bot 182 psychoactive drugs

• Importance of psychoactive drugs from plants

  • Cultural
  • Medicinal-pharmacological
  • Economic
  • Abuse-recreational-addiction
• Most important psychoactive drugs from plants

  • Ergot (LSD)
  • Cannabis-marihuana
  • Opium-Papaver
  • Amanita muscaria
  • Coca
  • Yagé or ayahuasca
  • Virola
  • Khat
  • Iboga
  • Peyote
  • Ololiuqui
  • Heimia
  • Psilocybe
• Psychoactive drugs


  Many plant-derived compounds can alter one's perception of reality. They may produce feelings of tranquility, invigoration, or "other worldliness". People may use these substances to escape from reality
• Most of the known psychoactive compounds contain nitrogen and many are alkaloids. The best known exception is the active ingredient of marijuana
• How psychoactive drugs work

  1. Absorbed into the blood stream

  2. Transported to various sites

  3. Exert their effects

  4. Taken orally, injected, or absorbed through mucous membranes

  5. Liver involved in degradation

  6. Reach central nervous system

  7. Alter natural interactions between neurons

  8. Neurons send information by chemical messages

  9. Neurotransmitters cross synapses

  10. Specific sites on adjacent neurons bind with neurotransmitters

  11. Trigger response in neuron
• Neurotransmitters altered or mimicked by psychoactive drugs

  • Acetylcholine
  • Norepinephrine
  • Serotonin
  • Neuropeptides
• Action of cannabinoids (such as THC) involves binding to specific endocannabinoid receptors
• Hallucinogens


  Chemicals that produce, in non-toxic doses, changes in perception, in thought, and in mood, but which seldom produce mental confusion, memory loss, or disorientation for person, place and time
• Many synthetic hallucinogens also are known, e.g., LSD and heroin
• Cannabis sativa (Cannabaceae)


  • Resinous monoterpenes have been used in China for thousands of years
  • Probably native to central Asia
  • Used in early times from the Near East to China
  • Source of useful fiber
  • Seed oils used as edible oils in many Asian cultures
  • Used medicinally and for psychoactive properties
• According to USDA sources, cannabis is the number one cash crop in the U.S. today; essentially all of it is grown illegally
• Cannabis is described in ancient Chinese writings as well as in ancient Hindu texts from India. In India, the psychoactive properties of this plant were discovered
• Cannabis resin was originally eaten; in India that is the most common way that it is used today. Marco Polo reported the use of hashish in the East
• By the time of the Crusades, the use of marijuana was found throughout Asia and Africa
• Smoking (anything) was developed by the American Indians and this process did not get introduced into Europe until the 1500's
• Cannabis was brought to the New World by the Spanish and the British in efforts to establish a fiber crop
• In Illinois, this plant was introduced in W.W. I and W.W. II as a source of fiber for ropes. Cannabis has become naturalized and widespread in many areas of the state. Most of the wild cannabis in Illinois has little psychoactive material in it
• Poppies


  • Widely cultivated for the seeds and for seed oil
  • Grown for both legal and illicit sources of opium
  • Morphine and codeine isolated from crude opium and widely used for medicinal purposes
  • Both morphine and codeine are addictive
  • Heroin, the acetylated derivative of morphine, is even more addictive
• Opium has been used for thousands of years as a narcotic. In 3000 B.C., Sumerian tablets describe use of the plant
• Opium was used by most cultures of the Near East to relieve pain
• (Opium) Although often associated with China, the drug was first introduced there by Arab traders in the 7th century A.D.
• (Opium) The drug was originally used as a treatment for diarrhea much as it is today
• In the 17th century, the Dutch introduced smoking to Taiwan (Formosa) and people began to mix opium and tobacco as a treatment for malaria. The practice soon became popular in China
• Although Chinese officials tried to ban the import of opium, first the Portuguese, then the British, forced them to accept this material in trade. This was brought on because the Chinese had little interest in other European goods and the Europeans had to have something to trade for silk, tea, and spices
• England established opium plantations in India to trade with China
• During the 1800's there were a series of opium wars in which the British (and later Germany, Russia, France, and the U.S.) took control of some key port cities of China in order to force the Chinese to trade with them. Hong Kong was one of these
• The use of opium didn't come under control until the Communist government took over in 1949
• Opium wasn't commonly used in Europe until 1525 when Paracelsus (re-) discovered a way to dissolve it in alcohol. This medicinal preparation, paregoric, became popular
• Morphine was isolated in 1803 and the purified alkaloid could be given in measured doses
• Morphine is an potent analgesic and it was widely used in the Civil War. More than 45,000 soldiers returned home as addicts
• Mescal bean, Sophora secundiflora (Fabaceae)


  • The seeds have been used by the American Indians of the Southwestern U.S. as a hallucinogenic drug
  • They are also very toxic
• Khat, Catha edulis, Celastraceae


  • The leaves have been used for many years in the Arabian peninsula
  • The leaves are chewed daily by many
  • The plant is a major export of Ethiopia to Yemen and a number of nearby countries
  • Khat is banned in Saudi Arabia
• Opium wasn't commonly used in Europe until 1525 when Paracelsus (re-) discovered a way to dissolve it in alcohol. This medicinal preparation, paregoric, became popular.
• Morphine was isolated in 1803 and the purified alkaloid could be given in measured doses.
• Morphine is an potent analgesic and it was widely used in the Civil War. More than 45,000 soldiers returned home as addicts.
• Mescal bean


  The seeds of Sophora secundiflora have been used by the American Indians of the Southwestern U.S. as a hallucinogenic drug. They are also very toxic.
• Khat


  The leaves of khat (kat, qat) have been used for many years in the Arabian peninsula. Lime is frequently added to hydrolyse the alkaloids and convert them to the free bases.
• Coca


  The leaves of coca have been chewed for thousands of years by Indians of Andean South America. Cocaine blocks re-adsorption of norepinephrine in the brain. This makes the user feel invigorated and blocks feelings of fatigue and hunger.
• Yagé or ayahuasca


  The resinous exudate of the stems of Banisteriopsis spp. is usually made into a drink known as yagé or ayahuasca. The active compounds are harmine and other related alkaloids.
• Peyote or mescal


  A number of species of cacti from the New World are known to be hallucinogenic. Mescaline is the most common alkaloid.