Marijuana – What do the ancient Chinese, George Bush and The Beatles have in common? Knowingly or not, all benefited from one of the most well-known plants of the gods: marijuana. Between the highly practical uses of hemp fiber and its popular mind-altering properties, marijuana has been part of the human experience for thousands of years. Even so, marijuana remains a contentious topic in the United States in the 21st century. This episode explores the past and present of marijuana’s impact on shaping human history.

The Life and Times of Richard Evans Schultes – Schultes was a scholarship student at Harvard College when entered as a Freshman in 1933. An undergraduate term paper on peyote resulted in an opportunity to partake in a traditional ceremony with the Kiowa in Oklahoma, which then led to research in southern Mexico where he produced the first detailed, scientific account of the so-called “magic mushrooms.” Post-graduate research led him to the Colombian Amazon where he produced the first detailed scientific account of ayahuasca and other Plants of the Gods. In 1967, he organized a conference in San Francisco with Albert Hoffman where the conclusion was that the Plants of the Gods would reshape the treatment of certain emotional and psychiatric disorders at some point in the future, a prediction, which has recently come to full fruition.

Sources:

Kreig, Margaret. Green Medicine: the Search for Plants That Heal. Bantam Books, 1966.

Mann, John. Murder, Magic, and Medicine. Oxford University Press, 2000.

Plotkin, Mark J. Ph. D. Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice: an Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest. Viking, 1993.

Prance, Ghillean T., et al. Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs. Synergetic Press, in Association with Heffter Research Institute, 2018. 

 Stewart, Amy, et al. Wicked Plants: the Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2009.

Ergot, LSD and the Birth of Western Religions – Ergot is a fungus that parasitizes rye where - in the Middle Ages - it was sometimes milled into the flour used to make bread. Unfortunately for the unsuspecting folks who ate the bread, ergot is rich in powerful alkaloids that can cause a range of symptoms, from visions to gangrene to death. Some historians have postulated that consumption of ergotized bread may have cause the bizarre behaviors that resulted in the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts in the late 17th century.

When employed correctly, ergot offers many beneficial curative properties in terms of treating medical problems in childbirth as well as migraines. And it was the ergot alkloids that inspired Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman in 1938 to devise synthetic chemicals similar to the ergot alkaloids - and one of the results was LSD.

This episode also delves into whether visions caused by ergot or other plants of the gods may have played an important role in the formation of several western religions.

Sources:

Balick, Michael J., and Paul Alan Cox. Plants, People, and Culture the Science of Ethnobotany. CRC Press, 2020. 

Harner, Michael. Hallucinogens and Shamanism. Oxford University Press. 1981.

Mann, John. Murder, Magic, and Medicine. Oxford University Press, 2000.

Muraresku, Brian. The Immortality Key: the Secret History of the Religion with No Name. St. Martin's Press, 2020. 

Schultes, Richard Evans., and Albert Hofmann. Plants of the Gods. Vandermarck, 1979.

Simpson, Beryl Brintnall., and Molly Conner-Ogorzaly. Economic Botany:Plants in Our World. McGraw-Hill, 2001.

Stewart, Amy, et al. Wicked Plants: the Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2009.

Hexing Herbs and the Witches of Medieval Europe –  The archetypal image of the witch as an old woman riding a broomstick was not a Hollywood creation. In the Middle Ages, “witches” were often skilled herbalists. Some used powerful plants of the Solanaceae family - plants like henbane and mandrake - that are rich in hallucinogenic compounds known as tropane alkaloids that can induce sensations of flying - to achieve altered states. And these plants were then rubbed on broomsticks that were applied to vaginal membranes, so they did fly through the hallucinogenic landscapes of their mind...

Sources:

Balick, Michael J., and Paul Alan Cox. Plants, People, and Culture the Science of Ethnobotany. CRC Press, 2020. 

Harner, Michael. Hallucinogens and Shamanism. Oxford University Press. 1981.

Mann, John. Murder, Magic, and Medicine. Oxford University Press, 2000.

Plotkin, Mark J. Medicine Quest: in Search of Nature's Healing Secrets. Penguin Books, 2001.

Schultes, Richard Evans., and Albert Hofmann. Plants of the Gods. Vandermarck, 1979. 

The Ethnobotany of Warfare – Plants have played a fundamental role in warfare, not just as poisons and medicines but as ships, chariots, weapons and wound bandages. This episode traces this history from the time of primate clobbering each other with sticks to potential new battlefield medicines from plants. 

Sources:

Hughes, J.D. Pan’s Travail. Johns Hopkins Press, 1996.

Majno, Guido. The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient World. Harvard University Press, 1975. 

Perlin, J. Forest Journey: The Role of Wood in the Development of Civilization. Harvard Press, 1991.

Plotkin, Mark J. “The Ethnobotany of Warfare,” Herbalgram: 101: 48-57.

Opium – Perhaps the most ancient of the “Plants of the Gods,” plant remains in Europe clearly indicate that opium was being used by people more than 10,000 years ago. And not only was opium the first effective painkiller, it was also employed as an inspiration by composers and poets. Only in the 19th century did it become widely realized as a highly addictive substance. Some have suggested that this “Plant of the God” might also be termed a “Plant of the Devil.”

Sources:

Balick, Michael J., and Paul Alan Cox. Plants, People, and Culture the Science of Ethnobotany. CRC Press, 2020. 

