While the plant is valued in folk medicine, it is apparently not 
employed as an hallucinogen (Schultes 1970c). 
Banisteriopsis argentea (Spreng. ex. A. Juss.) Mort., an 
Indian species, has been shown to contain tetrahydroharman, 5- 
methoxytetrahydroharman, harmine and harmaline, and a nov- 
el related B-carboline, leptaflorine (Ghosal et al. 1971), but this 
species does not appear to have been used as an hallucinogen. 
Solanaceae 
Nicotiana L. 
It is well established that tobacco (Nicotiana spp.) has been 
used for hallucinatory purposes for centuries. Substantive evi- 
dence for the effect is lacking, however: the normal Nicotiana 
alkaloids, i.e. nicotine, etc., hardly offer an explanation. Recent- 
ly, Janiger and Dobkin de Rios (1976) have raised the question 
as to whether or not the substantial quantities of two well known 
hallucinogens, i.e. harman (IX) and norharman (10-20 mcg. per 
cigarette), are absorbed into the blood stream during the 
smoking process. They also raise the question as to whether the 
tobacco products used by aborigines, who have been primary 
users of tobacco products for hallucinogenic purposes, would 
produce harman and norharman, since their tobacco products 
would probably have been cured in a different manner than 
tobacco currently used in western society. These two bases are 
pyrosynthesized and do not exist as such in normal tobacco. 
Certainly this challenge should encourage analysis of the blood 
of tobacco users in an effort to support or deny such an 
hypothesis (Janiger and Dobkin de Rios 1976). 
Zygophyllaceae 
Peganum L. 
The Syrian rue or Peganum Harmala L. is an herb found in 
dry localities from the Mediterranean area east to India, Mon- 
golia and Manchuria. It is a member of a genus of six species 
distributed in dry areas of Asia Minor and Asia and in 
southwestern United States and Mexico. Although this and 
other species of Peganum have long been esteemed in folk 
medicine, its purposeful employment as an hallucinogen is open 
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