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9 Mind-Altering Plants
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9 Mind-Altering Plants
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WRITTEN BY
Melissa Petruzzello
Melissa Petruzzello is Assistant Editor of Plant and
Environmental Science and covers a range of content from
plants, algae, and fungi, to renewable energy and
environmental engineering. She has her M.S....

In their quest for survival, plants have evolved

to produce an amazing variety of chemical
compounds known as secondary metabolites.
These chemicals often serve to deter
herbivores, protect against pathogens and
neighbors, or mitigate the effects of radiation,
among numerous other uses. Interestingly,
many of these chemicals react with human
bodies in specific ways, ranging from organ
failure and death to reactions that inspire
lifesaving pharmaceuticals. The following is a
list of plants that, amazingly, affect the brains
and mental states of the humans who ingest
them.

9 Opium poppy (Papaver

somniferum)

opium poppy
Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum).
© liubomir/Shutterstock.com

The beautiful opium poppy is native to Turkey

and is a common garden plant in the United
States. When the unripe seed capsules are cut,
they exude a milky latex that is the source of
raw opium and can be processed into
morphine, codeine, and heroin. Known as
opiates, these drugs exert their main effects on
the brain and spinal cord. While their principal
action is to relieve or suppress pain, the drugs
also alleviate anxiety, induce relaxation and
sedation, and may impart a state of euphoria
or another enhanced mood. Heroin is
especially known for generating an intense
ecstatic reaction that spreads throughout the
body as a warm glowing sensation. Opiates
also have important physiological effects: they
slow the heartbeat and respiration, suppress
the cough reflex, and relax the smooth muscles
of the gastrointestinal tract. Chronic users
develop a tolerance and require progressively
larger doses to achieve the same effect. Heroin
and morphine overdoses often result in death.

8 Peyote (Lophophora
williamsii)

peyote
Peyote (Lophophora williamsii).
Dennis E. Anderson

Peyote is a small cactus found only in the

Chihuahuan Desert of southern Texas and
northern Mexico. The tops of the cactus can be
dried to form “mescal buttons,” which are well
known for their hallucinogenic effects and
contain the alkaloid mescaline, among others.
The hallucinatory effects vary greatly among
individuals and even for a particular individual
from one drug experience to the next. The
variations seem to reflect such factors as the
mood and personality of the individual and the
setting in which the drug is administered.
Hallucinations are usually visual, less often
auditory. Side effects include nausea and
vomiting. Peyote, like most other
hallucinogenic drugs, is not considered to be
addictive and is reputed by cultists and some
observers to promote morality and ethical
behavior among the Native Americans who use
it ritually.

7 Salvia (Salvia divinorum)

Salvia divinorum
© Doug Stacey/Fotolia

An unassuming member of the mint family,

the herb salvia has made headlines for its
growing popularity, including its use by
American singer Miley Cyrus. Native to
Mexico, the plant is hallucinogenic and has
historically been used by shamans to achieve
altered states of consciousness. Currently legal
in both the U.K. and the U.S., the leaves can be
eaten or smoked and feature an active
ingredient known as salvinorin A, which
activates specific nerve cell receptors. The
effects are intense but short-lived and include
changes in mood and body sensations, visions,
feelings of detachment, and altered
perceptions of self. Advocates of the plant
emphasize that the effects are spiritual and
claim that those who try to use it as a “party
drug” will be disappointed by its effects.

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6 Cannabis (Cannabis sati-

va)

medical cannabis: CanniMed

Cannabis plants cultivated for the standardized cannabis product
known as CanniMed, developed by Prairie Plant Systems Inc. for
Health Canada, are grown under carefully controlled conditions.
Courtesy of Prairie Plant Systems

Grown all over the world, cannabis

(marijuana) is probably the most-widespread
plant with psychoactive properties. Known for
its characteristic leaves, the plant is used in
religious practices in India and Africa (and
probably elsewhere) and is sometimes used
illicitly in the United States and Europe,
though its legal status is changing in many
places. The active ingredient,
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is present in all
parts of both the male and female plants but is
most concentrated in the flowering tops of the
female. These buds are usually dried and
crushed and put into pipes or formed into
cigarettes (joints) for smoking but can also be
added to foods and beverages. Psychological
effects tend to predominate, with the user
commonly experiencing a mild euphoria and
alterations in vision and judgment that result
in distortions of time and space. Acute
intoxication may occasionally induce visual
hallucinations, anxiety, depression, paranoid
reactions, and psychoses lasting four to six
hours. Marijuana’s physical effects include
reddening of the eyes, dryness of the mouth
and throat, moderate increase in rapidity of
the heartbeat, tightness of the chest (if the
drug is smoked), drowsiness, unsteadiness,
and muscular incoordination. Hashish, a
more-powerful form of the drug, is made by
collecting and drying the plant’s resin and is
about eight times as strong as the marijuana
typically smoked in the United States.