Booth, M. Opium: A History. MacMillan, 1999.

Emboden, William A. Narcotic Plants. Collier Books, 1980. 

Grinspoon, Lester, and James B. Bakalar. Cocaine: a Drug and Its Social Evolution. Basic Books, 1985.

Jay, Mike. High Society: the Central Role of Mind-Altering Drugs in History, Science, and Culture. Park Street Press, 2010.

Levetin, E. and K McMahon. Plants and Society. McGraw-Hill, 2002

Majno, Guido. The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient World. Harvard University Press, 1975. 

Mann, J. Chasms of Delight: How Mind-Expanding Drugs Helped to Change the World. Memoirs Books, 2012.

Marks, Geoffrey, and William K. Beatty. The Medical Garden: Illustrated. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971. 

Muraresku, Brian. The Immortality Key: the Secret History of the Religion with No Name. St. Martin's Press, 2020. 

Simpson, Beryl Brintnall., and Molly Conner-Ogorzaly. Economic Botany: Plants in Our World. McGraw-Hill, 2001.

Curare – Once known as the “flying death of the Amazon,” curare is a mixture of rainforest plants that indigenous peoples smear on the tips of their arrows or blowdarts to give them a deadly effectiveness. In the hands of western physicians, however, curare has been converted into a life-sustaining medication, a muscle relaxant in abdominal surgery. 

Sources:

Balick, Michael J., and Paul Alan Cox. Plants, People, and Culture the Science of Ethnobotany. CRC Press, 2020.  

Marks, Geoffrey, and William K. Beatty. The Medical Garden: Illustrated. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971. 

Plotkin, Mark J. Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know®. Oxford University Press, 2020. 

Plotkin, Mark J. Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice: an Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest. Viking, 1993. 

Prance, Ghillean T., et al. Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs. Synergetic Press, in Association with Heffter Research Institute, 2018. 

Schultes, Richard Evans., and Albert Hofmann. Plants of the Gods. Vandermarck, 1979. 

Wine – Wine grapes and wine are unquestionably the world’s most valuable medicinal plants: the global annual value of wine is over 300 billion dollars. And the history of wine predates the origin of the human species: primates are known to consume fermented fruit to enter an altered state. This episode traces the use of wine as medicine, from ancient Transcaucasia on the Black Sea 8000 years ago, through classical Greece and Rome to the Holy Land at the period when Judaism, Christianity and Islam first arose. 

Sources:

McGovern, P. Uncorking the Past. U. of California Press. 2010. 

McGovern, P. and S. Calagione. Ancient Brews. W.W. Norton, 2018.

Muraresku, Brian. The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name. St. Martin's Press, 2020. 

Plotkin, Mark J. The Ethnobotany of Medical Wine in the Ancient World. (in press). Herbalgram 2021.

Robinson, J. and J. Harding. The Oxford Companion to Wine. Oxford University Press. 2015

Coca – not to be confused with coconuts or with cacao, the source of chocolate - is a large bush or small tree native to northwestern South America. Cocaine extracted from the leaves found favor among personages as diverse as Sigmund Freud and Ulysses S. Grant as it was once used as a component of various tonics, patent medicines and even a popular wine. Coca leaves are still widely used in this corner of South America for a variety of purposes by the indigenous tribes of the region. 

Sources:

Plotkin, Mark J. Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know®. Oxford University Press, 2020. 

Plowman, Timothy. “The Ethnobotany of Coca.” Advances in Economic Botany, Volume 1, Sept. 1984, pp. 62–111. 

Prance, Ghillean T., et al. Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs. Synergetic Press, in Association with Heffter Research Institute, 2018. 

Schultes, Richard Evans., and Albert Hofmann. Plants of the Gods. Vandermarck, 1979. 

Hallucinogenic snuffs – though most hallucinogens like magic mushrooms or ayahuasca are taken orally, the indigenous peoples of Amazonia have created two different and highly potent snuffs from Amazonian trees which they consume for a variety of healing and divinatory purposes. As with ayahuasca, the author draws on his personal insights and experiences with these plants and these peoples to describe the biocultural importance of these snuffs. 

Sources:

Chagnon, Napoleon A. The Fierce People. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968. 

Plotkin, Mark J. Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know®. Oxford University Press, 2020. 

Plotkin, Mark J. Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice: an Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest. Viking, 1993.

Prance, Ghillean T., et al. Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs. Synergetic Press, in Association with Heffter Research Institute, 2018. 

Schultes, Richard Evans, and Robert F. Raffauf. Vine of the Soul: Medicine Men, Their Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazonia. Synergetic Press, 2004. 

Schultes, Richard Evans., and Albert Hofmann. Plants of the Gods. Vandermarck, 1979. 

Episode Note from Dr. Plotkin:

In this video, I made the all-too-common anthropological error of describing the Taíno peoples of the Caribbean as extinct, through both extermination at the hands of colonists and assimilation. This characterization unfortunately overlooks the living culture continued today by a diaspora including Taíno descendant communities, representative organizations, and individuals. I am grateful to Taíno individuals and representatives of the United Confederation of Taíno People for making me aware of this misstatement.

United Confederation of Taíno People: https://www.uctp.org Guainia Taíno Tribe: https://www.guainia-taino-tribe.net/