Ergot (Claviceps purpurea)
One of the most fascinating of the natural hallucinogens comes from a fungus called ergot, which grows on the grains of grasses, especially rye (Secale), but occasionally on barley (Hordeum), wheat (Triticium), and several wild grasses. An infected grain produces a hard, black, spur-like structure called a sclerotium. In fact, the name ergot comes from the French word argot, which means spur.
Ergot has been known and used for many centuries, and it was even described in an Assyrian tablet as the "noxious pustule in the ear of grain." In ancient times ergot was also known as "mad grain" and "drunken rye." Then later in European history, there were periodic plagues, which had many symptoms, depending on the dosage of ergot. The possible effects were (mild to severe): (1) burning and convulsions, (2) hallucinations with imaginary sounds, (3) gangrene and loss of limbs, (4) permanent insanity, and, occasionally, (5) death. The initial burning sensation led to the Latin name ignis sacer, which means holy fire. This human malady was so horrible that in 1093 a religious order was founded in southern France to help those afflicted; St. Anthony was the patron saint, so the malady, now called ergotism, was then named St. Anthony's fire.
It is now fairly widely thought, based on the research of Linnda Caporael (1976) and later Mary Matossian, that the seven girls and women tried in the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials in 1692 were suffering hallucinations and other symptoms of ergotism (convulsive ergotism). Similar eruptions of ergotism also occurred in Essex County and Fairfax County, Connecticut. In that year, the weather was damp and cool, and rye plants of New England would have had much ergot, which forms sclerotia under those cool, moist conditions. Infants died from consuming contaminated mother's milk. A famous outbreak of ergotism occurred in Sologne, France in 1777, when 8000 people died of gangrenous ergotism. The last major outbreak was 1951.
There are several good uses of ergot. Over the centuries physicians prescribed a ground extract of the sclerotium in the treatment of migraine headaches, which are allayed by an alkaloid called ergotamine. Moreover, during the Middle Ages midwives used ergot to aid in difficult parturition; it still can be used to control post-partum hemorrhaging. This second use comes from the action of the drug on smooth muscle in the blood vessels, i.e., a vasoconstrictor. This is, however, also the cause for gangrene, because when blood vessels are constricted nutrients and oxygen are not supplied properly to the limbs, so that they become dry and black with bacterial decay.
The psychoactive ingredient in ergot is LSD, lysergic acid diethylamide. The activity of this compound was accidentally discovered in 1943 by Dr. Albert Hofmann, an organic chemist, who hallucinated when he got some of this substance on his skin. Hofmann experimented on himself to study the effects of this colorless, odorless, and tasteless substance.
LSD became famous in the 1960s through the notoriety of two Harvard psychology professors, Richard Albert and Timothy Leary, who proposed the motto "turn on, tune in, and drop out" and who accelerated the psychedelic drug movement in middle class America. Careless experiments with college students on psychoactive drugs were enough cause to have Leary and Albert booted out of Harvard. In 1966 Leary organized the League of Spiritual Discovery, for which LSD ("acid") was a sacrament. The United States government convicted Leary of possession (LSD and marijuana), but he escaped to Algeria and wandered for several years before being extradited to serve a prison term. For years then Leary was totally rehabilitated. He died in 1996, with the wish of having his ashes rocketed to outer space. Albert was trained by a guru in India, and under a new name, Bab a Ram Dass, he created a following that seek a "meditative high."
LSD was credited with many positive things, but scientific research has shown that things such as insight and artistic creativity are actually impaired for up to six months. Early "scare" reports that LSD causes breakage of chromosomes and, therefore, mutation have not been substantiated by numerous subsequent studies on experimental animals. This drug is mostly cleared out of the blood in three hours and then excreted. There are no physical withdrawal symptoms from LSD, but certainly there is some psychological dependence on this drug.