BUFOTENINE

weak hallucinogenic agent active by intravenous injection, isolated from several natural sources or prepared by chemical synthesis. Bufotenine is a constituent of toad poison, the poisonous, milky secretion of glands found in the skin on the back of the animal. It was first isolated in 1934. Structurally, bufotenine is an indole hallucinogen that is capable of blocking the action of serotonin, which is the indole amine transmitter of nerve impulses and can be found in normal brain tissue (and in toad poison). Bufotenine also functions as a powerful constrictor of blood vessels, causing a rise in blood pressure. Other sources of bufotenine are the mushroom Amanita muscaria and the tropical American tree Piptadenia peregrina, the seeds of which were used at the time of the early Spanish explorations by the Indians of Trinidad and of the Orinoco Plain to make the hallucinogenic snuff called cohoba, or yopo. In modern medicine, bufotenine has been used only experimentally, to simulate psychotic disease states for the purpose of psychiatric study.