Within the family of psychoactive plants, the diversity of species, active principles, and traditions of use is far greater than is commonly recognized.
I have chosen to differentiate the species, dividing this section into two distinct parts: the first is devoted to psychoactive Solanaceae, a family that has played a prominent role in the history of natural drugs, and the second covers other significant species.
- Mandrake (M. autumnalis)
- Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium)
- Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger)
- Belladonna (Atropa belladonna)
- Bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara L.)
- Wild lettuce
- Hemp and cannabis (Cannabis sativa)
- Betel (Piper betle)
- Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum)
- Iboga (Tabernanthe iboga)
- Peyote (Lophophora williamsii)
- San Pedro (Trichocereus)
- Yagé and ayahuasca
- Syrian rue (Peganum harmala)
- Morning glory
- Bufotenine (N-dimetil-5-hidroxitriptamina)
- Nutmeg (M. fragans)
SOLANACEAE
The Solanaceae have played a major role in European popular folklore. Since ancient times they were used by the Celts, who incorporated them into their “Circe’s potion” (composed of henbane, belladonna, and jimsonweed), or by druids and sorceresses in their “magical” ointments. They were also closely associated with witchcraft, and during the Inquisition their consumption was strictly forbidden. Perhaps this wide historical dissemination is driven by the ability of these plants to germinate across virtually any terrain and climate.
MANDRAKE (M. autumnalis)
It is a stemless plant with a basal rosette of entire or toothed leaves, from the center of which arise long-peduncled flowers. The alkaloids present in this plant are hyoscyamine and atropine-scopolamine. The root has a distinctly anthropomorphic shape and is the only part of the plant possessing celebrated properties. It is extremely poisonous if administered in significant quantities, but in small doses it has been utilized for its genuine calming and hypnotic virtues, although its hallucinogenic properties have been debated. It is also known in Mediterranean folklore as “uva de moro” and “berenjenilla.” It grows widely across Mediterranean regions.
JIMSONWEED (Datura stramonium)
Jimsonweed is an annual plant, very robust and branched. It measures between 30 cm and 1 meter tall, and the entire plant exudes a pungent, unpleasant odor. It features branched stems 4 to 6 cm thick, large, broad, pointed, lobed, and toothed leaves; white single-petaled flowers shaped like a funnel or trumpet; and a walnut-like spiny fruit packed with seeds the size of hempseeds. It can be found in ravines, embankments, ruins, and neglected fields. It appears opportunistically, which makes locating it somewhat unpredictable. Its active principle is daturine, an alkaloid extracted from the plant.
Jimsonweed, as with other solanaceous plants, is an alkaloid source with extensive pharmaceutical applications, primarily due to its energetic action upon the nervous system. Scopolamine, hyoscyamine, and atropine are the principal alkaloids in its makeup. It is also regarded as an antispasmodic, hypnotic, antirheumatic, and antiasthmatic. One traditional method of preparation, as with other solanaceous plants, is decoction. In ancient times, dried leaves were smoked in herbal cigarettes. The dried, shredded leaves are used alone or blended with tobacco, henbane, or belladonna. It grows throughout Mediterranean zones and possesses powerful hallucinogenic properties.
HENBANE (Hyoscyamus niger)
The active constituents of this plant are similar to those of mandrake, containing two primary alkaloids: hyoscyamine and atropine-scopolamine.
Henbane is a plant approximately one meter in height, with broad, long, cleft, and hairy leaves; flowers arranged along the stems, yellowish above and reddish beneath; and a capsular fruit containing many small, round, yellowish seeds. The entire plant, especially the root, is narcotic. One must exercise extreme caution with the dosage. Black henbane is commonly found across broad areas of Central Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia eastward to Pakistan. It can sometimes be found in beech forest clearings and on calcareous soils. To extract the seeds, a circumferential incision is made across the fruit capsule along a plane perpendicular to the axis. This cuts away a small lid that falls off, releasing the seeds. This capsule is called a pyxidium. Its effects are intensely hallucinogenic and must be approached with extreme caution, due to the loss of consciousness and mortal danger its ingestion can entail, just like the rest of the solanaceous plants.
