Dawson, A. (2018 ). The peyote effect: from the Inquisition to the War on Drugs. Oakland, California: University of California Press.

“1833: The Cholera Epidemic

As cholera ravaged the small Mexican town of Monclova during the summer of 1833, Dr. Ignacio Sendejas took desperate measures. His neighbors had turned to a variety of local cures in their efforts to stem the epidemic, mixing water, lime, and a root called nejayote, but nothing they tried had been effective. Sendejas hoped that a better solution to the crisis might lie with peyote, a cactus root that had until recently been illegal but that was, he wrote, ‘well known for its narcotic effect’ and said to be less dangerous than opium. Peyote had been used by indigenous and nonindigenous curers in the region for centuries, and, given the desperation of the times, it seemed reasonable to see if this powerful cactus might save the day.

Modern medical knowledge tells us that cholera is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium called vibrio cholera, typically transmitted through fecal contamination of water sources, and that peyote is an unlikely cure. Sendejas did not know this, however, and when the patients he treated began to recover, he was convinced that he had found the right treatment for a public health crisis. Within eight days of the outbreak, his peyote-based medicine (it was mixed with orange leaves and six drops of laudanum) evidently cured more than two hundred people in nearby Monterrey, along with preventing any further deaths. Heartened by these results, the city government of Monclova ordered that Sendajas's formula be widely disseminated.

Such an edict would have been unimaginable just a decade earlier, under a colonial regime that viewed the peyote cactus as diabolical—a source of superstition at best and congress with the devil at worst. Banned by the Inquisition in 1620, peyote was implicated in over eighty religious trials during the colonial period. While this ban did little to affect indigenous use of the cactus (both because those groups for whom peyote was sacred, like the Huichols, lived largely outside colonial control and because the Inquisition had no authority over Indians), it did place people like Sendejas in a difficult position. The Spaniards and castas who came into contact with peyote risked punishments that ranged from prison, to the lash, to banishment. And yet, as Sendejas's comment on the ‘well-known’ properties of peyote reminds us, the banned cactus circulated in those worlds throughout the colonial period, for the most part quietly, used as a purgative, a source of energy, and a hunger suppressant, and even to quell what were sometimes obliquely described as disturbances of the mind. It should be unsurprising, then, that peyote continued to circulate in the newly independent Mexico. Freed from the stigma of the Inquisition and not yet subject to the regulations that state and federal governments would later impose to control the national market for medicines, peyote disappeared from the view of the carceral state, and Sendejas was free to experiment with it in the hope of solving a public health crisis.” http://bit.ly/3ictCYk

[Note: There is some reason to suspect that peyote has some antimicrobial effect, but, to be clear, I do not believe it should be considered a “cure” for cholera infection as described in the above text. The “evidently” positive results of the treatment of last resort (which included opium) is claimed in terms of reduced mortality, as the anecdotal account of one mid-19th century frontier physician. There are much more effective and relatively safe interventions (antibiotics) available to modern medicine. Anyone who suspects they might have cholera should seek medical attention, not mescaline.]


The History Of Mexicans In Texas, 1820-1845 By. Fane Downs, B.a., M.a.
(A Dissertation In History Submitted To The Graduate Faculty Of Texas Tech University In Partial Fulfillment Of The Requirements For The Degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy […] August, 1970)

“The therapeutic powers of peyote for cholera were discovered accidentally by Dr. Ignacio Sendejas in Monterrey. The doctor, having tried all known cures without success, went around the city in search of other ideas. Surprisingly, he found in the poor section of town what appeared to be a cure. The physician's directions were as follows: one slice of peyote, one finger in width and two fingers in length, was boiled in a cup of water. After this concoction was strained, as much slaked lime as would fit on a silver coin was added. The patient drank this potion every half hour until his symptoms decreased in severity. In addition every two hours the patient drank tea with six drops of laudanum added. Should the patient suffer cramps, the affected parts of the body were rubbed with a woolen cloth. The only food the patient was allowed was a thin corn gruel (atole). The doctor observed, ‘The narcotic effects of peyote (without the unwelcome results of opium) are well-known; it is more soothing than opium.’ Sendejas, fully convinced of the efficacy of the treatrnent, reported that over two hundred persons had been cured in Monterrey.” http://bit.ly/2VuSr8i


