Chemistry+and+Properties

= What is it? = According to the National Drug Control, some of the other names for Salvia would include: Salvia is a plant which usually is green and white with purpose flowers. It is a plant that has large green leafs and can grow to be about 3 feet in height. It is also a perennial herb, that is also part of the mint family
 * Sally D
 * Magic Mint
 * Shepherdess' herb
 * Ska Maria Pastora
 * Diviner's Sage
 * Sage of the Seers

= What's in it? = = Chemistry: =

There are a lot of differences in the chemistry found in the drug Salvia compared to other Psychoactive drugs. It is said "salvinorin can not be compared to any other drug" (Salvia Center, 2010, para. 3). On this page you will find out how this particular drug affects the brain. How this drug affects the brain is very complex. As we all know most if not all psychoactive drugs affect your brain behaviour in some way. Do you know what is in Salvia before you try it? Well this is going to explain what exactly is in the drug and how it affects the brain.

Salvinorin is made up of two parts. A compound which contains carbon, hydrogen and also oxygen atoms, is known as as a chemical nomenclature salvinorin A, which takes up 96% of the drug, and a salvinorin B which takes up 4%. Salvinorin A is a very potent and natural vision enhancer substance, where as salvinorin B has no effect known. Most of the psychoactive drugs contain alkaloids which contain nitrogen atoms. The drug salinorin is different, it is a diterpene. (A chemical compound) To us, this may not seem as a big difference, or have much meaning. To a chemist or scientists, there is a large difference. Unlike other drugs, saliva can not be shown in a urine test for alkaloid drugs or opiates.

When the drug enters your brain a lot of things happen. Salvinorin A will set off the activity in the class of proteins, that are also known as the Kappa opioid receptors. These potentially differ from other opioids due to the fact that other opioid drugs activate both Kappa and MU receptors. When the MU are activated it will cause dependence, as well as a mild visionary effect. This causes the drug to be extremely addictive. When it comes to the drug Salvia, this is not true. Salvinorin A is considered to be a Kappa A agoinst (define). It can cause change in the vision but it is in no way addictive.

//Salvinorin A has become known as the "strongest natural hallucinogen known to man". (Hooker, 2008, P.1).// This was stated by a man by the name of Jacob Hooker.He is a scientist who made an examination of what salvia does to your brain. He used a PET scanning and watched the distribution of the Salvinorin A in the brain. They put radioactive labeled form of salvinorin A, and tracked its entry. There was specific results shown in the picture below. It shows specific regions of the brain that were affected. The areas that are in red shows where it affected the brain. This image was taken from thee Brookhaven Scientists article page. (to be sited).



As you can see it affects the cerebellum. This image is shown with a 3-7 min. post injection.

Within 40 seconds after the injection, they found the peak of concentration. This is about 10 times faster then cocaine when entered into the body. Within 16 minutes it was gone. This indicates that a user will have effects between 5-10 minutes, then after all affects will be gone.There was an extremely high concentration found in the cerebellum and the visual cortex. It also states in the article that about 10 micrograms will affect the brain. This drug differs with affects compared to another hallucinogens. This drug will target a receptor that is known to //modulate pain.// (Siebert, 2010, P.1).