Classification of the Hallucinogens

Classification of the Hallucinogens
The major hallucinogens of current interest may be classified into five groups of chemically distinct compounds and a sixth group composed of substances of diverse chemical identities:

1.lysergic acid derivatives
2.indolealkylamines
3.phenylethylamines
4.piperidylbenzilate esters
5.cannabinoids. marijuana detox
6.other

Except for the benzilate esters and a related group of compounds, the phenylcyclohexyls, which are products of a more practical "manifestation of mind," synthetic organic chemistry, drugs representing all of these classes have been isolated from natural products. Most of the hallucinogens identified to date are alkaloids, that is, having alkaline properties. The one major exception is the cannabis group. Alkaloids are found abundantly in plants. Out of the total number of plant species, variously estimated to be from 400,000 to 800,000,8 only about five thousand or so are known to be alkaloidal. Surprisingly few of these, about sixty, produce hallucinogens. Ethnobotanical researchers, who go into remote inaccessable areas of the world in search of rapidly disappearing primitive cultures, say that there are appreciable numbers of hallucinogenic plants still unknown to scientists.

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Current interest in psychoactive compounds has stimulated an intense search for these unknown plants, and a closer look at the active ingredients of those that are known. Recent evidence has shown that the active ingredients of fly agaric from the mushroom, Amanita muscaria, is not muscarine or bufotenine, both of which are present in small amounts, but muscimole, an unsaturated hydroxamic acid, and ibotenic acid. Although Hofmann and Tscherter found lysergic acid derivafives in morning glory seeds, Cook and Kieland isolated a glucoside from an extract (ololiuqui) of these seeds which is five times as active as the original extract. Thus, the list of classes above may have to be altered and expanded as our knowledge of the versatility of plants increases. But that information may become even more difficult to ferret out as aboriginals become less original and their cultures yield to the advancing technologies of transportation and communication. Primitive cultures are disappearing, and with them the native knowledge which has been so helpful in the discovery and development of useful plant products.