Rao, G. S. (1970). Identity of peyocactin, an **antibiotic from peyote** (Lophophora williamsii), and hordenine. Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, 22(7), 544–545. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2042-7158.1970.tb10566.x

“A variety of medicinal uses have been claimed for the well-known hallucinogenic peyote cactus, Lophophora williamsii. McCleary, Sypherd, & Walkington (1960) recently isolated peyocactin, a water-soluble crystalline substance, from an ethanol extract of peyote and found it to be inhibitory in vitro against 18 strains of penicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and effective in mice against fatal staphylococcal infection. Since there appeared to be no report in the literature elucidating the structure of peyocactin, it became an objective to characterize this antibiotic substance.”

[I could be wrong... maybe peyote does make an effective treatment for cholera in lieu of more conventional interventions?]


[“Among the Oklahoma tribes with which I worked, I found that there is hardly a disease which is not believed to be curable with peyote.” – Schultes (1938 )]

Schultes, R. E. (1938 ). The Appeal of Peyote (Lophophora Williamsii) as a Medicine. American Anthropologist, 40(4), 698–715. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1938.40.4.02a00100

“That the therapeutic appeal of Lophophora Williamsii is still strong in Mexico is shown by recent writers. Lumholtz wrote that the Tarahumare, Huichol, and Tepehuane apply peyote externally for rheumatism, wounds, burns, snakebites, and skin diseases. Furthermore, he stated that ‘it is an absolute cure against the painful stings of scorpions, and, as such, deserves to be widely known’. Bennett and Zingg have found that the Tarahumare apply crushed peyote externally as an ointment. In this tribe ‘hicouri (peyote) dances are more frequent during times of sickness’. Peyote has been widely used in Mexico as a cure for arrow wounds; the dried, powdered root being packed into the wound until healing occurs.

In Mexico, as in the United States, the therapeutic use of Lophophora Williamsii grades into the superstitious and pseudotherapeutic. To its use is attributed health and longevity; rubbed on the knees, it is believed to give strength in walking; in curing disease, it is said to fortify the body against future ills and to purify the soul. Unlike many herbs, peyote is not offered to the dead, but is eaten at death feasts to fortify the living. Among the Zacateco, peyote is revered above all other plant remedies. The Tarahumare believe that the illness resulting from touching or breaking of Datura meleloides can be cured only with peyote.

Lophophora Williamsii continues to be valued by Mexican Indians as a powerful medicine, but its therapeutic use is not confined to the Indian population. Peyote is offered for sale in drug markets in many parts of Mexico and has been listed officially in the Farmacopia Mexicana. Indeed, the medicinal use of peyote has become so well known that Mexicans have incorporated the word peyote into the verb empeyotizarse, the usual term employed among rural Mexicans to signify self-medication (with aspirin) for indisposition following alcoholic intoxication.

The emphasis on the curing powers of peyote is as great among the northern Indians who use it as it is among the Indians of Mexico. The Kiowa and Comanche, for example, the earliest recipients of peyote on the plains, rely on the cactus as a panacea. Among the Oklahoma tribes with which I worked, I found that there is hardly a disease which is not believed to be curable with peyote. Some of the ills listed as responding to peyote were tuberculosis, pneumonia, scarlet fever, intestinal ills, diabetes, rheumatic pains, colds, grippe, fevers, and venereal diseases. Among the Kiowa, partly masticated mescal buttons are packed around an aching tooth. The Delaware also practice this type of dental therapy. A Shawnee informed me that peyote tea was a good antiseptic wash for open wounds and a soothing liniment if applied warm to an aching limb. It is used ‘as white man uses aspirin’. Mooney observed: ‘I have also seen an Indian eat one between meals as a sort of appetizer.’ Several mescal buttons are given three times during childbirth among the Kiowa, Kickapoo, Shawnee, and probably other Plains tribes. The frequent use of peyote as a medicine has led to the statement that the plant is employed as a habit-narcotic, but field investigators deny that this is so.” http://samorini.it/doc1/..._aut/sz/schultes_pey.htm


Geare, R. I., (1913). Merck’s Report: A Practical Journal of Pharmacy as a Profession and a Business (Vol. XXII), 5. NY: Merck & Co.

