Coriaria ruscifolia

Last updated

Coriaria ruscifolia
Coriaria ruscifolia.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Cucurbitales
Family: Coriariaceae
Genus: Coriaria
Species:
C. ruscifolia
Binomial name
Coriaria ruscifolia
L.
Subspecies
  • subsp. microphylla(Poir.) J.E.Skog
  • subsp. ruscifoliaL.
Synonyms
  • Coriaria atropurpureaMoc. & Sessé ex DC.
  • Coriaria microphyllaPoir.
  • Coriaria papuanaWarb.
  • Coriaria phylicifoliaHumb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.
  • Coriaria sarmentosaG.Forst.
  • Coriaria thymifoliaHumb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.
  • Coriaria tutuLinds.

Coriaria ruscifolia is a plant of the Coriariaceae family.

Contents

It is native to Mexico, Central America, and South America.

Description

Coriaria ruscifolia is a deciduous shrub [ dubious ]. It is poisonous except for the "fruit", which are actually petals. [1]

Uses

In Ecuador, its fruits are reportedly eaten to produce an inebriated state. The eater is said to experience “sensations of soaring through the air”. The effects are said to be similar to those produced by Petunia violacea . Coriaria ruscifolia grows in Mexico as well; it has been suggested that it was the Aztec inebriant known as tlacopétatl. In the Las Huaringas region, a lake plateau in the northern Peruvian Andes, the local healers (curanderos) refer to Coriaria ruscifolia as contra-alergica, “against allergies.” They use the herbage to prepare a bath additive that they use to wash patients suffering from allergic reactions. [2]

Toxicity

The fruits contain catechol derivatives and probably several sesquiterpenes. Sources state that a toxic substance named coriamyrtine has been isolated from the plant. [3] The effects are described as initially stimulating but then becoming less pleasant. Death from nervous exhaustion can result. Coriamyrtine is a sesquiterpene; other sesquiterpenes coriatine, tutine, and pseudotutine have also been reported. Known in Chile as deu, dewü, huique, huiqui, and matarratones, it is reputed to be a toxic hallucinogen. The fruits are made into rat poison in Chile and are said to be lethal for small children. The Mapuche use a tea made from the leaves as an emetic. [4]

The 2d chemical structure of the toxic sesquiterpene Coriamyrtin CoriamyrtinTransparent.png
The 2d chemical structure of the toxic sesquiterpene Coriamyrtin

Related Research Articles

<i>Datura</i> Genus of poisonous, potentially psychoactive plants

Datura is a genus of nine species of highly poisonous, vespertine-flowering plants belonging to the nightshade family (Solanaceae). They are commonly known as thornapples or jimsonweeds, but are also known as devil's trumpets. Other English common names include moonflower, devil's weed, and hell's bells. All species of Datura are extremely poisonous and psychoactive, especially their seeds and flowers, which can cause respiratory depression, arrhythmias, fever, delirium, hallucinations, anticholinergic syndrome, psychosis, and death if taken internally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scopolamine</span> Tropane alkaloid & anticholinergic drug

Scopolamine, also known as hyoscine, or Devil's Breath, is a natural or synthetically produced tropane alkaloid and anticholinergic drug that is used as a medication to treat motion sickness and postoperative nausea and vomiting. It is also sometimes used before surgery to decrease saliva. When used by injection, effects begin after about 20 minutes and last for up to 8 hours. It may also be used orally and as a transdermal patch since it has been long known to have transdermal bioavailability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Entheogen</span> Psychoactive substances that induce spiritual experiences

Entheogens are psychoactive substances that induce alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, or behavior for the purposes of engendering spiritual development or otherwise in sacred contexts. Anthropological study has established that entheogens are used for religious, magical, shamanic, or spiritual purposes in many parts of the world. Entheogens have traditionally been used to supplement many diverse practices geared towards achieving transcendence, including divination, meditation, yoga, sensory deprivation, asceticism, prayer, trance, rituals, chanting, imitation of sounds, hymns like peyote songs, drumming, and ecstatic dance. The psychedelic experience is often compared to non-ordinary forms of consciousness such as those experienced in meditation, near-death experiences, and mystical experiences. Ego dissolution is often described as a key feature of the psychedelic experience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flying ointment</span> Hallucinogenic salve used in the practice of witchcraft

Flying ointment is a hallucinogenic ointment said to have been used by witches in the practice of European witchcraft from at least as far back as the Early Modern period, when detailed recipes for such preparations were first recorded and when their usage spread to colonial North America.

<i>Cannabis sativa</i> Plant species

Cannabis sativa is an annual herbaceous flowering plant. The species was first classified by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. The specific epithet sativa means 'cultivated'. Indigenous to Eastern Asia, the plant is now of cosmopolitan distribution due to widespread cultivation. It has been cultivated throughout recorded history and used as a source of industrial fiber, seed oil, food, and medicine. It is also used as a recreation drug and for religious and spiritual purposes.

<i>Hyoscyamus niger</i> Species of plant

Henbane is a poisonous plant in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Henbane is native to temperate Europe and Siberia, and naturalised in Great Britain and Ireland.

