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Datura innoxia
Datura innoxia According to Peter T. Furst, “Datura, toloache from the Nahuatl toloatzin, in Mexico and also in Indian California, was, and in many places still is, the ritual intoxicant of choice among native peoples of the Southwest and northwestern Mexico, including the Tepehuan.” Also called Mexican Thorn Apple, this plant was used by the…
Brugmansia spp.
Brugmansia spp. Whenever possible, Microcosms: The Sacred Plants of the Americas seeks to highlight the potential connectivity between ancestral knowledge about medicinal plants and contemporary Western scientific models for the study of botany. In this sense, one of the most notable cross-cultural collaborations occurred when Kamentsá healer Salvador Chindoy shared his plant wisdom in the…
Salvia apiana
Salvia apiana A website for the Department of Biology at the University of San Diego contains the following information about Salvia apiana, a well-known and popular smudging plant: “White sage is an important and sacred plant for Native Americans. This plant provides both food and medicine for the Kumeyaay. The seeds of the white sage…
Lophophora williamsii
Lophophora williamsii Wade Davis hopes that we always keep in mind a fundamental truth regarding this cactus: “In fact, we now know, based on recent archeological discoveries, that the native people of Mexico have eaten peyote for seven thousand years.” About what they characterize as a “divine cactus” used by the Huichol (Wixárica) of Mexico,…
Anadenanthera spp.
Anadenanthera spp. Constantino Manuel Torres and David B. Repke, authors of Anadenanthera: Visionary Plant of Ancient South America, the most comprehensive study of this plant maintain: “The genus Anadenanthera was, together with tobacco, one of the most widely used shamanic inebriants. It is primarily South American in distribution and includes two species with two varieties…
Salvia divinorum
Salvia divinorum The most comprehensive overview of Salvia divinorum, a member of the mint family, was published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology in 2013 by a team of researchers headed by Ivan Casselman. Their article “concentrates on the investigation of Salvia divinorum over the last 50 years including ethnobotany, ethnopharmacology, taxonomy, systematics, genetics, chemistry and…
