Salvia Extract, A History

The Salvia Center
2004
by The Salvia Center

Salvia Divinorum extract is quickly becoming the most popular and sought after source of Salvinorin A, the active chemical in salvia. Regular divinorum leaves infused with a concentrated Salvinorin extraction are known to produce a much stronger effect when smoked than normal, not extracted, salvia leaves. This article will follow salvia extract's history from the plant's modern day "discovery" to the salvia extract you buy at your favorite vendor, and will include a little information on how to make salvia extract.

Generally extracts come in varing degrees of potency, each labled with a number of times more powerful the extraction is compared to regular leaves. Some products are 10x, 20x or even 40x this means that smoking the divinorum extraction is 10, 20 or 40 times more powerful than smoking plain, un-fortified leaves. This means that even the most advanced users should be careful as extracts are much more potent than nature even intended.

While Salvia Extract is a rather new invention, Salvia divinorum use is not. It was first recorded in the sierra Madres mountain range in Oaxaca Mexico. Used by the native Mazatec?s as both a medicinal and spiritual plant and teacher. Although there are over nine hundred different species of salvia (meaning ?sage?.. a member of the mint family of plants however, the similarities salvia shows to the other mints are in the flowering bodies only, the rest of the plant, including the psychoactive leaves are closer visually and botanically to the coleus species), Salvia Divinorum?s leaves contains a unique chemical known as Salvinorin A. This is believed to be the active chemical in Salvia and Salvia?s extraction. The effects of which are a hallucinogenic trance that lasts up to 90 minutes.

Salvia extract is currently a very popular way to smoke salvia divinorum because it allows divinorum users to ingest more salvinorin in each hit they take. A common problem among first time smokers is that they fail to get a full taste of the effects because they cannot take large enough hits of plain leaves, this is where extrations make come in, they make it easy for even the most novice smoker to ingest enough of the active chemicals in one or two decent sized tokes. The most popular form of salvia extract is a product comprised of raw salvia leaves infused with extracted salvinorin from other salvia leaves. The solvent used to isolate the ative chemicl n salvia, is usually an alcohol-based chemical, such as grain alcohol. This is a good solvent that readily evaporates and is non-toxic anyways, so that if some solvent is left in the product it will not be harmful to users of the extraction. Remember to check and make sure your salvia extractor is using on grain alchol as a solvent in making his infusions. Other, more powerful, solvents could be used but without professional chemists and procedures there remains a risk of contaminating the end product with the possibly poisonous chemicals. Ethanol is another safe and effective solvent that is often used for high quality salvia divinorum extracts. Salvia extracting can be a rewarding proccess if you are willing to invest the time and pantience to grow a good crop and extract it.

Salvia Divinorum was unheard of in the United States until anthropologist/researcher R. Gordon Wasson came across it while doing research on the hallucinogenic mushrooms in the religious life of the Indians in 1953 the Indians described salvia as ?a less desirable substitute? however they did use salvia as a alternative when there were no mushrooms to be found. Wasson took samples of this plant for research and identification. Although this was the first time our botanists had seen the plant it had existed in Oaxaca Mexico for centuries.

Wasson failed a on a few attempts to retrive enough viable botanical material for the botanists Epling and Jativa to correctly analyze and categorize. When he finally succeeded he also managed to bring back a live specimen that has become the most popular strain of salvia divinorum available for sale today, called ?Hoffman-Wasson?. Epling and Jativa identified the new plant as a member of the sage family and it was studied by a number of the preeminent psychonauts of the day. However no explanation to the plants psychotropic effects were found until salvia extract was first created in 1982 when a chemical called Salvinorin 1 was extracted from the salvia plant by Alfredo Ortega. In 1984 a team of scientists extracted what they referred to as Salvinorin A and Salvinorin B the chemicals giving salvia its hallucinogenic properties. These scientists included L.J. Valdes who went on to be one of the more prolific explorer/authors of the Salvia space.

The extracted chemicals have since been used to coat the dried leaves with a fortified infusion resulting in a far more potent substance the popularity of which has been growing greatly in recent years. The resulting substance, once the salvia divinorum extraction is dried, looks like crushed-up, darker than normal salvia leaves. The effect, when smoking, is more concentrated and therefore requires less inhales on the rather offensive tasting salvia extract smoke. This has lowered the bar for new smokers to experience the peak effects without having to choke down too much of the noxious smoke. The leaves can be infused with any amount of extracted salvinorin so extract is typically available in many strengths, the most potent of these, 40% extract has extremely strong effects that have drawn many users to salvia extract that would not normally use the plant because of its status as an alternative and less powerful entheogen.

A contributing factor to the growing popularity and public knowledge of the plant and its extracts is the internet. Since salvia extract is not illegal in the United States many people sell and write about it online and it is now widely available to anyone who wants it. Salvia divinorum may not be illegal in the U.S but it is on the DEA controlled substance watch list. This has become a large concern for those who sell the S. divinorum plant and Salvinorin extracts over the internet. The distributors are concerned that if the plant becomes popular although they would get more business the government might deem it a threat and ban it?s use in the United States.

Salvia extract is generally sold by weight labeled with a percentage that reflects the concentration of the salvia extracts infused on the leaves in the product. A common range of salvia extract percentages includes 2x, 5x, 6x, 10, 15, 20x. Each of the percentages will have an increasingly strong effect as the percentage of concentration in the salvia extract rises. The most powerful extract that I have seen so far is 40%, it is hard to belive that any method of extraction and re-infusion resulted in an extracted product that is much more potent than 40%.

The potency of salvia divinorum extract depends on two factors, the potency of the extracted salvinorin and the potency of the divinorum leaves usedwhile making the salvia extract. If high quality salvia leaves are infused with a potent distillation of the active chemical in salvia, the resulting product will be of higher quality. On the converse if low quality salvia divinorum leaf product is used, and the extraction of salvinorin is weak, the divinorum extract will not produce as strong of an effect.

There are two types of salvia divinorum extract available on the web, standardized and non-standardized salvia extract. The difference in these two are in the price and the consistency, the non-standardized extract is typically cheaper but has a tendency to be more varied in its potency, due to the extract used to infuse the leaves. The standardized salvia extract is made in a more controlled and expensive process and will have a consistent level of salvinorn and hence potency.

The extraction of salvinorin from salvia leaves is not nessecaily a difficult one, the web has many good resources that gives detailed instructions on making salvia extract and extractions. The easiest method is a basic alcohol extraction, this is performed by soaking the salvia leaves in grain alcohol. The mixture is then slowly heated to allow the solvent to evaporate from the salvia extract, this produces a resinous mass of extracted salvinorin. To make a specific percentage of salvia extract use the desired ratio of extract to solvent and re-dissolve the saliva extract and mix it with the desired amount of leaf. Using more leaf with less extract will make salvia extract that is less potent, while conversely; more extract and less leaf will produce stronger salvia extract.

Traditonal shamanic salvia divinorum usage does not include any extraction procedures as is it typically used as a less potent, alternative, entheogen that was consumed in the absence of one of the more powerful plant-teachers, generally mushrooms. This means that the recent phenomenon of smoking salvia divinorum extract is a completely new invention. Neo-shamans and other salvia divinorum users are very strong in stating, however, that divinorum is not to be used for recreational purposes.