in four centuries no narcotic use had been observed for a 
morning glory; that the convolvulaceous flowers resembled 
those of Datura and might have led to confusion; and that 
descriptions of ololiuqui-intoxication coincided closely with that 
induced by Datura; Datura had been and still is employed as a 
divinatory narcotic in Mexico; and, most significantly, no 
psychoactive principle was known from the Convolvulaceae. 
Experimental psychiatry indicated that Turbina was definitely 
hallucinogenic (Osmond 1955), supporting ethnobotanical field 
work (Schultes 1970c). Yet chemists were unable to isolate any 
inebriating constituents until 1960, when ergot alkaloids related 
to the synthetic hallucinogenic compound LSD were found in 
the seeds of both 7. corymbosa and Ipomoea violacea. 
The main psychotomimetic constituent of the seeds of both 
species are ergine (d-lysergic acid diethylamide) (X) and iso- 
ergine (d-isolysergic acid diethylamide) (XI) which occur to- 
gether with minor alkaloids: chanoclavine, (XII), elymoclavine, 
(XIII), and lysergol (XIV). Ergometrine appears to be present in 
seeds of Ipomoea violacea but absent in Turbina corymbosa. 
The total alkaloid content of T. corymbosa seed is 0.012%; of J. 
violacea, 0.06%—and, indeed, Indians use smaller quantities of 
the latter than of the former (Hofmann 1961, 1963). 
149 
