Salvia splendens may be a new psychotropic sage, such as salvia divinorum.
Here is what I have observed with 1 leaf of salvia splendens (in powder) sublingually (leaf material kept under the tongue for 20 minutes):
The first noticeable effect is felt as "heavy eyes". Your eyes seem heavy and, subjectively, globulous.
At the same time you feel a slowing of your thoughts, reminiscent of the effects of SSRIs.
Then you feel a nice feeling of tranquillty and anxiolysis which reminds very much the anxiolysis which can be elicited by MDMA.
This pleasant anxiolysis lasts for a few hours.
Salvia splendens is unknown as a psychotropic agent.
Thursday, 30 October 1997:
Yesterday I observed the following effect with half a leaf of salvia splendens:
Fast anxiolytic effect reminding, again, a component of the anti-stress effect of MDMA and reminding also the long term psychotropic effects which can be induced by captopril together with a SSRI component.
Captopril can induce, after sometimes, at a dose of 50 to 75mg, emotional indifference which, in turn, leaves you unresponsive to normal psychological stress.
So yesterday I was stressed and felt not good,despite the fact I had taken 2mg of a benzodiazepine, lorazepam.
This was due to my wife who often has bouts of depressive ideation with a lot of tears, when approaching menstruations. Seeing her crying I obviously felt anxious and also some autonomic stress effects.
I took half a leaf of salvia splendens sublingually, to see if it could have any effect on this stress and anxiety.
After about 10 minutes my stress and anxiety all of a sudden vanished and I felt perfectly tranquil and "reasonable".
Seeing my wife crying I did not feel anxious or tense anymore but just "rational".
What I noticed was a blunting of emotions, such as seen with captopril for instance, and SSRIs or with MDMA (which, I feel, has a pro-emotional component and an anti-emotional component at the same time).
For about 20 minutes I felt no more anxiety or concern, just rationally quiet, placid!
Then I took another half leaf sublingually and, after a few minutes, I felt sudenly a strange state I perhaps experienced under a high dose of hashish.
My head became light, my body felt numb, and I started to feel, in fact, light everywhere, as if I were suddenly to fly up in the sky like a balloon!
This made me afraid because it felt as if something unknown was on the verge of happening.
To try to combat this feeling I went to the toilet, in order just to "do something". After about 2 minutes this sensation was gone and I again felt the previous effect of salvia splendens.
Conclusion: salvia splendens seems to have a remarkable anxiolytic effect subjectively totally different and distinct from those effects seen with benzodiazepines. It lifts your anxiety without inducing "euphoria" (...which looks exactly like what many pharmaceutical companies are looking for (buspirone...)!!!). On the other hand, you feel emotionally unreactive.
This suggests potential studies concerning the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, if this effect is confirmed by others.
Salvia splendens seems to contain powerful and short-acting active components (salviarin, splendidin? which are clerodane diterpenes) and I guess increasing the dosage might lead to effects partially resembling those of salvia divinorum because this effect of the "unknown" I have felt also with salvia divinorum at 1 leaf dosage sublingually.
Emotional blunting was also very apparent with salvia divinorum, unlike a molecule like gamma-hydroxybutyrate which spectacularly enhances your emotions and sociability.
Claude Rifat
Note: Clerodane diterpenes can be found also in other plants than salvia splendens and divinorum. They might be natural insect repellents used by some salvia species! One at least, from another Labiaceae (Ajuga, a Chinese labiaceae) has hypotensive action. Is there a captoprilic link here?