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─────────────────────── 1. Definition The definition of the term alkaloid is not a simple one, and is in many cases a source of academic controversy. Difficulties with the definition of such a group of secondary and natural molecules as alkaloids stem from similarities of alkaloids with other secondary compounds. Attempts to define the term “alkaloid” originated at the time of the discovery of these compounds. Friedrich Sertürner, an apothecary’s assistant from Westphalia, first isolated morphine (Figure 1), one of the most important alkaloids in the applied sense 1 . This was in 1805, and proved a significant step forward in chemistry and pharmacology 2,3,4 . Using the method developed by Friedrich Sertürner, the pharmacists Pierre Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Benaimé Caventou isolated, from 1817 to 1821, a remarkable range of other alkaloids (Figure 2), such as brucine (a close relative of strychnine), febrifuge, quinine, caffeine and veratrine 1,5 . The term “alkaloid” was first m...

Claudio Naranjo. The Healing Journey: New Approaches to Consciousness. 1973. Ballantine Books. SBN: 345-24328-5-150 . Chapter 4. Harmaline and the Collective Unconscious, pages 121, 166–168 My lack of further experience with pure harmaline derives from my having been engaged, since the time of the above research, in the study of harmaline combinations: harmaline-MDA, harmaline-TMA ¹, harmaline-mescaline and others. ¹ TMA: trimethoxyamphetamine. I want to end this chapter by pointing out that, useful as pure harmaline can be in psychotherapy, the therapist employing the drug should always keep in mind the fact that some individuals are rather unsusceptible to its psychological effects. As was mentioned earlier, some of them may have no more than a physical reaction to the drug, an unpleasant state of malaise, somnolence, and vomiting that is most probably the result of a conversion reaction. Early in our work with harmaline, we formed the impression that these “untoward reactions” (cons...