Guía de las Plantas Psicoactivas

It also includes sheets on fungi and numerous chemical compounds. A good complement to books such as Pharmacoheon, or Plants of the Gods.

Data sheets on 126 plants, 13 fungi and 77 chemicals. Analytical index of 19 pages. Very well illustrated. Foreword by Jonathan Ott. It does not reach the heights of Rätsh's encyclopedia (much more expensive and only available in English), but it is the most solid and extensive work in the Hispanic world. So much for a pleasant reading as a reference manual.

The author of this book has a degree in medicine, a doctorate cum laude, is a specialist in phytotherapy, author of several books and disseminator of knowledge about health. But Dr. Berdonces is, above all, passionate about the world of medicinal plants, an assiduous visitor to botanical gardens and a compulsive photographer of the flora of various continents.

To his credit, among other books, he has two voluminous treatises on medicinal plants (also available in this bookstore: the Gran enciclopedia de las plantas medicinales (with more than 600 species), and the Gran diccionario ilustrado de las plantas medicinales (with more than 1300 species, particularly focused on the American flora).

As Dr. Berdonces has been interested for years in the world of psychoactive plants (he has collaborated, for example, with the anthropologist J.Mª Fericgla) it was desirable and to be expected that he would also apply his talents to the scrutiny of the gifts with which Mother Nature has gifted humans in relation to psychoactive plants (both visionary and stimulating or soothing).

The result is a work of considerable quality: 60 entries for the main psychoactive plants, 66 entries for lesser-known plants and 13 sections dedicated to visionary mushrooms (Amanita muscaria, Claviceps purpurea and eleven others containing psilocybin). For each of these plants and mushrooms we will find sections on botany, traditional use, chemistry, effects, preparation, dosage, medicinal properties, adverse effects and, in some cases, we can also find some brushstroke on the mythological origin of the plant, or notes on its cultivation. And, of course, throughout the book we can delight our eyes with hundreds of color illustrations, which facilitate the identification of the plant.

To crown all this botanical information, we will also find data on 77 chemical substances related to psychoactive plants (anandamide, atropine, baeocystine, beta-carbolines, buotenin, caffeine, cannabinol...); for each compound information is provided on chemical structure, lethal dose and effects on the organism (considering it from a pharmacological point of view). At the end of the book we will find a complete and useful index of terms, 19 pages long, which will allow us to easily find any information that appears in the book. In this sense, this work can be read both as an entertaining manual on psychoactive plants and as a reference guide for specific consultations.

Even if the work does not reach the heights of Christian Rätsh's encyclopedia (more than 1000 pages, extra format, much more expensive and only available in English), we can say that this book is the most solid and extensive reference manual in the Hispanic world, and will probably remain so for a long time. An interesting, useful and beautiful book, which is here to stay (and to replace, at a very reasonable price given its characteristics, other works already out of print).

This Guide to Psychoactive Plants is a botanically, ethnically and historically oriented book on plants whose consumption modifies a person's state of consciousness, among which 60 particularly relevant species stand out.

Beyond the debate on drug addiction and dependence, which focuses on their legality and abuse, many of these plants are at the basis of the development of human medicine and can provide humanity with countless benefits, making their rigorous and documented knowledge particularly useful in various disciplines.

Dr. Josep Lluís Berdonces, a graduate in Medicine and specialist in phytotherapy and medicinal plants, has brought together in this volume, profusely illustrated and rigorously documented, a work of decades of study on psychotropic plants that will interest both botanical specialists and amateurs.

Foreword by Jonathan Ott

Many people think they know everything about drugs or, in particular, shamanic intoxicants or entheogens. And they may ask: Why another book on the subject?

Some may be surprised that I was asked exactly the same question in 1991 about the project I had been working on for two years, which ended with the publication of Pharmacotheon in 1993, with its subsequent revision and updating in 1996, and, finally, with the Spanish editions based on my second English edition. Then people realized that the book Plants of the Gods, by Albert Hofmann and Richard Evans Schultes, and a couple of excellent compilations that were made in the seventies, had by no means exhausted the subject. Readers have often congratulated me on having written "the last word on the subject." But that is far from the case. (...)

For this reason, I look very favorably on the appearance of this Guide to psychoactive plants, written by Dr. Josep Lluís Berdonces. It is a very serious and comprehensive work, which expands our horizons as to the extent and distribution of psychotropic plants sensu lato. I recommend it to specialists and amateurs alike. With excellent indexes (what good is a book rich in data if the author or the publisher do not provide access to them?) and an extensive bibliography, it is a solid and scientific contribution to the expansion of our knowledge about the intriguing and fascinating universe of our botanical masters; yes, of those indispensable green allies that serve us, the psychonauts, as a key to access the infinite psychocosmos that lies both within and beyond our daily horizons.

I congratulate the author and the publisher for this interesting and important contribution.

(Jonathan Ott, Rancho Xochiatl)