Mhlebe

This South African spurge is used for folk medicinal purposes in Eastern Transvaal (Mpumalanga) and is reputedly psychoactive (Schultes and Hofmann 1980, 367*). Ingestion of a large piece of the root tuber (how much?) is said to cause hallucinations and delirium. The local diviners sometimes swallow pieces of the root in order to obtain prophetic visions. The plant contains bioactive alkaloids (Gundiza 1991; de Smet 1996, 143 f. *) and may contain methylamines (Emboden 1979, 184*).

Literature Gundiza, M. 1991. Effect of methanol extract from Monadenium lugardae on contractile activity of guinea-pig ileum. Central African Journal of Medicine 37:141-44.