Leonti Marco, Casu Laura
Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Via Ospedale 72, 09124 Cagliari (CA), Italy.
Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Cagliari, Via Ospedale 72, 09124 Cagliari (CA), Italy.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2014 Aug 8;155(1):373-86. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2014.05.029. Epub 2014 Jun 5.
Food is medicine and vice versa. In Hindu and Ayurvedic medicine, and among human cultures of the Indian subcontinent in general, the perception of the food-medicine continuum is especially well established. The preparation of the exhilarating, gold-coloured Soma, Amrita or Ambrosia, the elixir and food of the 'immortals'-the Hindu pantheon-by the ancient Indo-Aryans, is described in the Rigveda in poetic hymns. Different theories regarding the botanical identity of Soma circulate, but no pharmacologically and historically convincing theory exists to date. We intend to contribute to the botanical, chemical and pharmacological characterisation of Soma through an analysis of two historical Amrita recipes recorded in the Bower Manuscript. The recipes are referred therein as panaceas (clarified butter) and also as a medicine to treat nervous diseases (oil), while no exhilarating properties are mentioned. Notwithstanding this, we hypothesise, that these recipes are related to the ca. 1800 years older Rigvedic Soma. We suppose that the psychoactive Soma ingredient(s) are among the components, possibly in smaller proportions, of the Amrita recipes preserved in the Bower Manuscript.
The Bower Manuscript is a medical treatise recorded in the 6th century A.D. in Sanskrit on birch bark leaves, probably by Buddhist monks, and unearthed towards the end of the 19th century in Chinese Turkestan. We analysed two Amrita recipes from the Bower Manuscript, which was translated by Rudolf Hoernle into English during the early 20th century. A database search with the updated Latin binomials of the herbal ingredients was used to gather quantitative phytochemical and pharmacological information.
Together, both Amrita recipes contain around 100 herbal ingredients. Psychoactive alkaloid containing species still important in Ayurvedic, Chinese and Thai medicine and mentioned in the recipe for 'Amrita-Prâsa clarified butter' and 'Amrita Oil' are: Tinospora cordifolia (Amrita, Guduchi), three Sida spp., Mucuna pruriens, Nelumbo nucifera, Desmodium gangeticum, and Tabernaemontana divaricata. These species contain several notorious and potential psychoactive and psychedelic alkaloids, namely: tryptamines, 2-phenylethylamine, ephedrine, aporphines, ibogaine, and L-DOPA. Furthermore, protoberberine alkaloids, tetrahydro-β-carbolines, and tetrahydroisoquinolines with monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAO-I) activity but also neurotoxic properties are reported.
We propose that Soma was a combination of a protoberberine alkaloids containing Tinospora cordifolia juice with MAO-I properties mixed together with a tryptamine rich Desmodium gangeticum extract or a blending of Tinospora cordifolia with an ephedrine and phenylethylamine-rich Sida spp. extract. Tinospora cordifolia combined with Desmodium gangeticum might provide a psychedelic experience with visual effects, while a combination of Tinospora cordifolia with Sida spp. might lead to more euphoric and amphetamine-like experiences.
食物即药物，反之亦然。在印度教和阿育吠陀医学中，以及在整个印度次大陆的人类文化中，食物 - 药物连续体的观念尤为根深蒂固。古代印度 - 雅利安人制备令人兴奋的金色苏摩、甘露或仙馔（即印度教万神殿中“不朽者”的长生不老药和食物）的过程，在《梨俱吠陀》的诗歌颂歌中有描述。关于苏摩的植物身份存在不同理论，但迄今为止尚无在药理学和历史方面令人信服的理论。我们打算通过分析鲍尔手稿中记录的两份历史悠久的甘露配方，为苏摩的植物学、化学和药理学特征研究做出贡献。这些配方在其中被称为万灵药（澄清黄油），也被称为治疗神经疾病的药物（油），但未提及令人兴奋的特性。尽管如此，我们推测这些配方与大约1800年前的《梨俱吠陀》中的苏摩有关。我们认为，具有精神活性的苏摩成分可能存在于鲍尔手稿中保存的甘露配方的成分之中，可能比例较小。
鲍尔手稿是一部公元6世纪用梵文记录在桦树皮叶上的医学论著，可能由佛教僧侣所著，19世纪末在中国新疆出土。我们分析了鲍尔手稿中的两份甘露配方，该手稿在20世纪初由鲁道夫·霍恩勒翻译成英文。我们利用更新后的草药成分拉丁双名进行数据库搜索，以收集定量的植物化学和药理学信息。
两份甘露配方总共包含约100种草药成分。在“甘露 - 普拉萨澄清黄油”和“甘露油”配方中提及的、在阿育吠陀医学、中医和泰医中仍具有重要意义的含精神活性生物碱的物种有：心叶青牛胆（甘露、古杜奇）、三种黄花稔属植物、刺毛黧豆、莲、恒河山蚂蝗和狗牙花。这些物种含有几种臭名昭著且具有潜在精神活性和致幻作用的生物碱，即：色胺、2 - 苯乙胺、麻黄碱、阿朴啡碱、伊博格碱和左旋多巴。此外，还报道了具有单胺氧化酶抑制剂（MAO - I）活性但也具有神经毒性的原小檗碱生物碱、四氢 - β - 咔啉和四氢异喹啉。
我们提出，苏摩是一种含有具有MAO - I特性的原小檗碱生物碱的心叶青牛胆汁汁与富含色胺的恒河山蚂蝗提取物的混合物，或者是心叶青牛胆与富含麻黄碱和苯乙胺的黄花稔属植物提取物的混合。心叶青牛胆与恒河山蚂蝗的组合可能会带来具有视觉效果的致幻体验，而心叶青牛胆与黄花稔属植物的组合可能会导致更欣快和类似安非他明的体验。
