RESUMO
Over several millennia, various native plant species in South America have been used for their healing and psychoactive properties. Chemical analysis of archaeological artifacts provides an opportunity to study the use of psychoactive plants in the past and to better understand ancient botanical knowledge systems. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used to analyze organic residues from a ritual bundle, radiocarbon dated to approximately 1,000 C.E., recovered from archaeological excavations in a rock shelter located in the Lípez Altiplano of southwestern Bolivia. The site is located at an elevation of â¼3,900 m above sea level and contains evidence of intermittent human occupations during the last 4,000 years. Chemical traces of bufotenine, dimethyltryptamine, harmine, and cocaine, including its degradation product benzoylecgonine, were identified, suggesting that at least three plants containing these compounds were part of the shamanic paraphernalia dating back 1,000 years ago, the largest number of compounds recovered from a single artifact from this area of the world, to date. This is also a documented case of a ritual bundle containing both harmine and dimethyltryptamine, the two primary ingredients of ayahuasca. The presence of multiple plants that come from disparate and distant ecological areas in South America suggests that hallucinogenic plants moved across significant distances and that an intricate botanical knowledge was intrinsic to pre-Columbian ritual practices.
Assuntos
Plantas Medicinais/química , Psicotrópicos/química , Arqueologia/métodos , Banisteriopsis/química , Bolívia , Cromatografia Gasosa-Espectrometria de Massas/métodos , Alucinógenos/química , Humanos , América do Sul , Espectrometria de Massas em Tandem/métodosRESUMO
OBJECTIVES: To determine cotinine levels in hair samples collected from smokers and estimate their relationship with nicotine intake and nicotine dependence class according to the Fagerström dependence questionnaire. DESIGN AND METHODS: Sixty-nine volunteers participated. They gave hair samples and answered questionnaires covering information related to smoking habits. Cotinine levels were determined by enzyme immunoassay after extraction from 20 mg of hair. Calibrators for the range 100 to 12,800 pg/mg were used. RESULTS: Mean cotinine concentration was 2070.9 pg/mg (range, 469.4-10,188.6 pg/mg). There were significant correlations between cotinine levels in hair and the questionnaire results (rs = 0.325, P = 0.018) and with the number of cigarettes smoked in a day (rs = 0.717, P < 0.001). Although the correlation between questionnaire results and the number of cigarettes smoked per day was significant (rs = 0.565, P < 0.01), it was weaker than the association between cotinine levels and number of cigarettes smoked. Cotinine levels were lower in the group that smoked from 1 to 5 cigarettes per day (1104.1 ng/mg) compared with the other groups. CONCLUSIONS: Cotinine levels were more highly correlated with nicotine exposure than with the Fagerström questionnaire scores. It was found that interference from exogenous sources of contamination, such as hair dyes, is a limitation to estimate nicotine intake from hair analysis.