Overview of Salvia divinorum –Substance-induced psychosis

Plants produce secondary metabolites—chemicals that often serve ecological roles such as defense—that can alter human brain function, especially the hippocampus, which governs memory. This review examines natural psychosis inducers, focusing on Salvia divinorum, whose secondary metabolites can cause hallucinations, delusions, and even organ failure. While many synthetic and semi-synthetic cannabinoids also induce psychosis, the review highlights how a chemical that protects a plant can become a mind-altering substance in humans. The authors note that such phytochemicals affect the central nervous system, sometimes leading to short- or long-term psychotic episodes where a person loses critical thinking, experiences hallucinations, or holds false beliefs.

Study at a glance

Abstract

As per the literature, humans ingest a comprehensive range of food materials including drugs along with dietary supplements which are mainly derived through medicinal plant products and modifying the purpose of the central nervous system (CNS). These psychoactive based properties are mainly attributable to the existence of plant-derived secondary metabolites. Most of the cases or studies showed the effects of these phytochemicals derived from secondary metabolites on the human CNS might be linked either to their ecological roles or molecular along with biochemical based properties are reported in case of plants along with higher animals. One of the mental health disorders, psychosis where person losses its capacity of critical thinking, they perceive things differently as compared to the people around. They see or hear things that other people cannot see or hear (hallucination) or even believe things that are not true (delusion). There are so many synthetic psychosis inducer synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) as well as semi-synthetic and natural. Psychosis is a disorder which shows the effect for long-term or sometimes for the short term on an individual. In this review we will mainly look for natural psychosis inducers like Salvia divinorum and this plant may produce some secondary metabolites. Still, many of these are found to show an effect on human health in some or the other way which may range from hallucination to organ failure. These secondary metabolites affect the hippocampus region of the human brain, which is linked with memory. It is interesting to note how one chemical is used for an organism for protection and that one chemical act as a mind-altering chemical for the higher class of organism – the humans.