Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 58. Chapters: Dimethyltryptamine, Ceiba pentandra, Tabebuia, Opuntia, Terence McKenna, Tournefortia, Harmal, Mimosa tenuiflora, Santo Daime, Blue Morpho Ayahuasca center, 5-MeO-DMT, Santo Daime hymns, Brugmansia, Harmala alkaloid, Psychotria viridis, Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal, Daniel Pinchbeck, Jonathan Ott, Banisteriopsis caapi, União do Vegetal, Maytenus, Tabernaemontana, Blueberry, Rick Strassman, Ceiba speciosa, Mandevilla, Iresine, Acacia confusa, Hura crepitans, Epiphyllum, The Yage Letters, Alchornea castaneifolia, Diplopterys cabrerana, Cyclanthaceae, Dennis McKenna, Quararibea, Natureza Divina, Breaking Open the Head, Cavanillesia, Anthodiscus, Malouetia. Excerpt: N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound of the tryptamine family. DMT is found in several plants, and also in trace amounts in humans and other mammals, where it is originally derived from the essential amino acid tryptophan, and ultimately produced by the enzyme INMT during normal metabolism. The natural function of its widespread presence remains undetermined. Structurally, DMT is analogous to the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT), the hormone melatonin, and other psychedelic tryptamines, such as 5-MeO-DMT, bufotenin, and psilocin (the active metabolite of psilocybin). In some cultures DMT is ingested as a psychedelic drug (in either extracted or synthesized forms). When DMT is inhaled or consumed, depending on the dose, its subjective effects can range from short-lived milder psychedelic states to powerful immersive experiences, which include a total loss of connection to conventional reality, which may be so extreme that it becomes ineffable. DMT is also the primary psychoactive in ayahuasca, an Amazonian Amerindian brew employed for divinatory and healing purposes. Pharmacologically, ayahuasca combines DMT with an MAOI, an enzyme inhibitor that allows DMT to be orally active. DMT was first synthesized in 1931 by Canadian chemist Richard Manske (1901-1977). Its discovery as a natural product is generally credited to Brazilian chemist and microbiologist Oswaldo Gonçalves de Lima (1908-1989) who, in 1946, isolated an alkaloid he named nigerina (nigerine) from the root bark of jurema preta, that is, Mimosa tenuiflora. However, in a careful review of the case Jonathan Ott shows that the empirical formula for nigerine determined by Gonçalves de Lima, which notably contains an atom of oxygen, can only match a partial, "impure" or "contaminated" form of DMT. It was only in 1959, when Gonçalves de Lima provided American chemists a sample of Mimosa tenuiflora roots, that DMT was unequivocally identified in this plant material. Less ambi