to question, vague reports notwithstanding, even though it does 
have psychotomimetic principles (Porter 1962). It has recently 
been suggested that the famous soma of ancient India might 
have been P. Harmala (Flattery 1978). The pharmacology of 
harmine (Beer 1939) and related bases has been reviewed 
(Naranjo 1967). 
The seeds of Peganum Harmala contain harmine, harmaline, 
harmalol, harmol, harman, peganine, isopeganine, dipegine, 
vasicinone and deoxyvasicinone, bases of a typical B-carboline 
structure of wide botanical and geographical distribution, hav- 
ing been isolated from at least 27 plant families of both the 
New and the Old World (Kurbanov and Zharekeev 1974; 
Mirzakhmedov et al. 1975; Zharekeev et al. 1974). 
2. ERGOLINES 
Convolvulaceae 
Ipomoea L. and Turbina Raf. 
The early Spanish chroniclers of Mexico reported that the 
Indians employed in their religious and magic rites an hallucino- 
genic seed called ololiuqui by the Aztecs. It was also used 
medicinally and was said to have analgesic properties when 
applied as a poultice. 
Known as coatl-xoxouhqui (“snake plant”), the plant was 
adequately illustrated as a morning glory. Although several 
Mexican botanists accepted this identification during the last 
century, not until 40 years ago was a voucher specimen of a 
convolvulaceous plant, the seeds of which were employed as a 
divinatory hallucinogen, collected amongst the Mazatecs of 
Oaxaca and determined as Turbina corymbosa (L.) Raf. (for- 
merly known as Rivea corymbosa (L.) Hall. f.). Later, field work 
uncovered similar uses of another morning glory, /pomoea 
violacea L., amongst the Zapotecs, also of Oaxaca where it is 
called badoh negro, this species represents possibly the narcotic 
tlitliltzin of the ancient Aztecs (MacDougall 1960a; Schultes and 
Hofmann 1973, 1980). 
In the interval, ololiuqui had been identified as a species of 
Datura, an identification that gained wide acceptance (Safford 
1916b). The reasoning on which this theory was based held that 
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