The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications

Christian Ratsch is an ethnopharmacologist and ethnobotanist, and this reference work, published by Park Street Press, catalogs psychoactive plants used across many cultures together with their traditional and ritual uses. Its strength is breadth and its author's direct field and pharmacological expertise, drawing together botanical, chemical and ethnographic information in one place. Because it is a broad reference work covering plants and practices from many different cultures and periods, the depth of documentation for any single tradition's specific ritual use varies, and some entries rely more on secondary ethnographic reports than on the author's own fieldwork. It is best used here for factual botanical and pharmacological claims, with the specific cultural or religious context of any single plant checked against a source focused on that tradition.