• Corpus ID: 11659770

Cactus alkaloids. XIX. Crystallization of mescaline HCl and 3-methoxytyramine HCl from Trichocereus pachanoi.

@article{Crosby1973CactusAX,
  title={Cactus alkaloids. XIX. Crystallization of mescaline HCl and 3-methoxytyramine HCl from Trichocereus pachanoi.},
  author={David Marshall Crosby and Jerry McLaughlin},
  journal={Lloydia},
  year={1973},
  volume={36 4},
  pages={
          416-8
        }
}

• D. M. Crosby, J. McLaughlin
• Published 1973
• Chemistry
• Lloydia

The large columnar cactus, Tri chocereus pachanoi Britton and Rose, has been used for centuries in South America as the basis of a hal lucinogenic drink (1,2). This species is known in various regions as aguacolla, giganton, huachuma, or San Pedro and is indigenous to Ecuador and Peru where it is widely cultivated as an ornamental and hedge plant (3). In the United States, the plant is currently being promoted as a "natural and legal" psychedelic, and it is reportedly readily available through certain domestic cactus deal ers (4), although some dealers have voluntarily restricted their sales.1 In 1960, mescaline was discovered by Turner and Hey man as the plant's major alkaloid, but these workers in correctly identified the cactus as Opuntia cylindrica (5). Poisson is generally credited with the first report of the isolation of mescaline from authentic T. pachanoi (6, 7). More recently, Agurell and coworkers have combined gas-liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (glc-ms) to identify in the plant, in addition to mescaline, traces of tyramine, hordenine, 3-methoxy tyramine, 3,4-dimethoxy-jS-phenethylamine, 3,4-dimethoxy-4-hydroxy-/3-phenethylamine, 3,5-dimethoxy-4-hydroxy-/3phenethylamine, and anhalonidine (7, 8). Biosynthetic studies by Lundstrom et al. have examined the for mation of mescaline and 3,4-dimethoxy-/3-phenethylamine in the species and have resulted in the detection of small amounts of the additional alka loid, anhalinine (9). A total of over 25 species of Trichocereus have revealed the presence of alkaloids, and many of these additional species also contain mescaline (7-13).