BELLADONNA (Atropa belladonna)
A solanaceous plant endowed with calming, narcotic, and toxic actions, possessing a specialized action causing pupillary dilation (mydriasis).
Belladonna is a very well-developed perennial plant (reaching up to 4.5 meters in height), with a thick rhizome and sturdy, heavily branched, pubescent, and glandular stems; the leaves are large, oval, and emit an unpleasant odor. The bell-shaped axillary, nodding flowers display a lurid purplish color; they develop into spherical, shiny black berries partially covered by the accrescent calyx.
In Spain it can be found in beech and oak forest clearings and along the edges of logging roads in the northeastern mountains southward to the Serranía de Cuenca and Sierra de Segura. All parts of the plant contain various alkaloids (those used in pharmacy are obtained from the roots and leaves), among which hyoscyamine, atropine, and scopolamine predominate; during the processing stages, hyoscyamine decomposes into atropine. Depending on the dose it can be fatal, but at the proper therapeutic dosage, it serves as an excellent depressant of the parasympathetic nervous system and produces an increase in heart rate. It can cause death through anesthesia and paralysis of vital centers. Belladonna has been widely used in medicine thanks to its multiple applications: in ophthalmology as a pupil dilator; and for its paralyzing virtues it became the antispasmodic plant par excellence, treating spasms, gastrointestinal, biliary, gallbladder, and renal colic. It arrests salivary, sweat, and bronchial secretions; it is used against nervous and spasmodic constipation, neuralgias, and serves as a powerful antidote in intoxications. It remains one of the best classical remedies against the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
BITTERSWEET NIGHTSHADE (Solanum dulcamara L.)
This plant is also known by vernacular names such as emborrachadora, hierba pelada, bittersweet, woody nightshade, and climbing nightshade. Bittersweet nightshade is common across Europe and Western Asia, typical of damp places near water. Today it has also been introduced into the Americas.
This solanaceous plant is a semi-woody climbing vine, about 2 to 3 meters tall, with a woody rootstock and flexible stems sprawling over surrounding shrubs. As it ages it becomes covered in bark, losing its initial hairy appearance and taking on an ash-gray greenish hue. The dark leaves are alternate, petiolate, and pointed. The lower leaves are ovate and cordate, while the upper ones are more entire at the base, with two winged segments. The small purple flowers appear in July, blooming in loose, irregular clusters with long peduncles. The corolla is purple with five acute reflexed segments, featuring two round yellow or green spots at the base of each segment. The fruit is a small oval berry, initially green, that turns scarlet in autumn, at which point it matures into a pulpy, bitter, and poisonous berry with numerous whitish seeds.
Its effect is similar to that of belladonna, though less intense. It is a gentle narcotic, especially compared to other species in the same family. Like other plants of its family, bittersweet nightshade possesses medicinal and curative virtues, such as the treatment of asthma, spasmodic cough, gout, rheumatic conditions, psoriasis, and other chronic skin diseases. Furthermore, it has been used in oncology and also as a diuretic and depurative metabolic stimulant. It is prepared as a hot infusion (30 to 40 g per liter, consumed warm) or as powder (1 g per dose, up to 10 g daily). These dosages are purely medicinal.
WILD LETTUCE
Although its daily use is restricted to salads, one of the properties of lettuce is acting as a hypnotic. Dried lettuce leaves and decoctions of the stalks produce a hypnotic effect proportional to the amount of plant matter reduced (boiled or decocted). In Mediterranean culture this bitter juice was historically recommended to induce dreams.
OTHER SPECIES
HEMP AND CANNABIS (Cannabis sativa)
The psychotropic drugs discovered thus far almost universally contain indole alkaloids. The only exception to this rule is cannabis, whose active principle (tetrahydrocannabinol) contains no nitrogen and is therefore not an alkaloid. It is customary to consider its common forms—marijuana and hashish—as “minor” visionaries, except when administered in high doses and when the raw material is of exceptional potency. Derivatives of the botanical species Cannabis sativa constitute a group of drugs classified in modern systems among hallucinogens.
