The Botany and Chemistry of Hallucinogens

Book excerpt: By Richard Evans Schultes, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Albert Hofmann, Basel, Switzerland. With Forewords by I. Newton Kugelmass and Henrich Kluver. The Second Edition of this book encompasses all of the advances that have been made in this field since publication of the original text. Newly discovered hallucinogenic plants have been incorporated into the discussions along with new information on some well-known drugs. The authors continue to focus on the botany and chemistry of hallucinogens, although they also consider ethnobotanical, historical, pharmacological and psychological aspects. Initial chapters delineate definition, botanical distribution, and structural types of hallucinogenic plants. Plants of known, possible and dubious hallucinogenic potential are then covered in separate sections. The bibliography for this new edition has been enlarged to accommodate all of the recent activity in botanical and chemical investigation of psychoactive plants. Readers will also appreciate the excellent illustrations that accompany the text.