BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, JUNE 1980 VoL. 28, No. 2 
ETHNOMEDICAL, BOTANICAL AND 
PHYTOCHEMICAL ASPECTS OF 
NATURAL HALLUCINOGENS 
RICHARD EVANS SCHULTES AND NORMAN R. FARNSWORTH* 
ABSTRACT 
More than 200 species and/or varieties of higher plants, as well as numerous 
species of basidiomycetes, are reported in the literature to have been used for 
their hallucinatory and/or euphoriant effects. Due to a paucity of research, 
only a few of these have been confirmed as definitely hallucinogenic in man or 
animals. This article reviews all of those plants now known to have a scientific 
basis for producing hallucinogenic effects in man or for which reliable 
ethnobotanical data are available to indicate that they could be hallucinogenic. 
Those plants alleged to be hallucinatory, but where substantive proof of this 
effect may be lacking, are summarily included for completeness and in the 
hope of stimulating investigation. 
The hallucinogens of higher plant origin alone are found in 146 genera in 
more than 50 families. In virtually every instance in which the active 
constituents are known, their chemical skeletons are unique to a specific genus 
or to a very closely related genus. 
It is interesting to note that of more than 200 species of hallucinogenic plants 
only two are legally prohibited from use in the United States by Federal law: 
Cannabis sativa and Tabernanthe Iboga. Two or three others are illegal in a 
few states. 
*Research Associate in Ethnomedicine, Botanical Museum of Harvard University. 
Present address: Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmacology, College of Phar- 
macy, University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois. 
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