingestion: sublingual salvinorin A ò
vaporized salvinorin A ò chewed leaf, quid method ò chewed
leaf, swallowed ò infusions of leaf (Ott 1995b). It was difficult
to place the smoked leaves in this scheme, as for many people (about half,
in a pair of informal tests involving some 20 volunteers at a time) they
are inactive, and for some elicit only a mild effect after several
inhalations, which subsequent smoking fails to augment. The
pharmacological data I reviewed involved aqueous infusions of 6-160
leaves; chewed and swallowed doses of 26 leaves; ingestion by quid method
of 6-26 leaves; smoking of 1-2 leaves; vaporized and inhaled salvinorin A
doses of 200 mcg - 2.6 mg; and sublingual doses of 100 mcg-1.0 mg
salvinorin A (Ott 1995b). Owing to its unique chemistry (being
non-nitrogenous, unlike the great bulk of known visionary compounds, which
are alkaloidal), it is to be expected that salvinorin A pharmacology
involves novel neurochemistry, perhaps even interaction with a yet-unknown
receptor in brain. Indeed, salvinorin A was tested on 42 known
bioreceptors in a procedure called NovaScreen® and there was no
significant competitive inhibition of reference target compounds on any
receptor. There were 15 neuroreceptors tested: adenosine, alpha 1 and 2,
beta, dopamine 1 and 2, GABAa, GABAb, serotonine 1 and 2, muscarinic 3,
NMDA, kainic acid, quisqualic acid and glycine; plus MAOa and MAOb
(Siebert 1994).
EFFECTS: Wasson compared the effect of the
leaf infusion to psilocybian mushrooms, noting that it "..was less
sweeping, and lasted a shorter time [..] .. it did not go beyond the
initial effect of the mushrooms - dancing colors in elaborate
three-dimensional designs" (Wasson 1962). Valdés emphasized
the need for silence and darkness for full effects to manifest, and noted
the perceived "reality" of vivid and "amazing" "hallucinations"
described as being "quite complete, being visual, oral, aural, and
tactile" (Valdés 1994). Following inhalation of vaporized
salvinorin A, Siebert stated: "people report having visions of
people, objects, and places. With doses above 1 mg, out of body
experiences are frequent" (Siebert 1994). Most people exposed to
higher doses of the vaporized compound report immersion in bizarre,
non-Euclidian dimensions or geometries, often described as curved, tubular
or spherical; not a few find the experience to be terrifying; many note
that the experience is unique, not comparable to other entheogens.
Duration of effects is a function of route of ingestion, with the
swallowing of the leaves or leaf infusions producing effects lasting from
one to a few hours after a latency period of 15-45 minutes (Valdés
et al. 1983). The quid method produces effects commencing in about 10
minutes and lasting 1-2 hours. Vaporized and inhaled salvinorin A exerts
an effect in 10-15 seconds, building rapidly to a peak lasting only about
5-10 minutes, then subsiding over 20-30 minutes (Siebert 1994). Sublingual
salvinorin A in solution begins to be felt in about 90 seconds, reaching a
maximum effect at 10-15 minutes, and lasting 1-2 hours. Smoking dried
leaves typically exerts a mild effect at 10-15 minutes, and lasting 1-2
hours. Smoking dried leaves typically exerts a mild effect, felt after 5-6
inhalations and lasting 1-2 hours. Effects are in all cases virtually
identical (Ott 1995b).
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