5 Ayahuasca (Banisteriop-
sis caapi)

Banisteriopsis caapi
© Dr. Morley Read/Shutterstock

Ayahuasca is a South American vine used as

the primary ingredient for a psychoactive
drink of the same name. Culturally important
to a number of Amazonian peoples, the brew
has grown in popularity among tourists
seeking a spiritual awakening, particularly in
Peru. Ayahuasca is said to generate intense
spiritual revelations, with users often reporting
a sensation of “rebirth” and a deeper
understanding of themselves and the universe.
However, some users experience significant
psychological distress under the influence of
the drug, and a number of deaths have been
reported. Ingestion is commonly followed by
vomiting or diarrhea, which shamans deem to
be the purging of negative energies.

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4 Betel nut (Areca catechu)

betel nut
The betel nut, seed of the areca palm (Areca catechu).
Wayne Lukas–Group IV—The National Audubon Society
Collection/Photo Researchers

Although not well known in the West, betel

chewing is a habit of an estimated one-tenth of
the world’s population, and betel is considered
to be the fourth most-common psychoactive
drug in the world (following nicotine, alcohol,
and caffeine). Betel nuts grow on the areca
palm and are cultivated in India, Sri Lanka,
Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines. For
chewing, a betel quid is formed by wrapping a
small piece of the areca palm seed (the betel
nut) in a leaf of the unrelated betel pepper
plant, along with a pellet of slaked lime
(calcium hydroxide). Betel chewing releases a
number of addictive alkaloids that cause
sensations of mild euphoria, and regular users
often have red-stained teeth and lips. Although
it is important in many cultural traditions of
southern Asia, betel chewing is linked to a
number of serious health problems, including
oral and esophageal cancer, and is of growing
concern for health officials.

3 Tobacco (Nicotiana
tabacum)

tobacco
Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum).
© LianeM/Shutterstock.com

Native to the Americas, the tobacco plant bears

distinctive large leaves that are a particularly
concentrated source of nicotine. Nicotine is the
chief active ingredient in the tobacco used in
cigarettes, cigars, and snuff and is an addictive
drug. The drug has a unique biphasic
psychoactive effect: when inhaled in short
puffs it acts as a stimulant, but when smoked
in deep drags it can have a tranquilizing effect.
This is why smoking can feel invigorating at
some times and can seem to block stressful
stimuli at others. When ingested in larger
doses, nicotine is a highly toxic poison that
causes vomiting and nausea, headaches,
stomach pains, and, in severe cases,
convulsions, paralysis, and death. Tobacco use
causes a number of health problems, including
cancer and emphysema, and is responsible for
more than five million deaths per year.

2 Jimsonweed (Datura stra-

monium)

jimsonweed
Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium).
Teun Spaans

Jimsonweed grows throughout much of North

and South America. It is a weedy annual plant
with striking white tubular flowers and spiky
seed pods. The leaves and seeds contain potent
alkaloids (hyoscamine and hyoscine) that
cause hallucinations. Used ceremonially by a
number of indigenous peoples, jimsonweed
acts as a deliriant and can produce intense
spiritual visions. However, it is highly
dangerous, and careless use can easily result in
fatalities. Users often report terrifying
hallucinations and paranoid delusions under
its influence and may experience prolonged
side effects such as blurred vision after its use.
Many do not try it a second time.

1 Coca (Erythroxylum coca)

Coca (Erythroxylum coca).

W.H. Hodge

Coca is a tropical shrub native to certain

regions of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Its
leaves contain the alkaloid cocaine and have
been chewed for centuries by the Indians of
Peru and Bolivia for pleasure or in order to
withstand strenuous working conditions,
hunger, and thirst. However, the leaves can
also be processed into a potent white
crystalline powder that is injected, smoked, or
otherwise consumed. When ingested in small
amounts, cocaine produces feelings of well-
being and euphoria along with decreased
appetite, relief from fatigue, and increased
mental alertness. Cocaine is habit-forming,
and, when taken in larger amounts and upon
prolonged and repeated use, cocaine produces
depression, anxiety, irritability, sleep
problems, chronic fatigue, mental confusion,
and convulsions. A toxic psychosis can develop
involving paranoid delusions and disturbing
tactile hallucinations in which users feel
insects crawling under their skin. Cocaine
abuse, which had been a marginal drug
problem throughout much of the 20th century,
grew alarmingly in the late 20th century in
several countries, and cocaine became
responsible for a markedly increased
proportion of drug-induced deaths.

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