<i>Calea ternifolia</i> Species of plant

Calea ternifolia is a species of flowering plant in the aster family, Asteraceae. It is native to Mexico and Central America. Its English language common names include bitter-grass, Mexican calea, and dream herb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deliriant</span> Class of psychoactive drugs

Deliriants are a subclass of hallucinogen. The term was coined in the early 1980s to distinguish these drugs from psychedelics such as LSD and dissociatives such as ketamine, due to their primary effect of causing delirium, as opposed to the more lucid and less disturbed states produced by other types of hallucinogens. The term generally refers to anticholinergic drugs, which are substances that inhibit the function of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Common examples of deliriants include plants of the genera Datura and Brugmansia as well as higher than recommended dosages of diphenhydramine (Benadryl). A number of plant deliriants such as that of the Solanaceae family, particularly in the Americas have been used by some indigenous cultures to reach delirious and altered states for traditions or rituals, such as rites of passage, divination or communicating with the ancestors. Despite their long history of use, deliriants are the least-studied class of hallucinogens in terms of their behavioral and neurological effects.

<i>Nicandra physalodes</i> Species of flowering plant in the tomato family Solanaceae

Nicandra physalodes is a species of flowering plant in subfamily Solanoideae of the nightshade family. It is known by the common names apple-of-Peru and shoo-fly plant. It is thought originally to have been native to western South America, including Peru, and is known elsewhere as an introduced and ruderal species – sometimes as a weed – in tropical, subtropical and, to a lesser extent, temperate areas all over the world. It has also long been cultivated as an ornamental plant for its attractive flowers and curious fruits and has been adopted into the traditional medicine of countries far-removed from its original home.

<i>Coriaria</i> Genus of flowering plants

Coriaria is the sole genus in the family Coriariaceae, which was described by Linnaeus in 1753. It includes 14 species of small trees, shrubs and subshrubs, with a widespread but disjunct distribution across warm temperate regions of the world, occurring as far apart as the Mediterranean region, southern and eastern Asia, New Zealand, the Pacific Ocean islands, and Central and South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cannabis tea</span> Cannabis-infused drink

Cannabis tea is a cannabis-infused drink prepared by steeping various parts of the cannabis plant in hot or cold water. Cannabis tea is commonly recognized as an alternative form of preparation and consumption of the cannabis plant, more popularly known as marijuana, pot, or weed. This plant has long been recognized as an herbal medicine employed by health professionals worldwide to ease symptoms of disease, as well as a psychoactive drug used recreationally and in spiritual traditions. Though less commonly practiced than popular methods like smoking or consuming edibles, drinking cannabis tea can produce comparable physical and mental therapeutic effects. Such effects are largely attributed to the THC and CBD content of the tea, levels of which are drastically dependent on individual preparation techniques involving volume, amount of cannabis, and boiling time. Also in common with these administration forms of cannabis is the heating component performed before usage. Due to the rather uncommon nature of this particular practice of cannabis consumption in modern times as well as the legality of cannabis throughout the World, the research available on the composition of cannabis tea is limited and based broadly around what is known of cannabis as it exists botanically.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lactucopicrin</span> Chemical compound

Lactucopicrin (Intybin) is a bitter substance that has a sedative and analgesic effect, acting on the central nervous system. It is a sesquiterpene lactone, and is a component of lactucarium, derived from the plant Lactuca virosa, as well as being found in some related plants such as Cichorium intybus. It is also found in dandelion coffee.

<i>Coriaria myrtifolia</i> Species of plant

Coriaria myrtifolia, called in English redoul, is a shrub that grows to 2–3 m tall. Myrtifolia means myrtle-like leaves.

<i>Desfontainia</i> Genus of plants

Desfontainia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Columelliaceae, though it was placed formerly in Loganiaceae, Potaliaceae, or a family of its own, Desfontainiaceae.

<i>Voacanga africana</i> Species of tree

Voacanga africana is a small tree native to tropical Africa belonging to the family Apocynaceae that grows to 6 m (20 ft) in height and bears leaves that are up to 30 cm (12 in) in length. The yellow or white flowers are succeeded by paired, follicular, dehiscent fruit with a mottled green exocarp and a pulpy, yellow mesocarp surrounding the seeds. The plant contains alkaloids acting as CNS depressants and hypotensives

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Rätsch</span> German anthropologist (1957–2022)

Christian Rätsch was a German anthropologist and writer on topics like ethnopharmacology, psychoactive plants and animals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tutin (toxin)</span> Chemical compound

Tutin is a poisonous plant derivative found in New Zealand tutu plants. It acts as a potent antagonist of the glycine receptor, and has powerful convulsant effects. It is used in scientific research into the glycine receptor. It is sometimes associated with outbreaks of toxic honey poisoning when bees feed on honeydew exudate from the sap-sucking passion vine hopper insect, when the vine hoppers have been feeding on the sap of tutu bushes. Toxic honey is a rare event and is more likely to occur when comb honey is eaten directly from a hive that has been harvesting honeydew from passionvine hoppers feeding on tutu plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychoactive plant</span> Plants that induce psychotropic effects upon ingestion

Psychoactive plants are plants, or preparations thereof, that upon ingestion induce psychotropic effects. As stated in a reference work:

Psychoactive plants are plants that people ingest in the form of simple or complex preparations in order to affect the mind or alter the state of consciousness.

<i>Ovidia</i> Genus of flowering plants

OvidiaMeissn. is a genus of plants in the family Thymelaeaceae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petunioideae</span> Subfamily of flowering plants

Petunioideae is a subfamily of the flowering plant family Solanaceae, the nightshades. It contains thirteen genera, as follows:

References

  1. "Coriaria ruscifolia". pfaf.org. Plants for a Future. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  2. Rätsch, Christian (25 April 2005). The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications. Park Street Press. ISBN   9780892819782.
  3. "compound Summary Coriamyrtin". PubChem.
  4. "The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications". DoctorLib.