Note 3 — APPENDIX 2: PEYOTE AND THE MESCAL BEAN

Henry (T. A.), The Plant Alkaloids, 395; Dayton, op. cit., 89. Havard (Report on the Flora, 500) says the alkaloid sophoria [sic] was isolated by Dr. H. C. Wood in 1877 as a whitish, amorphous substance producing convulsions, temporary loss of voluntary movement, and distressing vomiting; again (Drink Plants, 39) he says sophorine [sic] is an irritant-narcotic. Another alkaloid, matrine, is found in Sophora spp. (Nagai, Plugge, Kondo et al. in Henry (T. A.), The Plant Alkaloids, 398). Havard, citing one Bellanger, says the Indians near San Antonio formerly used the seed as an intoxicant, half of one producing a delirious exhilaration followed by a deep sleep lasting two or three days; a whole bean, according to Dr. Rothrock’s informant, would kill a man. Dayton, 89, says children have been known to die from the effects of eating seeds of S. secundiflora; in any case, a rupture of the hard, leathery coat of the bean would be required for the release of the alkaloid in the bean-flesh.

Cattle and sheep appear to be more affected by the leaves of the plant, which also contain the alkaloid, than by the beans. The effect on them is marked: sheep fed about one percent body weight of the leaves were paralyzed in the legs for days and calves fed as little as .25% of body weight of fresh leaves died in 45 hours; one fed 1.0% died in 1¾ hours. Recovery in sheep sometimes required 12 days, in calves up to 16 days (Boughton and Hardy).