The botanical species from which the drug is extracted is Cannabis sativa L., of the Cannabaceae family, whose traditional variants include: Cannabis indica, C. mexicana, C. americana. These varieties are fundamentally landraces developed under different climatic conditions. Its active principles (cannabinoids), contrary to widespread belief, are found in all parts of the plant, in both male and female specimens; however, they are most abundant in the flowering tops and in young, small leaves rather than in male flowers. The parts where they occur in lowest proportion are the stems and large fan leaves. In 1966 it was demonstrated that the most active agent responsible for hallucinogenic effects among cannabinoids is trans-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC). It is followed in activity by delta-8-THC. Following these chemopharmacological investigations, these compounds were characterized as psychotomimetic agents whose effects are dose-dependent, displaying greater potency following inhalation than ingestion; that is, they are more active smoked than eaten. THC acid is inactive orally, but converts in part into active delta-9 or delta-8 when smoked. Once the active principle became known, researchers readily achieved its chemical synthesis.
Somewhat artificially, the plant provides four distinct classes of preparations: 1. Hashish, which is the resin or dried resin glands possessing maximum potency and highest cannabinoid concentration. 2. Marijuana or grifa, which is the whole dried herbal plant. 3. Kif, the flowering bud or fleshy coating enclosing the seed. 4. Seeds, rich in fatty oils but devoid of psychotropic effects. All these cannabis derivatives have been consumed for centuries across countless cultures. One hundred grams of cannabis can yield five grams of resin, which in turn may contain approximately 250 mg of THC (about 5%). Hashish contains 5 to 10 times more active THC than herbal marijuana. North African grifa was historically ten to twenty times more potent than wild American ditch weed, but milder than concentrated cannabis preparations of the Middle East.
Hashish, like LSD, is an entheogenic drug that acts simultaneously as a mild stimulant and gentle sedative. The specific effect at low doses consists of an intensification of perceptual acuity for sounds and colors, alterations in the sense of space and time, a mood fluctuating from dysphoria to euphoria, a facilitation of speech and thought, and a heightened erotic and sexual sensitivity. Acute intoxicating states, lasting roughly three hours, conclude with a return to normal mental functioning without lingering lethargy. Frequent, chronic use of cannabis may lead to decreased physical and psychological drive.
Currently, the sale and trafficking of cannabis and its derivatives are prosecuted and penalized in Europe, except in the Netherlands where retail sale and consumption are liberalized. Industrial hemp crops exist legally across Europe for countless non-psychoactive manufacturing applications. In Spain private consumption in private spaces is decriminalized, accompanied by social tolerance toward the substance. Similarly, consumer organizations in our country actively pursue legal avenues to achieve full statutory decriminalization of cannabis and other psychoactive substances.
BETEL (Piper betle)
From this Indonesian climbing vine, widely cultivated throughout tropical Asia and the Americas, a traditional chewable product is prepared that stains saliva bright red, widespread among local populations. It consists of a fresh betel leaf treated with slaked lime paste, rolled up around a piece of areca palm nut and aromatic spices. The resulting quid is chewed without swallowing, producing a tonic effect and a feeling of mild intoxication due to the presence of alkaloids.
OPIUM POPPY (Papaver somniferum)
It is an annual plant, up to 1 meter in height, sparsely branched, with oblong, sinuate-toothed leaves, and petals of various colors—white, pink, red, and violet—with a dark blotch at the base. The fruit is a large capsule. It is distributed across Southern Europe, North Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. In the Iberian Peninsula, alongside the opium poppy, there exists another plant with related effects: Chelidonium majus, known locally as greater celandine or swallowwort.
A milky latex is harvested from incisions made in unripe capsules, and rarely from other parts of the plant. This latex coagulates upon contact with air. Opium is a complex mixture of gums, resins, sugars, and diverse compounds, among which approximately 20 exhibit pharmacological activity, almost all alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, thebaine, noscapine (narcotine), narceine, and papaverine. The most important of all is morphine, contained in opium in variable proportions (3–22%), which gives opium its primary characteristics.
