Salvia divinorum

Salvia divinorum (also known as Diviner's sage, Magic Mint, María Pastora, or simply Salvia, although the genus name is shared among many plants) is a psychoactive plant, a member of the sage genus and the Lamiaceae (mint) family. The plant is grown by the Mazatec indigenous people of the Oaxaca mountains of southern Mexico in isolated, moist, and secret plots. It has been used as an entheogen by their shamans for centuries for healing during spirit journeys. It is thought to be a cultigen. No definitively wild populations have been found.

The Latin name Salvia divinorum literally translates to "sage of the seers". SiebertSALVIA DIVINORUM. The genus name Salvia is derived from the Latin salvare, meaning "to heal" or "to save". The words salvation and saviour also come from this root.

The primary psychoactive constituent is a diterpenoid known as salvinorin A.

History

In 1939 Salvia was first recorded in print by Jean Basset Johnston. He was studying the psilocybin mushroom use of the Mazatecs in Mexico when he encountered this entheogen. R. Erowid Experience Vaults: Salvia divinorum (also Salvia. Gordon Wasson documented its use a decade later and reported its effects through his own testimonials. Historical data at this point are largely unresearched, but are likely to date back into the early history of Central America. It was not until the 1990s that it became more widely known through the experiments of Daniel Siebert.

As is often the case with cultigens, it is likely that the history of this plant dates back a number of generations. Cultigens require a long historical relationship with human cultures, and Salvia is no exception. Perhaps the decline of its widespread use began with the Spanish Conquest, or this phenomenon may have been already underway, either due to religious or political reasons. News and information about recreational use and possible restrictions in the United States.