The plant-derived hallucinogen, salvinorin A, produces kappa-opioid agonist-like discriminative effects in rhesus monkeys.
Psychopharmacology March 1, 2004 Eduardo R Butelman, Todd J Harris, Mary Jeanne Kreek 102 citations
Salvinorin A, the active component of the hallucinogenic plant Salvia divinorum, produces effects in rhesus monkeys that closely resemble those of a high-efficacy kappa-opioid receptor agonist. In monkeys trained to discriminate the kappa-agonist U69,593 from a placebo, salvinorin A dose-dependently produced full generalization to U69,593 at doses of 0.001 to 0.032 mg/kg. These effects began within 5 to 15 minutes after injection and faded by 120 minutes. The opioid antagonist quadazocine fully blocked salvinorin A's effects, while the kappa-selective antagonist GNTI only partially blocked them. The NMDA antagonist ketamine did not produce similar effects, suggesting that not all hallucinogens act through the same mechanism.