Salvia Divinorum

''Salvia divinorum'' (; also called ska maría pastora, seer's sage, yerba de la pastora, magic mint or simply salvia) is a species of plant in the sage genus ''Salvia'', known for its transient psychoactive properties when its leaves, or extracts made from the leaves, are administered by smoking, chewing, or drinking (as a tea). The leaves contain the potent compound ''salvinorin A'' and can induce a dissociative state and hallucinations.

Mazatec shamans have a long and continuous tradition of religious use of ''S. divinorum'' to facilitate visionary states of consciousness during spiritual healing sessions. Valdés, Díaz & Paul 1983, p. 287. A media panic in the Western world, especially in the United States , centered on reports of video sharing of drug use on the internet, legal teenage use of the drug, as well as a teenage suicide in Delaware, despite it being "unclear" what role the drug played in the incident. ''S.'divinorum'' is legal in some countries, including the U.S. at the federal level; however over half of U.S. states have passed laws criminalizing it.

Its native habitat is cloud forest in the isolated Sierra Mazateca of Oaxaca, Mexico, where it grows in shady, moist locations. Valdes 1987, p. 106. The plant grows to over a meter high, has hollow square stems like others in the mint family Lamiaceae, large leaves, and occasional white flowers with violet calyxes. Botanists have not determined whether ''S. divinorum'' is a cultigen or a hybrid because native plants reproduce vegetatively and rarely produce viable seed. Marushia 2002, p. 3.

Because the plant has not been well-studied in high-quality clinical research, little is known about its toxicology, adverse effects, or safety over long-term consumption. Its chief active psychoactive constituent is a structurally unique diterpenoid called ''salvinorin A'', Prisinzano 2006, p. 527. Imanshahidi & Hosseinzadeh 2006, p. 430. a potent κ-opioid agonist. Although not thoroughly assessed, preliminary research indicates ''S. divinorum'' may have low toxicity (high ). Its effects are rapid but short-lived.

Etymology

The genus name, ''Salvia'', was first used by Pliny for a plant that was likely ''Salvia officinalis'' (common sage) and is derived from the Latin ''salvere''. Kintzios 2000 Sutton 2004 The specific epithet, ''divinorum'', was given because of the plant's traditional use in divination. Reisfield 1993, Introduction. It is often loosely translated as "diviner's sage" or "seer's sage". 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'' due to priority rules. Grof 2001

Common names

There are many common names for ''S. divinorum'', including ''sage of the diviners'', Medana et al. 2005, p. 131. ''ska maría pastora'', Valdés, Díaz & Paul 1983, p. 288. ''seer's sage'', ''yerba de la pastora'', simply ''salvia,'' and colloquially ''sally-d'' and ''magic mint''.

History

''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. ''S. divinorum'' is one of several plant species with hallucinogenic properties that are ritually used by Mazatec shamans. In their rituals, the shamans use only freshly harvested ''S. divinorum'' leaves. They see the plant as an incarnation of the Virgin Mary, and begin the ritual with an invocation to Mary, Saint Peter, the Holy Trinity, and other saints. Ritual use traditionally involves being in a quiet place after ingestion of the leaf—the Maztec shamans say that "''La Maria'' (''S. divinorum'') speaks with a quiet voice."

It is also used in smaller amounts, as a diuretic, and to treat ailments including diarrhea, anemia, headaches, rheumatism, and a semi-magical disease known as ''panzón de borrego'', or a swollen belly (literally, "lamb belly"). Valdés, Díaz & Paul 1983.

The history of the plant is not well known, and there has been no definitive answer to the question of its origin. Speculation includes ''Salvia divinorum'' being a wild plant native to the area; a cultigen of the Mazatecs; or a cultigen introduced by another Indigenous group. Botanists have also not been able to determine whether it is a hybrid or a cultigen. Marushia 2002, p. 6.