Morphine depresses nervous centers, especially those of the brain, and alleviates painful sensations regardless of their origin. It is therefore used in medicine to relieve acute pain and soothe suffering in terminally ill patients. In 1898 Professor Heinrich Dreser of Bayer introduced a new compound to the world: after adding two acetyl groups to morphine, he obtained diacetylmorphine, commonly known as heroin. Heroin produces rapid physiological tolerance and profound dependence. Its abuse can become severely destructive, causing acute social, physical, and psychological problems. Efforts to manage heroin dependence include substitution therapy with methadone, an opioid maintenance medication that requires comprehensive medical and social support rather than simplistic approaches.
IBOGA (Tabernanthe iboga)
The root bark of Tabernanthe iboga, a small flowering shrub distantly related to coffee that grows in Central and West Africa, contains ibogaine, a visionary alkaloid. The properties of this plant have inspired fascination for their therapeutic potential, should clinical research expand. Ibogaine, depending on the dosage, acts as a powerful stimulant and traditional aphrodisiac, transforming at higher amounts into a prolonged visionary agent. It is one of the few botanicals celebrated for aphrodisiac qualities with documented pharmacology. The alkaloid was isolated in 1901, with historical claims regarding treatment for sexual dysfunction. Today, the Fang ethnic group in Gabon maintains the Bwiti spiritual tradition centered around iboga as a sacrament of healing and communal solidarity. Bwiti signifies the art of healing and serves as the cultural backbone of the Fang people. Its legal status has historically remained unregulated in various European jurisdictions.
PEYOTE (Lophophora williamsii)
Peyote was one of the most celebrated hallucinogenic drugs among the indigenous peoples of Mexico, whose sacred properties were held in such esteem that Mexican Indians elevated the cactus to the status of a living divinity. It is a cactus native to the semi-desert regions of central and northern Mexico and the southern United States. Peyote possesses a globular stem with a flattened, depressed apical center. It measures 5 to 10 cm in diameter and 2.5 to 7.5 cm in height, bearing a glaucous blue-green color. It exhibits 5 to 13 broad, flattened ribs separated by narrow furrows. Along each rib is a row of low tubercles spaced roughly 1.5 to 2 cm apart, each bearing an areole. The areoles are large and crowned with a dense, woolly tuft of white or yellowish hair up to one centimeter in length. Spines are absent in adult specimens, though seedlings may bear rudimentary spines. The thick taproot is turnip-shaped, extending ten centimeters or more underground. Initially solitary, the cactus eventually produces lateral offsets, forming communal colonies of more than 50 individuals.
The flowers emerge from young areoles in the apical wool of the plant. Funnel-shaped, they measure 1.5 to 2.5 cm across, displaying shades of pink, pale rose, or near-white, with darker central midveins. The stamens and style are white. The stigma bears three to seven reddish or yellowish lobes. The stamen filaments are thigmonastic, bending toward the central style when touched.
Numerous chronicles document this plant and its central role in religious celebrations. Peyote has been consumed sacramentally in Mexico for centuries, meticulously described by Spanish colonial chroniclers and missionaries. The most common method of preparation is drying the cactus into buttons. Another preparation involves mashing fresh cactus into a moist paste mixed with water, which is consumed directly or occasionally accompanied by fermented beverages.
Peyote contains nine primary alkaloids. The principal compound is mescaline, isolated by Arthur Heffter in 1896. Others include anhalodine, which produces drowsiness and a dull cranial sensation; peyotline, which causes physical fatigue and aversion to intellectual exertion; and lophophorine, the most toxic alkaloid in peyote, which provokes occipital headaches and acts as a pharmacological antagonist to morphine. Chemically, these phenethylamine and tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids relate structurally to various central stimulants and natural toxins. They occur both in dried buttons and living plants in variable proportions, just as opium fluctuates in the opium poppy or hashish in Cannabis sativa. Alkaloid concentrations vary with climatic conditions, harvesting season, and soil chemistry.
