Salvia divinorum

Salvia divinorum (also known as sage of the diviners, ska maría pastora, seer's sage, yerba de la pastora or simply salvia) is a plant species with transient psychoactive properties when its leaves are consumed by chewing, smoking or as a tea. Its chief active psychoactive constituent is a structurally unique diterpenoid called salvinorin A, a potent κ-opioid agonist.

This is especially true of certain deliriants (e.g. Jimson weed), powerful dissociatives (e.g. Salvia divinorum), and classic psychedelics (e.g. LSD, psilocybin), in the form of a "bad trip".

Its chief active psychoactive constituent is a structurally unique diterpenoid called salvinorin A, a potent κ-opioid agonist. The known active constituent of Salvia divinorum is a trans-neoclerodane diterpenoid known as salvinorin A (chemical formula C 23 H 28 O 8 ).

Salvinorin A is the main active psychotropic molecule in Salvia divinorum, a Mexican plant which has a long history of use as an entheogen by indigenous Mazatec shamans.

It was not until the 1990s that the psychoactive mechanism was identified by a team led by Daniel Siebert.

Siebert has studied Salvia divinorum for over twenty years and was the first person to unequivocally identify (by human bioassays in 1993 ) Salvinorin A as the primary psychoactive principal of Salvia divinorum.

Salvia divinorum is native to the Sierra Mazateca in Oaxaca, Mexico, where it is still used by the Mazatec, primarily to facilitate shamanic visions in the context of curing or divination.

Salvia divinorum,

The leaves contain opioid-like compounds that induce hallucinations.

Natural opiates: alkaloids contained in the resin of the opium poppy, primarily morphine, codeine, and thebaine, but not papaverine and noscapine which have a different mechanism of action; The following could be considered natural opiates: The leaves from Mitragyna speciosa (also known as kratom) contain a few naturally-occurring opioids, active via Mu- and Delta receptors. Salvinorin A, found naturally in the Salvia divinorum plant, is a kappa-opioid receptor agonist.

The origin of Salvia divinorum is still a mystery, one of only three plants in the extensive genus Salvia (approximately 900 species) with unknown origins—the other two are Salvia tingitana and Salvia buchananii.

S. divinorum grows in a very limited area of Mexico, where it has been cultivated for centuries by the Mazatec Indians for its psychotropic properties.

Mazatec shamans have a long and continuous tradition of religious use of Salvia divinorum to facilitate visionary states of consciousness during spiritual healing sessions.

The Mazatec Shamans are known for their ritual use of psilocybin mushrooms, psychoactive morning glory seeds, and Salvia divinorum.

Salvia divinorum is native to the Sierra Mazateca in Oaxaca, Mexico, where it is still used by the Mazatec, primarily to facilitate shamanic visions in the context of curing or divination.

Plants and fungi used for this purpose include psilocybin mushrooms, psychoactive morning glory seeds (from species such as Ipomoea tricolor and Turbina corymbosa), and perhaps most significant to the Mazatecs, Salvia divinorum.

Albert Hofmann, who collected the first plants with Wasson, objected to the new plant being given the name divinorum: "I was not very happy with the name because Salvia divinorum means "Salvia of the ghosts", whereas Salvia divinatorum, the correct name, means "Salvia of the priests". It is now in the botanical literature under the name Salvia divinorum.

In 1962, Hofmann and his wife Anita Hofmann (née Guanella, sister of Gustav Guanella, an important Swiss inventor) traveled to southern Mexico to search for the plant "Ska Maria Pastora" (Leaves of Mary the Shepherdess), later known as Salvia divinorum.

The 2010 study demonstrated Salvia divinorums closest relative to be Salvia venulosa—a rare and endemic Salvia that is native to Colombia, growing in shaded, wooded gullies at 1500 to 2000 m elevation.

A 2010 phylogenetic study of Salvia divinorum and 52 other Salvia species in the subgenus Calosphace suggest that S. venulosa is the closest known relative of S. divinorum.

Gordon Wasson tentatively postulated that the plant could be the mythological pipiltzintzintli, the "Noble Prince" of the Aztec codices.

Hofmann and Wasson were also among the first Westerners to collect specimens of the Mazatec hallucinogen Salvia divinorum, though these specimens were later deemed not suitable for rigorous scientific study or taxonomic classification.