Academic discovery

Jean Basset Johnson, who studied Mazatec shamanism during the 1930s
''Salvia divinorum'' was first recorded in print by Jean Basset Johnson in 1939 while he was studying Mazatec shamanism. Marushia 2002, p. 2. He later documented its use and reported its effects through personal testimonials of users. Valdés, Díaz & Paul 1983, p. 290. It was not until 2002 that Bryan Roth and his team identified the psychoactive mechanism.

Gordon Wasson tentatively postulated that the plant could be the mythological '' pipiltzintzintli'', the "Noble Prince" of the Aztec codices. Wasson 1963. Wasson's speculation has been the subject of further debate amongst ethnobotanists, with some scepticism coming from Leander J. Valdés, Valdés 2001. and counterpoints more supportive of Wasson's theory from Jonathan Ott. Ott 1995.

The identity of another mysterious Aztec entheogen, namely that of ''poyomatli'', has also been suggested as being ''Salvia divinorum''. Dweck 1997, p.15.
Here too there are other candidate plants, notably cacahuaxochitl (''Quararibea funebris''), Erowid (Cacahuaxochitl) 2007.

Botany

''Salvia divinorum'' has large green ovate (often also dentate) leaves, Giroud 2000. with a yellow undertone that reach long. The leaves have no hairs on either surface, and little or no petiole. The plant grows to well over in height, on hollow square stems which tend to break or trail on the ground, with the plant rooting quite readily at the nodes and internodes.

The flowers, which bloom only rarely, grow in whorls on a inflorescence, with about six flowers to each whorl. The flowers are white, curved and covered with hairs, and held in a small violet calyx that is covered in hairs and glands. When it does bloom in its native habitat, it does so from September to May.

Early authors erred in describing the flowers as having blue corollas, based on Epling and Játiva's description. The first plant material they received was dried, so they based the flower color on an erroneous description by Hofmann and Wasson, who didn't realize that their "blue flowers, crowned with a white dome" were in fact violet calyces with unopened white corollas. Reisfield 1993, Previous Research.

Distribution and habitat

''Salvia divinorum'' is endemic to the Sierra Mazateca in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, growing in the primary or secondary cloud forest and tropical evergreen forest at elevations from . Its most common habitat is black soil along stream banks where small trees and bushes provide an environment of low light and high humidity.

Reproduction

''Salvia divinorum'' produces few viable seeds even when it does flower—no seeds have ever been observed on plants in the wild. For an unknown reason, pollen fertility is also comparatively reduced. There is no active pollen tube inhibition within the style, but some event or process after the pollen tube reaches the ovary is aberrant. The likeliest explanations are inbreeding depression or hybridity, Reisfield 1993, The Barrier to Fertility. although the latter was rejected in 2010. All of the Mazatec populations appear to be clonal. Marushia 2002, p. 4. The plant's square stems break easily and tend to trail on the ground, rooting easily at the nodes and internodes. Reisfield 1993, Distribution, Ecology, & Flower Initiation.

Taxonomy

''Salvia divinorum'' was first documented in 1939; yet, it was many years before botanists could identify the plant due to Mazatec secrecy about the growing sites. Flowers were needed for a definitive identification of the species. In 1962, the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann and ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson traveled throughout the Sierra Mazateca researching Mazatec rituals while looking for specimens of the plant. They were unable to locate live plants. Eventually, the Mazatec provided them some flowering specimens. These specimens were sent to botanists Carl Epling and Carlos D. Játiva, who described and named the plant as ''Salvia divinorum'', in reference to its use in divination and healing by the Mazatec. By 1985, up to fifteen populations of the plant had been located. Clebsch & Barner 2003, p. 106.

Until 2010, there were differing opinions as to whether ''Salvia divinorum'' is an interspecific hybrid. The plant's partial sterility was suggestive of a hybrid origin, though no two parent species have been found with an obvious affinity to ''Salvia divinorum''. One other possibility for the plant's partial sterility is that long-term cultivation and selection have produced an inbred cultigen.Botanist Valdés (1987), wrote that, "It is doubtful that the Salvia is a true cultigen", based partly on his belief that it was first "collected in the highlands and planted in more accessible places, where it becomes naturalized". The main cultigen proponent is Gordon Wasson, who is not a botanist.

