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Salvia divinorum - Pipilzintzintli, Ska Maria Pastora
A species of Salvia with a characteristic, thick four-sided stem. The plant is very rare and occurs exclusively in the South of Mexico. While now doubted by some researchers, it was long considered a cultigen of an unknown wild variety.
Usage: the dried leaves can be smoked, the dosage lies between 0.25 and 2 grams. Fast smoking without interruptions is necessary. Lie down and relax your mind. An alternative is to chew on 8-24 fresh leaves rolled into a quid. After chewing on the quid a couple of times it is kept in the mouth for several minutes until the procedure is repeated or the leaves contain no more juices. The procedure described in the literature, involving pounding of the leaves and drinking them mixed with water doesn’t work very well. Salvinorin is orally absorbed exclusively through the mucous membrane and not through the intestines. Pure salvinorin can be smoked but due to the extremely small quantities – an active dose is between 0,2 and 0,6 milligrams – it is quite risky. It is very easy to completely lose control of the experience by overdosing.
Active principles: Salvinorin A, is a diterpenoid transneoclerodane – not an alkaloid. Salvinorin B has also been reported but not yet tested for psychoactivity in humans. The Salvinorin A content of dried leaves is around 1,5mg/g. Salvinorin A is not only the first known psychoactive trans-neoclerodane but also the strongest natural hallucinogenic compound in terms of dosage. Salvinorin A is a relatively stable molecule and the dried leaves last for years.
Effects: Salvia divinorum is hallucinogenic, however in a way which is markedly different from previously known psychoactive compounds. It is not comparable with the effects of LSD, Mescaline or Psilocybin. The most important elements:
· The effect begins within seconds of smoking and ceases rapidly after approximately ten minutes. When eating first effects are felt after about 15 minutes and the last around thirty minutes.
· With higher dosages people often feel they have been transformed into objects
· No cases of regular or continued use have been reported. Even people who have access to large quantities of leaves use it only infrequently.
· When administered orally (quid-method), the drug is quite controllable, if necessary the experience can be interrupted by opening the eyes and concentrating on the task at hand
· If the drug is taken exactly as described it is reliable in at least 80% of the subjects. The remaining 20% are practically immune to its effects or require several trials (up to ten) until they can feel it.
Side effects: No side effects are known. Overdoses are possible only when smoking purified Salvinorin A or concentrated extracts. In such cases control over the experience is lost. People stand up and walk around without realizing what they are doing, stumbling over furniture and other objects. If a sitter is present he can easily bring such events under control. Fortunately this condition doesn’t last very long. Aggressive behavior has never been observed. It has been shown to be impossible to produce such a state by chewing or smoking the leaves which makes these methods much safer. Even with extracts absorbed over the mucous membranes it doesn’t appear possible to overdose. Probably the slow absorption of Salvinorin A through the mucous membranes buffers its effects. From over thirty self-trials and at least fifty trials by other people about which I was informed or present, and from the experiences by Daniel J. Siebert no significant side-effects have been reported other than the loss of control from overdoses of Salvinorin A. The mazatecs which also employ the plant for medicinal purposes consider it to be safe. Of course this doesn’t exclude the possibility of long-term damage like liver toxicity or cancerogenic effects even if I consider that very unlikely. No clinical studies about the toxicity of Salvia have yet been conducted. Uneasiness (restless legs, feelings of constriction,...) has been reported especially at the beginning of the experience but passes quickly. About 5% of subjects experience strong sweating.
Bezugsquellen: Living plants (in limited quantities) are available from the author, dried leaves from Cannapee.
Other: Experiences with Salvia divinorum are reported in the second part. Salvia is the only hallucinogen known to me at this time which produces reliable effects with no serious or evident side effects and is (still) completely legal
The author is working on a small monograph about Salvia divinorum.
Bert Marco Schuldes, Psychoaktive Pflanzen, Werner Piepers MedienXperimente.