The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications.
by Dr Christian Rätsch with prologue by Albert Hofmann.

944 pages
21.59 x 4.57 x 27.94 cm
Park Street Press 1 abril 2005
$2000 pesos

I’ve met and spent some time with the author, Dr. Christian Rätsch, back in the 1990s in Palenque and Oaxaca. He was the type of scientist (anthropologist, ethnopharmacologist) who believed personal experience was a necessary adjunct to intellectual research. He was an amazing man, much like a character out of a John Steinbeck novel. He is dead now.

CONDITION:
This book is basically new, never having been read. It was left over from my book sales when I was the mail order rare plant nursery, Theatrum Botanicum, in the early 2000s. The dust jacket is a little faded and the rest of the book is basically untouched.

REVIEW FROM AMAZON:
“The most comprehensive guide to the botany, history, distribution, and cultivation of all known psychoactive plants.

• Examines 414 psychoactive plants and related substances
• Explores how using psychoactive plants in a culturally sanctioned context can produce important insights into the nature of reality
• Contains 797 color photographs and 645 black-and-white illustrations

In the traditions of every culture, plants have been highly valued for their nourishing, healing, and transformative properties. The most powerful plants–those known to transport the human mind into other dimensions of consciousness–have traditionally been regarded as sacred.

In The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants Christian Rätsch details the botany, history, distribution, cultivation, and preparation and dosage of more than 400 psychoactive plants. He discusses their ritual and medicinal usage, cultural artifacts made from these plants, and works of art that either represent or have been inspired by them.

The author begins with 168 of the most well-known psychoactives–such as cannabis, datura, and papaver–then presents 133 lesser known substances as well as additional plants known as “legal highs,” plants known only from mythological contexts and literature, and plant products that include substances such as ayahuasca, incense, and soma.The text is lavishly illustrated with 797 color photographs–many of which are from the author’s extensive fieldwork around the world–showing the people, ceremonies, and art related to the ritual use of the world’s sacred psychoactives.”