Salvia divinorum was first recorded in print by Jean Basset Johnson in 1939 while he was studying Mazatec shamanism.

During the course of his research on Mazatec healing practices, Johnson also recorded the use of another hallucinogen, “hierba Maria” now known to be Salvia divinorum.

The known active constituent of Salvia divinorum is a trans-neoclerodane diterpenoid known as salvinorin A (chemical formula C 23 H 28 O 8 ).

Well-known terpenoids include citral, menthol, camphor, salvinorin A in the plant Salvia divinorum, the cannabinoids found in cannabis, ginkgolide and bilobalide found in Ginkgo biloba, and the curcuminoids found in turmeric and mustard seed.

Its chief active psychoactive constituent is a structurally unique diterpenoid called salvinorin A, a potent κ-opioid agonist.

Centrally active KOR agonists have hallucinogenic or dissociative effects, as exemplified by salvinorin A (the active constituent in Salvia divinorum). These effects are generally undesirable in medicinal drugs.

Gordon Wasson tentatively postulated that the plant could be the mythological pipiltzintzintli, the "Noble Prince" of the Aztec codices.

R. Gordon Wasson has posited that the plant known as pipiltzintzintli is in fact Salvia divinorum.

These specimens were sent to botanists Carl Epling and Carlos D. Játiva, who described and named the plant as Salvia divinorum, after its use in divination and healing by the Mazatec.

Epling published more than one hundred scientific works ranging from monographs to contributions to local floras, and described numerous genera and species new to science—including the well known psychoactive Salvia divinorum.

See also the legal status of salvia in North Dakota and Nebraska).

Salvia divinorum, a psychoactive plant, is legal in most countries.

This legislation was nicknamed Brett's law (formally referred to as Senate bill 259).

Brett's law is a name commonly given to a Delaware statute ( SB259) generally prohibiting use of the psychoactive herb Salvia divinorum.

The known active constituent of Salvia divinorum is a trans-neoclerodane diterpenoid known as salvinorin A (chemical formula C 23 H 28 O 8 ).

Neo-clerodane diterpenes can have hallucinogenic properties such as salvinorin A, a trans-neoclerodane diterpene from Salvia divinorum.

In light of this it is argued that Salvia divinorum could be better understood more positively as an entheogen rather than pejoratively as a hallucinogen.

However, dissociation is also remarkably administered by salvinorin A's (the active constituent in Salvia divinorum shown to the left) potent κ-opioid receptor agonism, though sometimes described as an atypical psychedelic.

Its chief active psychoactive constituent is a structurally unique diterpenoid called salvinorin A, a potent κ-opioid agonist.

Salvia divinorum yields Salvinorin A, a psychotropic drug

Nebraska Senator Vickie McDonald responded with "Anytime anything's on YouTube it's an issue," and "Legislators, parents, grandparents, we need to be on top of these things," McDonald proposed Schedule I listing Salvia divinorum as part of their Controlled Substances Act, under which possession of salvia would have been considered a Class IV felony with a penalty of up to five years and trafficking would have fallen under a Class III felony with up to a 20 year penalty.

Senator Vickie McDonald supported a proposal for the addition of the psychoactive herb Salvia divinorum to Nebraska's Schedule I classification early in 2008.

A second motion raised in October 2008 attracted 18 signatures, and it was reported that Mann had also written to Jacqui Smith, then Home Secretary.

Following a local newspaper story in October 2005, Mann raised an Early Day Motion calling for Salvia divinorum to be banned in the UK (EDM796).

In light of this it is argued that Salvia divinorum could be better understood more positively as an entheogen rather than pejoratively as a hallucinogen.

Other well-known entheogens used by Mexican cultures include the alcoholic Aztec sacrament, pulque, ritual tobacco (known as 'picietl' to the Aztecs, and 'sikar' to the Maya (from where the word 'cigar' derives)), psilocybin mushrooms, morning glories (Ipomoea tricolor and Turbina corymbosa), and Salvia divinorum.

Australia has imposed its strictest 'schedule 9' (US Schedule I equivalent), and Italy has also placed salvia in its 'Table I' of controlled substances (also US Schedule I equivalent).

Salvia divinorum