Alicia anisopetala

As Glenn H. Shepard, Jr. has written, “though a fair amount is now known about how psychoactive plants and compounds produce their peculiar effects on the human mind, it is still largely a mystery as to why certain plants produce such compounds.” 

In other words, why do some 100 plants from among perhaps half a million different plant species make these substances that can potentiate profound effects on humanity’s consciousness of our destructive (or even its opposite more egalitarian) relationship with the natural world? 

Does it indicate some kind of mutually beneficial co-evolution?  Schultes and Hofmann call this “one of the unsolved riddles of nature.” 

In the case of seven plants whose images are included in this website, even the particular plant chemistry remains somewhat enigmatic and warrants further investigation. 

The phytochemistry and ethnobotanical history of the rare plant Alicia anisopetala (from the same family as B. caapi and D. cabrerana) remains obscure: does one of the images included in the website capture a terpene emission from a trichome? Neil Logan affirms that A. anisopetala is also known as purgahuasca, and is used as a pre-ceremonial cleanse.