Peyote receded from Western attention for decades before experiencing renewed scientific and cultural interest in the 1930s. Notable among its chroniclers was Aldous Huxley, who detailed his experiences with mescaline in The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell. Ingestion commonly provokes transient nausea and vomiting in inexperienced individuals, followed by an intoxication characterized by two marked phases: initial excitation, succeeded by contemplative motor tranquility and vivid colored visions. Under peyote one feels energized, euphoric, and talkative, with pronounced mood alterations. One experiences heightened intellectual clarity alongside blunted hunger and thirst. Pupils dilate, visual acuity sharpens, and perception of light, contrast, and color becomes extraordinary, lending fascination to ordinary details. Deep internal visions and elaborate imaginative imagery unfold.
Peyote appears to act upon optical centers in the brain, converting acoustic sensations into chromatic impressions and visual patterns into sounds, generating a biochemical spectacle of synesthetic light and sound. The mental states induced by peyote and mescaline resemble those produced by cannabis and other entheogens, prominently featuring ego dissolution and experiential union with the external world.
SAN PEDRO (Trichocereus)
It is a columnar cactus native to the Americas that, like peyote, contains mescaline. It has a slender, dark green stem over a meter tall, armed with spines. Among cacti, after peyote, this genus contains the highest concentrations of mescaline. The genus Trichocereus includes several related taxa, prominently Trichocereus peruvianus. Other mescaline-bearing species include macrogonus, cuzcoensis, pachanoi, validus, bridgesii, terscheckii, taquimbalensis, and werdermannianus. These cacti are cultivated worldwide. In northern Peru, traditional healers ingest it in a ceremonial decoction called cimora, which combines at least six botanical ingredients, prominently Datura stramonium and T. pachanoi. The effects of cimora are intensely entheogenic, producing deep shamanic visionary trances.
YAGÉ AND AYAHUASCA
Banisteriopsis caapi is a jungle liana with ovate or ovate-lanceolate leaves ending in a point, smooth and reddish. It grows in moist tropical forests around 300 meters above sea level at temperatures around 30 °C. The vine reaches massive dimensions, winding into forest canopies with tight counterclockwise twists resembling heavy cables. Although wild, Amazonian indigenous communities frequently cultivate it near settlements.
It contains the beta-carboline alkaloids banisterine (yageine) and harmine. Both alkaloids share identical chemical formulas derived from tryptophan with an indole nucleus. This plant contains natural MAO inhibitors, compounds utilized in clinical psychiatry for the treatment of depressive disorders.
The primary ingredients of traditional ayahuasca are Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis, which interact synergistically to produce profound internal and visionary journeys. Psychotria viridis is rich in DMT (dimethyltryptamine), a powerful hallucinogen. DMT is orally inactive on its own due to peripheral monoamine oxidase breakdown, but when combined with the vine’s MAOI beta-carbolines, it produces vivid visionary effects with low physiological toxicity.
One traditional way to prepare yagé involves simmering crushed vine sections in water, straining off the fibrous mass, and repeating the boiling three times with fresh water until a clear, reddish syrup is achieved. Once cooked, it is allowed to cool. It is also boiled alongside datura or nightshade admixtures in certain traditions. Effects begin with paleness, trembling, nausea, vomiting, and heavy sweating. After an initial ten minutes of acute excitation, physical exhaustion sets in before transitioning into visionary entheogenesis. Effects depend heavily on dosage, constitutional sensitivity, and mental state. Telepathic phenomena have historically been attributed to these brews. Among beta-carboline botanicals, Syrian rue represents a potent Old World analogue. Other plants frequently utilized for their DMT content in ayahuasca analogues include Mimosa hostilis, Acacia maidenii, and Phalaris aquatica.
