Calea ternifolia (formerly Calea zacatechichi)
Calea zacatechichi should now be called Calea ternifolia, an earlier name established in 1820 that taxonomically preceded that of C. zacatechichi from a publication that appeared in 1835. Even so, the Náhuatl etymology of zacatechichi is worth remembering since it describes one of the plant’s most memorable qualities as “bitter grass”. The extremely bitter taste of infusions prepared from its leaves has not kept Calea from being used as a folk medicine for the treatment of headaches, diabetes and gastrointestinal disorders. It grows primarily in the mountainous regions of Mexico and is used by the Chontal Indians of Oaxaca, according to Christian Rätsch, to produce “dreamlike states in which they can hear the voices of the gods and spirits, recognize the causes of illnesses, look into the future and locate lost or stolen objects.”
Lilian Mayagoitia, José-Luis Díaz and Carlos M. Contreras explain the need for their scientific investigation of Calea that appeared in 1986, saying “the use of plant preparations in order to produce or to enhance dreams of a divinatory nature constitutes an ethnopharmacological category that can be called oneiromancy and which justifies rigorous neuropharmacological research.” They found that in human volunteers, Calea extracts “increased the superficial stages of sleep and the number of spontaneous awakenings,” and, based on subjective reports of dreams, “an increase in hypnagogic imagery.”
Díaz created a psychopharmacological classification system for sacred plants. He placed Calea in a category he calls: “Cognodysleptics—marijuana (tetrahydrocannabinol) and other terpene-containing plants induce changes in thought, imagination, and affective functions and are used in short-term divination or oneiromancy.”
Although both Rätsch and Jonathan Ott, based on their own self-experiments, are dubious about Calea as a full-blown entheogen, a small army of determined psychonauts, writing over a period of some twenty years with bitter honesty about the foul taste of this plant ingested as an infusion or smoked, describe powerful lucid dreaming in the pages of the Erowid Experience Vaults. Surely, the work of these valiant citizen-scientists counts for something!
A study by L. Martínez-Mota et al., published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology in 2021, demonstrated for the first time “that C. zacatechichi produces strong and specific anxiolytic-like effects [and also] favors some sleep stages related with cognitive processes, such as memory consolidation.” They believe that, in the future, this plant’s anti-depressant qualities “could improve some aspects of mental health.”
Research from 2022 conducted by R. Mata and his colleagues highlights the sesquiterpene lactones as the most important metabolites of the Mexican “Dream Herb”. They conclude that pharmacological studies have proven “the antinociceptive, anti-inflammatory, spasmolytic, antiprotozoal, antidepressive, antidiarrheic, anxiolytic and the antidiabetic properties of different preparations of the plant,” many of which coincide with the traditional uses of Calea.
In an article on the neuropsychopharmacological induction of lucid dreams published in 2024 in Brain Sciences, a Brazilian team of researchers led by Abel A. Oldoni mentions that previous studies have established that “Calea induced a discrete increase in all sensorial perceptions, discontinuity in thoughts, a rapid flux of ideas with difficulty in their retrieval, and statistically significant slowness of reaction time, which might have induced a light hypnotic state” and also that “one of the mechanisms of action of Calea is through its sesquiterpene lactones.” New studies are demonstrating the therapeutic potential of sesquiterpenes for the treatment of Alzheimer´s disease on account of their Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitory (AChEI) properties. The researchers from Brazil speculate that it may be these very AChEI properties that enable Calea to induce lucid dreaming.
