Documented Scientific Research on the Effects of Calea Zacatechichi
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In 1986, a now famous study documenting the effects of Calea Zacatechichi on dreams was published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology.
This study was titled “Psychopharmacologic Analysis of an alleged Oneirogenic Plant: Calea Zacatechichi.“
Click here to read the full text of the research report.
Below are the most interesting excerpts of this study, which documents the effects of Calea Zacatechichi on dreams and sleep, using cats and humans as test subjects.
“In human healthy volunteers, low doses of the extracts administered in a double-blind design against placebo increased reaction time end time-lapse estimation. A controlled nap sleep study in the same volunteers showed that Calea extracts increased the superficial stages of sleep and the number of spontaneous awakenings. The subjective reports of dreams were significantly higher than both placebo and diazepam, indicating an increase in hypnagogic imagery occurring during superficial sleep stages.”
“The results of these experiments show that zacatechichi does not share the neurophysiological effects of the dissociative psychodysleptics and only induces the behavioral and EEG signs of somnolence and sleep. The apparent low toxicity of the plant in these experiments and its history of ethnobotanical use allowed us to ascertain the hypnotic potency, dream- inducing effects and other psychotropic properties in human beings.”
“The characteristic EEG slowness and the increased reaction times of subjects treated with both extracts suggested that zacatechichi may contain hypnotic compounds.”
“These results support the idea that zacatechichi extracts, particularly the methanol fraction, contain compounds with activity equivalent to sub- hypnotic diazepam doses. Ingestion of the plant produces a light hypnotic state with a decrease of both deep slow-wave sleep and REM periods.”
“Significantly more dreams (P < 001, in comparison to placebo) were reported after the methanol extract. Similarly, the number of dreams reported during naps was significantly higher following the administration of the plant extracts than with diazepam (P < 0.01). It can be appreciated that, although not significant, the number of dreams reported was greater after the ingestion of Calea extracts than placebo. A more detailed analysis of dream content is shown in Table 2. The number of subjects that did not remember dreaming was always greater after placebo and diazepam administration and. conversely, the individuals that reported more than one dream per session were always the ones treated with zacatechichi extracts. The dreams reported by subjects ingesting Calea extracts, were of a shorter content (measured by the number of lines written in the report). Spontaneous reports of emotions and nightmares were not different among the four treatments. Nevertheless, with the methanol extract more colors during dreaming were mentioned.”
“These results show that zacatechichi administration appears to enhance the number and/or recollection of dreams during sleeping periods. The data are in agreement with the oneirogenic reputation of the plant among the Chontal Indians but stand in apparent contradiction to the EEG sleep- study results. It is well known that dreaming activity is correlated to the REM or paradoxical phase of sleep (Aserinsky and Kleitman, 1953) and it could be expected that a compound that increases dream would also increase REM stage frequency or duration, as it has been shown to occur with physostigmine (Sitaram et al., 1978). In contrast, zacatechichi increases the stages of slow wave sleep and apparently decreases REM sleep. This also occurs with low doses 12-10 mg) of diazepam (Harvey, 1982). Despite this similarity in EEG effects, diazepam decreases dreaming reports (Firth, 1974) while zacatechichi extracts enhances them. Such discrepancy may be explained by the fact that dreaming and imagery are not restricted to the REM episodes but also occur during slow wave sleep (SWS I and II) as lively hypnagogic images (Roffwarg et al., 1962). Such images are reported as brief dreams and are known to be enhanced by marihuana (Hollister, 1971). All this suggests that Calea zacatechichi induces episodes of lively hypnagogic imagery during SWS stage I of sleep, a psychophysiological effect that would be the basis of the ethnobotanical use of the plant as an oneirogenic and oneiromantic agent. “
Click here to read the full text of the research report.
Other Studies
Non-dream related scientific research into Calea Zacatechichi for medicinal purposes:
- Studies on Hypoglycemic Activity of Mexican Medicinal Plants
- Anti-Inflammatory Activity of the Aqueous Extract of Calea Zacatechichi
Note: These studies will open as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file. Download the PDF viewer for free.
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