Alkaloid extracts from the Mexican peyote cactus Pelecyphora aselliformis Ehrenberg contain hordenine, anhalidine, pellotine, 3-demethyltrichocereine, mescaline, 3,4-dimethoxy-β-phenethylamine, and the N-monomethyl derivatives of mescaline and 3,4-dimethoxy-β-phenethylamine. This is the first report of mescaline and several other alkaloids occurring in a North American cactus outside the genus Lophophora.
Mescaline and related alkaloids were identified in eight additional cactus species using thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). The work extends the known distribution of these compounds across the Cactaceae family.
Grafting Trichocereus cacti does not cause mescaline to move from a mescaline-producing scion into a non-producing rootstock. The study tested for alkaloid translocation by grafting mescaline-containing Trichocereus tops onto non-alkaloid-producing rootstocks and analyzing the rootstock tissue. No mescaline was detected in the rootstocks, indicating that mescaline does not translocate across the graft union under the conditions tested. The finding suggests that mescaline remains localized in the tissues where it is synthesized.