Narcotic plants and stimulants of the ancient Americans / by W.E. Safford.

  • William Edwin Safford
Date:
[1917]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Narcotic plants and stimulants of the ancient Americans / by W.E. Safford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    42/62 page 424
    SUMMARY. 1. The principal narcotic plants and stimulants of ancient America were tobacco, cohoba, the red bean, peyotl, ololiuhqui, jimson weed, huaca-cachu (a tree Datura), coca, aya-huasca, yerba-mate, cassine, guarana, and cacao. Divine attributes were ascribed to them. They wTere used in divination, in medicine, and in ceremonials, and in many cases were carried by the Indians as safeguards or amulets to insure success in warfare and the chase. 2. Tobacco, the most important of these plants, is now extensively cultivated in both hemispheres and its use is world wide. The jimson weed (Datura stramonium) is now important as a source of atropine, and coca (Erythroxylon Coca) as the source of cocaine. The most important stimulants are the yerba-mate {Ilex paraguariensis) the leaves of which are known as Paraguay tea, and cacao (Theobroma Cacao), the seeds of which are made into chocolate and cocoa. 3. Of less importance but of possible medicinal value are peyotl (.Lophophora WiUiamsii) identified as the “ divine flesh ” or teonana- catl of the Mexicans, and the ololiuhqui (Datura meteloides), still extensively used by Indians of Mexico and the United States; huaca- cachu (Brugmansia sanguinea) of Peru; and aya-huasca (Banisteria caapi) of Brazil and Venezuela. Cassine (Ilex vomitoria) of the southern United States, which has the same properties as its Para¬ guayan congener, may prove to be valuable as a refreshing tea, and guarana (Paullinia cupana) as the source of a drink resembling chocolate. The red bean, or frijolillo, of Texas (Broussonetia se- cundifiora), though possessing a narcotic alkaloid, is not used com¬ mercially and its use among our Indians is now very limited. Cohoba (Piptadenia peregrina), the seeds of which were used by the aborigi¬ nal Haitians and are still used by many Indians of the tributaries of the great rivers of South America as the source of a narcotic snuff, remains chemically unknown, though known and reported by the companions of Columbus. 4. In view of the shortage of medicinal alkaloids resulting from the present war it is suggested that investigations be made to deter¬ mine the nature of the properties of these less-known narcotics, with a view to their utilization as substitutes for others now recog¬ nized in the standard pharmacopoeias.
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