“There grows in the arid hills along the Rio Grande, and southward in Mexico, a small cactus (Lophophora) which is popularly known as ‘Peyote’ and which was formerly, and is still, much used for ceremonial and medicinal purposes by all of the Indian tribes between the Rocky Mountains and the Gulf of Mexico, from Arkansas River southward almost to the City of Mexico. The Kiowas call it "señi;" the Comanches, ‘wokowi’, and the Tavahumares ‘hikori’ or ‘hikuli’. Among the white people it is commonly, but incorrectly, known as ‘mescal’ owing to a confusion with the maguey cactus of the Southwest, from which latter the intoxicant known as ‘mescal’ is prepared.

The peyote plant resembles a radish in size and shape, and only the top appears above the ground. From the center springs a beautiful white blossom, which later gives place to a tuft of white down. To the North of the Rio Grande this top alone is used, and when sliced and dried it forms the so-called ‘button’, but in Mexico the whole plant is cut into slices, dried, and used in decoction, and the ceremony there is different from that of the Northern tribes.

Among the Kiowas the peyote is one of the objects of sacred veneration; their tribal religion centering chiefly around the ‘tafme’, which is the great dominating figure of the ‘K’adó’ or sun dance.

On account of the medical properties of the peyote and its remarkable effect on the imagination, it is regarded by the Indians as the vegetable incarnation of a deity, and a whole system of myth and ritual has grown up in connection with its use. The rite originated among the more Southern tribes, and came through the Mescalero and Comanche tribes to the Kiowas between 65 and 70 years ago.

As already intimated, the peyote ceremony is usually performed as an invocation for the recovery of the sick, and the chief feature of it among the Mexican Indians is a dance, while among the Kiowas, Comanches and other ‘plains’ tribes it is rather a ceremony of prayer and contemplation. The ceremony is held in a tipi especially erected for the purpose, and generally lasts all night. Women do not, as a rule, take part in the ceremony, but are occupied in preparing the sacred food as well as the feast, in which latter all join at the close of the ceremony. A fire is kept burning in the center of the tipi, the men sitting around it. The fire is enclosed in a crescent-shaped mound, on the top of which is placed the sacred peyote. Following an opening prayer, each participant receives, chews and swallows four peyotes, after which the sacred songs begin, with accompaniment of drum and rattle. Each man, in turn, sings four songs, and the singing is kept up all night, varied by intervals of prayer and other distributions of peyote. At midnight a kind of baptismal service takes place.

The number of ‘buttons’ eaten by each individual during the night is from ten to forty or more. The drug produces a kind of spiritual exaltation, said to be different from that of any other drug, and without any reaction. During the ceremony the sick person to be prayed for, is brought in, and he is allowed to eat one or more specially consecrated ‘buttons’. When daylight comes, the morning star song is sung. The women then pass around the sacred food and the ceremony ends with the ‘Meat song’. After a season of friendly talk, followed by a dinner, the participants disperse.

The ‘tafme’, which as already stated, forms the central figure of the sun dance, is a small image of dark green stone representing the human figure dressed in a robe of white feathers, with a headdress consisting of a single upright feather and pendants of ermine skin, and with numerous strands of blue beads around the neck and painted with designs symbolic of the sun and moon. This image is preserved in a rawhide box and is only exposed to view at the annual sun dance, when it is fastened to a short upright stick planted within the medicine lodge. The complete ‘taime’ medicine consists of three decorated stone images, a large one (or ‘woman’), a smaller one (called a ‘man’) and a third very similar to the small one. Around this ‘taime’ medicine centers the tribal mythology and ceremonial with which the health, prosperity and fate of the tribe are bound up.

On account of numerous recent reports concerning the increased use of peyote and other drugs among the Indians, the office of the Indian Affairs, under the Department of the Interior, has lately taken the matter up, and in January, 1912, sent out a number of questions to superintendents in charge of reservations, for the purpose of ascertaining to what extent peyote is now consumed, and what effect, mental, moral or physical, the material produces. It is significant that later in the year the same Office distributed another circular prohibiting the introduction of intoxicating liquors of any kind, even for medicinal purposes, without permission of the Secretary of War. “