In 2010, a molecular phylogenetic approach by DNA sequencing of ''Salvia divinorum'' and a number of related species suggested that the species is not a hybrid. One earlier proposed parent was ''Salvia cyanea'' (a synonym for ''Salvia concolor''), which Epling and Játiva believed to be closely allied to ''Salvia divinorum''. Ott 1996 Reisflield 1987, p. 199.Reisfield is unsure why Epling "used the invalid name (the synonym rather than the valid name ''S. concolor''), nor why he considered this species close to ''S. divinorum''". The 2010 study demonstrated ''Salvia divinorum''s closest relative to be '' Salvia venulosa''—a rare and endemic ''Salvia'' that is native to Colombia, growing in shaded, wooded gullies at elevation. It also showed that ''Salvia divinorum'' does not belong to the ''Salvia'' section ''Dusenostachys'', as believed earlier. The genetic study also indicated that ''Salvia venulosa'' was likely misplaced into ''Salvia'' section ''Tubiflorae'', and that it may not be related to other Colombian ''Salvia'' species, though further tests are needed. A 2013 follow-up analysis of more ''Salvia'' species reported the same result.

The origin of ''Salvia divinorum'' was still a mystery as of 1993, one of only three plants in the extensive genus ''Salvia'' (approximately 900 species) with unknown origins—the other two being '' Salvia tingitana'' and '' Salvia buchananii''. Foley 1993, p. 56.

Strains

There are two commonly cultivated strains which are known to be distinct. One is the strain that was collected in 1962 by ecologist and psychologist Sterling Bunnell (the ''Bunnell'' strain), colloquially mis-attributed as the ''Wasson-Hofmann strain''. The other was collected from Huautla de Jiménez in 1991 by anthropologist Bret Blosser (the ''Blosser'' or ''Palatable'' strain). There are other strains that are not as well documented, such as the ''Luna'' strain (possibly ''Bunnell'') isolated from a Hawaiian patch of ''Salvia divinorum'' clones, featuring unusually serrated and rounded rather than ovate leaves.

Cultivation

Propagation by cuttings

''Salvia divinorum'' is usually propagated through vegetative reproduction. Small cuttings, between long, cut off of the mother plant just below a node, will usually root in plain tap water within two or three weeks. Siebert (Cultivation advice). Beifuss 1997.

Flowering

Blooms occur when the day length becomes shorter than 12 hours (beginning in mid-October in some places), necessitating the use of shade cloth in urban environments with exposure to light pollution caused by HPS lighting. Both Siebert and hobbyist reports indicate that viable seeds can, on occasion, be produced under cultivation, following hand-pollination or hummingbird pollination.

Chemistry

The known active constituent of ''Salvia divinorum'' is a ''trans''- neoclerodane diterpenoid known as salvinorin A (chemical formula C₂₃H₂₈O₈). Prisinzano 2006, p. 528. This compound is present in the dried plant at about 0.18%.

Salvinorin A is not an alkaloid (meaning it does not contain a basic nitrogen), unlike most known opioid receptor ligands. Harding, Schmidt & Tidgewell 2006, p. 107. Salvinorin A is the first documented diterpene hallucinogen.

Similar to many psychoactive herbs, ''Salvia divinorum'' synthesizes and excretes its active constituent (salvinorin A) via trichomes, of the peltate-glandular morphology, located just beneath the cuticle (subcuticular) layer.

Potency

By mass, salvinorin A "is the most potent naturally occurring hallucinogen." Imanshahidi & Hosseinzadeh 2006, p. 431. It is active at doses as low as 200 μg. Marushia 2002, p. 11. Synthetic chemicals, such as LSD (active at 20–30 μg doses), can be more potent. Research has shown that salvinorin A is a potent and selective κ-opioid (kappa-opioid) receptor agonist. Roth et al. 2002, p. abstract. It has been reported that the effects of salvinorin A in mice are blocked by κ-opioid receptor antagonists

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