Psychoactive plants in need of chemical and pharmacological study

Abstract

Reports on the inebriating properties of plants—some employed in magico-religious ceremonies of primitive societies in various parts of the world—continue to appear. Their sources are many: reports of travellers, anthropological writings, historical documents, herbarium specimens and others. The diversity and wide occurrence of the reports have tended to keep them from the scrutiny of investigators who might have studied the plants for the ascertainment of their active principles.