ETHNOBOTANICAL SEARCH FOR HALLUCINOGENIC CACTI¹

Abstract

The Mexican„peyote” cactus, Lophophora williamsii, is one of the best known of hallucinogenic plants. Several botanical, chemical and pharmacological studies have centered on this small cactus. In view of this great interest it is surprising to find a large problem complex closely connected with the peyote cactus, but much less studied. This „peyote complex” covers all the other Mexican cacti with supposed hallucinogenic or psychoactive properties.

We have performed a literature search for cacti which are either ritually employed, used for their stimulant or narcotic properties, or called peyote. Pacbycereus pecten-aboriginum, Mammillopsis senilis and Mammillaria heyderi have been reported in the literature as being used by the Tarahumara Indians of northern Mexico, but these reports seem to have been largely overlooked.

Screening for alkaloids and chemical studies provide further starting points for the ethnobotanist. A Lophophora population in Querétaro, Mexico, has been shown to produce predominantly tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids and almost no mescaline. Has this „peyote” been used ceremonially by the Indians? We don't know as yet.

Carnegiea gigantea and Coryphantha macromeris have yielded psychoactive alkaloids, but in our search for the ethnobotany of these cacti, we have so far not found them used aboriginally as hallucinogens. Recent lay publications have however suggested Coryphantha macromeris as a „natural and legal” psychoactive drug.

To further our understanding of cactus hallucinogens, more studies should be performed by botanists and chemists working together. Above all, however, there is a great need for ethnobotanical field studies of this interesting group of plants.