Salvia divinorum

Scientific Name(s): Salvia divinorum Epl. & Jativa-M.
Common Name(s): Diviner's sage, Hojas de Maria, Magic mint, Mystic mint, Purple sticky, Sally D, Ska Maria Pastora, yerba de la pastora, Yerba Maria

Medically reviewed by Drugs.com. Last updated on Sep 17, 2021.

Clinical Overview

Use

Salvia divinorum is a hallucinogen and is illegal in some jurisdictions. Check individual state legislation. Clinical studies suggest Salvia divinorum to act via a potentiation of kappa opioid receptor activity.

Dosing

200 to 500 mcg of salvinorin A, or several leaves, smoked or absorbed perorally, is sufficient to cause hallucinations.

Contraindications

S. divinorum should not be used in people with any mental disease.

Pregnancy/Lactation

Use during pregnancy or lactation is not recommended.

Interactions

None well documented.

Adverse Reactions

None systematically reported.

Toxicology

No toxicity was observed in a 2-week study in mice.

Scientific Family

• Lamiaceae (mint)

Source

S. divinorum is a species of sage native to the Sierra Mazateca in Oaxaca, Mexico. It is a perennial herb that grows 1 m in height, with ovate to acuminate leaves 12 to 15 cm long, and flowers with white corollas and purple calyces in a panicle. It has not been found in the wild and is only known from cultivated material in forest ravines in northeastern Oaxaca.Schultes 1973, PLANTS 2017

History

The plant has been used by the Mazatec people, who also employed a number of other psychotropic plants in extensively documented healing and divinatory rituals.Valdés 1983 The leaves of the plant typically were masticated or the expressed juice ingested. Because the plant is illegal in some jurisdictions, individual state statutes should be consulted. It is widely available through Internet sales.Babu 2008, Bücheler 2005, González 2006, Hoover 2008, Lange 2008, Singh 2007 A protein-coupled receptor method has been established for the identification of S. divinorum based on 5S-rRNA-NTS sequence.Bertea 2006

Chemistry

The psychotropic active agent in S. divinorum was identified as the diterpene salvinorin A, also known as divinorin A.Ortega 1982, Valdes 1984 Salvinorin A is the first example of a hallucinogenic agent that is not an alkaloid. Other diterpenes in the neoclerodane series have been isolated from the plant.Bigham 2003, Harding 2005, Kutrzeba 2009, Munro 2003, Shirota 2006, Valdés 2001 The lactone loliolide has also been isolated from S. divinorum.Valdes 1986 Reviews of the chemical constituents have been published. Casselman 2014

A detailed study of the tissue localization of salvinorin A found it in the peltate glandular trichomes of the leaves.Siebert 2004 Biosynthesis of salvinorin A utilizes the deoxyxylulose pathway, rather than the mevalonate pathway.Kutrzeba 2007

A preparative isolation procedure for salvinorin A using centrifugal partition chromatography has been published.Shirota 2007 Numerous reports describe analytical methods for salvinorin A in leaf material using high-performance liquid chromatography, thin-layer chromatography, and mass...