This is a list of psychoactive plants, fungi, and animals.
Psychoactive plants include, but are not limited to, the following examples:
N,N-Dimethyltryptamine is a substituted tryptamine that occurs in many plants and animals, including humans, and which is both a derivative and a structural analog of tryptamine. DMT is used as a psychedelic drug and prepared by various cultures for ritual purposes as an entheogen.
Recreational drug use is the use of one or more psychoactive drugs to induce an altered state of consciousness, either for pleasure or for some other casual purpose or pastime. When a psychoactive drug enters the user's body, it induces an intoxicating effect. Recreational drugs are commonly divided into three categories: depressants, stimulants, and hallucinogens.
Mescaline or mescalin (3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine) is a naturally occurring psychedelic protoalkaloid of the substituted phenethylamine class, known for its hallucinogenic effects comparable to those of LSD and psilocybin.
Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary mental states and an apparent expansion of consciousness. Also referred to as classic hallucinogens or serotonergic hallucinogens, the term psychedelic is sometimes used more broadly to include various types of hallucinogens, such as those which are atypical or adjacent to psychedelia like salvia and MDMA, respectively.
Entheogens are psychedelic drugs—and sometimes certain other psychoactive substances—used for engendering spiritual development or otherwise in sacred contexts. They have been used in various ways, e.g., as part of established religious rituals or as aids for personal spiritual development. 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 healing, 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.
Amanita pantherina, also known as the panther cap, false blusher, and the panther amanita due to its similarity to the true blusher, is a species of fungus found in Eurasia with poisonous and psychoactive properties.
5-MeO-DMT (5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) or O-methyl-bufotenin is a psychedelic of the tryptamine class. It is found in a wide variety of plant species, and also is secreted by the glands of at least one toad species, the Colorado River toad. Like its close relatives DMT and bufotenin (5-HO-DMT), it has been used as an entheogen in South America. Slang terms include Five-methoxy, the power, bufo, and toad venom.
Bufotenin is a tryptamine derivative, more specifically, a DMT analog, related to the neurotransmitter serotonin. It is an alkaloid found in some species of mushrooms, plants and toads, especially the skin.
The Colorado River toad, also known as the Sonoran Desert toad, is a toad species found in northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States. It is well known for its ability to exude toxins from glands within its skin that have psychoactive properties.
Neoraimondia is a genus of medium to large cacti from Peru. The genus is named after the Italian-born Peruvian explorer, naturalist, and scientist, Antonio Raimondi.
Echinopsis lageniformis, synonyms including Echinopsis scopulicola and Trichocereus bridgesii, is a cactus native to Bolivia. It is known as the Bolivian torch cactus. Among the indigenous populations of Bolivia, it is sometimes called achuma or wachuma, although these names are also applied to related species such as Trichocereus macrogonus which are also used for their psychedelic effects.
Indole alkaloids are a class of alkaloids containing a structural moiety of indole; many indole alkaloids also include isoprene groups and are thus called terpene indole or secologanin tryptamine alkaloids. Containing more than 4100 known different compounds, it is one of the largest classes of alkaloids. Many of them possess significant physiological activity and some of them are used in medicine. The amino acid tryptophan is the biochemical precursor of indole alkaloids.
5-Bromo-DMT (5-bromo-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is a psychedelic brominated indole alkaloid found in the sponges Smenospongia aurea and Smenospongia echina, as well as in Verongula rigida alongside 5,6-Dibromo-DMT and seven other alkaloids. It is the 5-bromo derivative of DMT, a psychedelic found in many plants and animals.
Trichocereus macrogonus var. pachanoi is a fast-growing columnar cactus found in the Andes at 2,000–3,000 m (6,600–9,800 ft) in altitude. It is one of a number of kinds of cacti known as San Pedro cactus. It is native to Ecuador, Peru and Colombia, but also found in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Venezuela and cultivated in other parts of the world. Uses for it include traditional medicine and traditional veterinary medicine, and it is widely grown as an ornamental cactus. It has been used for healing and religious divination in the Andes Mountains region for over 3,000 years.
Cimora is a Peruvian term used to describe a brew with hallucinogenic properties made from the “San Pedro” cacti and other plants such as chamico in South America, used traditionally for shamanic purposes and healing in Peru and Bolivia. The name is also used to describe a number of both hallucinogenic and non-hallucinogenic plants in the region, some of which are used in traditional medicines. Which plants go by the name cimora is an ethnobotanical problem that has been debated at great length by ethnobotanists in many different journals. The term cimora is said to refer to algo malo, meaning something bad. San Pedro goes by many names including pachanoi, aguacolla, elremedio, gigantón, and cactus of the four winds. The ritualistic use of the brew is similar to ayahuasca, which is a South American used as a traditional spirit medicine in Brazil, although while the active ingredient in ayahuasca is DMT, the active ingredient in cimora is mescaline. The use of cimora and the rituals involved have evolved throughout history due to the influence of those who controlled Peru at different stages, although it has almost always involved the use of the San Pedro cactus and its mescaline content.
Many cacti are known to be psychoactive, containing phenethylamine alkaloids such as mescaline. However, the two main ritualistic (folkloric) genera are Echinopsis, of which the most psychoactive species occur in the San Pedro cactus group, and Lophophora, with peyote being the most psychoactive species. Several other species pertaining to other genera are also psychoactive, though not always used with a ritualistic intent.
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.
The stela of the cactus bearer is a monolith or stele of a single piece of granite, belonging to the Chavín culture of ancient Peru, which remains in its original location on the northwest side of the circular plaza at the archaeological site known as the ceremonial center of Chavín de Huántar in the Ancash region of Peru. It was discovered during the 1972 excavation season by Peruvian archaeologist Luis Guillermo Lumbreras.