The Botanical and Chemical Distribution of Hallucinogens*

Out of the vast array of species in the plant kingdom — variously estimated at from 200,000 to 800,000 — a few have been employed in primitive societies for millennia to induce visual, auditory, tactile, and other hallucinations. Because of their earthly effects that often defy description, they have usually been considered sacred and have played central roles as sacraments in aboriginal religions (Schultes 1969a). Scientific interest in hallucinogenic agents has recently been intense, partly because of the hope of finding potentially valuable drugs for use in experi mental or even therapeutic psychiatry and also for use as possible tools in an explanation of the biochemical origins of mental abnormalities (Hoffer & Osmond 1967). While psychoactive species are widely scattered throughout the plant world, they appear to be concentrated more or less amongst the fungi and angiosperms. The bacteria, algae, lichens, bryophytes, ferns, and gymnosperms seem to be notably poor or lacking in species with hallucinogenic properties (Schultes 1969-1970). These hallucinogenic properties can be ascribed, likewise, to only a few kinds of organic constituents, which may be conveniently divided into two broad groups: nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous compounds (Der Marderosian 1967a; Farnsworth 1968 & 1969; Hofmann 1961a & 1968; Taylor 1966; Usdin & Efron 1967). See Figure 1 for basic chemical skeletons. The nitrogenous compounds play by far the greater role and comprise, for the most part, alkaloids or related