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Ololiuqui
|  Botanical name: Turbina corymbosa
Also known as: Ololiuqui, Ololiuhqui, Rivea corymbosa, loquetico, Santa Catarina, Yerba de la virgin, Snake plant, Little Gods
Family name: Convolvulaceae
Natural habitat: Mexico
The word Ololiuqui means "round thing", and refers to the small, light brown, oval seeds of the Turbina corymbosa plant. The plant itself is often referred to as “Snake plant”. The seeds of this plant have been used for shamanic purposes since the pre-Hispanic period by the Mesoamerican people.
In the beginning of the twentieth century it was believed the shamanic usage of Ololiuqui had almost died out. But these days it seems that Ololiuqui is still used by certain tribes, such as the Zapotecs, Chinantecs, Mazatecs and Mixtecs, who live in the remote mountains of southern Mexico in comparative isolation.
A traditional dosage of the Aztecs consists of thirteen pairs of seeds (= 26). There will be prayers when the seeds are collected. The seeds are powdered (if possible by a virgin), soaked in water and then ingested. Sometimes they are also made into a snuff.
There are several reports from the colonial literature about the usage of Ololiuqui. One of the earliest reports says:
Its leaves are slender, ropelike, small. Its name is Ololiuhqui. It inebriates one; it makes one crazy, stirs one up, makes one mad, makes one possessed. He who eats of it, he who drinks it, sees many things that will make him afraid to a high degree. He is truly terrified of the great snake that he sees for this reason.
He who hates people causes one to swallow it in drink and in food so as to make one mad. But it smells sour; it burns a little in the throat. It is applied on the surface alone to treat gout.
In the sixties Albert Hofmann isolated the active constituents from Ololiuqui, which he recognized to be ergot alkaloids that were closely related to the constituents of LSD. The effect of the seeds are described totally different though then LSD or even Psilocybin or N,N-DMT. Users have reported a kind of trance or twilight sleep with dreamy images.
The Turbina corymbosa plant, which belongs to the same family as the Morning Glory, is a large, woody, perennial creeper which can grow up to a height of 8 meters. It has broadly cordate leaves of 5 – 9 cm. long. The flowers are 3 cm. across when open and are white with sometimes greenish stripes. The flowers contain only 1 or 2 seeds each.
The natural habitat of this plant are the tropical parts of Mexico. As an escape from cultivation in these regions it is now also found in Cuba, several islands in the West Indies, North American Gulf Coast, Peru, Colombia and the Philippines.
Just a funny fact: in Cuba the Turbina corymbosa has been depicted on a Christmas stamp in 1960-1961. | | 
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