SYRIAN RUE (Peganum harmala)
Belonging to a subfamily of the Zygophyllaceae, Peganum harmala, known in Spain as alharma or gamarza, also contains the alkaloids banisterine and harmine. This plant is a perennial herb with simple, alternate, deeply divided leaves; the flowers are large and white; the fruit is a three-valved capsule with numerous seeds. It is found on arid and saline soils throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Harmine was originally isolated from the seed coats of this plant. In parts of the Balearic Islands, rural traditions historically macerated its seeds during specific festive rites.
The effects of this plant are sedative, but because it is a potent MAO inhibitor, it is widely utilized to brew ayahuasca analogues.
MORNING GLORY (Ipomoea violacea)
This plant holds an important position among hallucinogenic botanicals due to its lysergic acid amide content. An exotic plant of the Convolvulaceae family (historically grouped under Nyctaginaceae), it features erect, herbaceous, knotty stems six to eight decimeters tall; opposite dark green leaves; and fragrant funnel-shaped corollas in white, red, yellow, or variegated shades that open at dawn and close at dusk. Originating in the Americas, it is widely cultivated in gardens.
Roughly 50 to 100 morning glory seeds suffice to induce pronounced hallucinogenic effects, as the active lysergic acid amides concentrate within the seeds. Another closely related botanical is ololiuqui, bearing white flowers and lentil-like seeds. Like morning glory, its effects are potent and hallucinogenic. Found in northern Mexico and the American Southwest, indigenous groups in Mexico and California cultivate them. The most representative species are Ipomoea violacea and Argyreia nervosa, the latter being significantly more concentrated in alkaloids.
BUFOTENINE (N-dimetil-5-hidroxitriptamina)
Bufotenine can be found in the nematocysts of the sea anemone (Metridium) and in certain botanical species, such as the mushroom Amanita mappa and traditional snuffs made from cohoba or piptadenia seeds. Beyond these species, it is found in the skin of toads, particularly within parotoid secretions and gland tissue. Toad species containing bufotenine include: Bufo viridis, calamita, americana, arenarum, mauretanicus, marinus, paracnemis, and crucifer. In addition to bufotenine, one finds related compounds such as serotonin and bufotenidine. Bufotenine is biosynthesized from serotonin via dimethylation of its amine group.
NUTMEG (M. fragans)
The botanical species M. fragans, native to the Moluccas and belonging to the genus Myristica, provides the well-known spice nutmeg. This seasoning, widely used in cooking, pharmaceuticals, and perfumery, provides volatile essential oils including safrole, whose structure resembles mescaline and MDMA (ecstasy). In addition to safrole, it contains elemicin and myristicin, which reduce fatigue and suppress appetite. In 1829, biologist Jan Purkinje likened the state of excitation after ingesting three whole nutmegs to the effects of marijuana.
One traditional way to prepare it involves placing 100 to 150 grams of powdered nutmeg into a thermos flask and pouring boiling water over it. Seal it tightly, as the active oils are highly volatile. Allow it to steep overnight and strain through a fine cloth. Mix with orange juice or similar fruit juice, as its taste is intensely unpalatable. This preparation yields approximately four servings.
Through my personal bioassay, I was able to observe its physical and psychological effects, as well as its unpleasant side effects. The preparation of the nutmeg was carried out as described above, and its effects, although slow to emerge, proved intense. Approximately one hour after ingestion, one begins to feel a distinct tingling in the frontal area of the cranium, a certain heaviness in the eyelids, and a mild disturbance of sensory perception. As the hours pass, its effects increase considerably, and if one remains physically active, the substance metabolizes more quickly, intensifying its symptoms. It reaches its peak at around 4 or 5 hours, producing a state of intoxication that markedly alters the perception of space, time, and surroundings. Everything takes on a dreamlike quality. Pupils dilate slightly and the conjunctiva becomes injected and red. These peak effects last approximately two more hours, gradually subsiding over the next twelve hours. As the effects fade, the dehydration caused by fluid loss produces intense thirst. The next day brings the symptoms of a heavy hangover, with only vague memories of what transpired. For the subsequent two or three days, one experiences a persistent physical and mental sluggishness. The consequences of higher doses have not been systematically characterized. In truth, the modest psychoactive effects do not compensate for the harsh physical side effects.
