What is ololiuqui?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

July 14, 2003

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Ololiuqui [o lo' lee ou' ke] remained a mystery until 1941 when Harvard professor Richard Evans Schultes investigated the bindweeds or morning glories of Mexico, in particular, Christmasvine, Rivea corymbosa (=Turbina corymbosa (L.) Rafinsque) and heavenly blue, Ipomoea violacea Linnaeus.

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Schultes connected these morning glories to the legends of ololiuqui written by Spanish explorers. But it was not until 1960 when seed samples were sent to chemist Albert Hofmann that the legends of the visions were understood. (Medical Botany, Plants affecting Man's Health, W.H. Lewis and M.P.F. Elvin-Lewis, Wiley & Sons, 1977)

Three hundred-seventy years before Schultes, Francisco Hernández explored Mexico. From 1570 to 1575, Hernández, a Spanish physician, recorded and described the flora (plants) and fauna (animals) for the king of Spain, Philip II. Hernández was the first to detail the plant known to the Aztecs as coatl xoxouhqui (green snake) or coaxihuitl (snake plant), "...a twining herb with thin, green cordate leaves, slender green terete stems and long white flowers."

The seeds, ololiuqui or oliliuhqui, were part of the sacred ceremony of divination. Hernández wrote "...when the priests wished to commune with their gods and to receive a message from them, they ate this plant to induce a delirium. A thousand visions and satanic hallucinations appeared to them...." (Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus, seu Plantarium, Animalium, Mineralium Mexicanorum Historia, Francisco Hernández, 1651, cited by A. Hofmann)

Hofmann's 1960 analysis surprised the scientific community. The seeds contained ergot alkaloids. The alkaloids had previously only been found in fungi like Claviceps purpurea, which infects rye. Claviceps caused ergotism, the plagues of St. Anthony's fire in Europe. (See Herbal Folklore, September 10, 2001)

The ololiuqui alkaloids, lysergic acid amide and lysergic acid 1-hydroxyethylamide, were closely related to Hofmann's hallucinogenic "problem child", his 1938 synthesis of LSD-25. ("Chapter 7: The Discovery of LSD and Subsequent Investigations of Naturally Occurring Hallucinogens", Albert Hofmann, PhD, Discoveries in Biological Psychiatry, F.J. Ayd & B. Blackwell editors, J.B. Lippincott Co. 1970)

The Institute for Systematic Botany of the University of South Florida has photographs of coaxihuitl, Turbina corymbosa. To view the photographs, click on the link:

http://www.plantatlas.usf.edu/main.asp?plantID=1822

Click on the Images tab, then on the thumbnails to enlarge the images.

The Library of Arizona State University has posted a brief biography of Francisco Hernández. To learn more about this Spanish explorer, click on the link:

http://www.asu.edu/lib/speccoll/patten/html/125.html

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Vigna caracalla (syn. Phaseolus giganteus)

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Celastrus scandens

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