Psychoactive natural products: overview of recent developments.
Annali dell'Istituto superiore di sanita January 1, 2014 István Ujváry 47 citations
Since antiquity, natural psychoactive substances have fascinated shamans, artists, scholars, and laypeople. In the twentieth century, the chemical compositions of opium, cannabis, coca, and magic mushrooms were fully elucidated, and their principal ingredients' molecular mechanisms of action were deciphered. Over the past two decades, herbal drugs like kava, kratom, and Salvia divinorum have spread beyond traditional boundaries. This paper summarizes recent psychopharmacology findings on the most prominent psychoactive natural products, reviews lesser-known drugs including bufotenine, glaucine, kava, betel, pituri, lettuce opium, and kanna, and mentions selected alleged natural or semi-natural products.