The Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center - Shroomery

The Identities of pipiltzintzintli
Salvia leaves by hand (Valdés et al 1983). Weitlaner’s article is excellent reading.
When I was in Mexico City in 1980, I visited the National Herbarium (a place
where plant specimens are stored) to look at their collection of S. divinorum. I
learned that in 1957 the Mexican botanist, Arturo Gómez Pompa, while in the
Sierra Mazateca collecting mushrooms for the drug firm CIBA, found a Salvia
species known by the Mazatecs as xka Pastora. He noted that it was
hallucinogenic (alucinante) and a dose was 8-12 pair of leaves. Flowering
material was unavailable (floral description is almost always necessary to define a
new species), so it couldn’t be identified past the genus level. Unable to return to
the area before Wasson and Hofmann’s visit, he missed the chance to get the
credit for identifying ska María Pastora (Gómez Pompa 1957, 2001).
This, then, is what was known about S. divinorum before Wasson and
Hofmann set out to collect the magic plant. These old articles pose some very
important unanswered questions. Reko noted possible use of S. divinorum by the
Cuicatecs, and Weitlaner by the Otomi. These people live in areas surrounding the
Mazatecan heartland, and they as well as the Chinantecs are long overdue for
study. These old explorers used horses and mules for their traveling, I used a car
and a jeep, but I’m sure that now one could do it all by bus, if they were brave
enough (traveling on rural Mexican buses can be a real learning experience).
REFERENCES
Epling, C. and Játiva-M., C. 1962. A new species of Salvia from Mexico.
Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, 20:75-76.
Gómez Pompa, A. 1957. Salvia divinorum herbarium sheets, A. Gómez Pompa
87556 and 93216 National Herbarium (UNAM), México, D.F.
Gómez Pompa, A. 2001. Personal communication 5/13/2001.
Johnson, J.B. 1939a. Some notes on the Mazatec, Revista Mexicana de Estudios
Antropológicos, 3:142-156.
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