Victor A. Reko

Victor A. Reko, (born August 3, 1880 in Vienna) was an Austrian teacher and scientific author who moved to Mexico in 1921. He is best known for his popular book "Magische Gifte: Rausch- und Betäubungsmittel der Neuen Welt" ("Magic Poisons: Inebriating and Narcotic Substances of the New World"), first published in 1936. This book recorded a number of original observations on New-World psychoactive drugs, including the first modern recognition that teonanácatl was a mushroom and not a cactus.

Reko's book also covered the following drugs, many of which were not mentioned in the earlier book "Phantastica" by Louis Lewin: sinicuichi ("Heimia" spec.) for which he falsely claimed psychoactivity,cite journal
author = M. H. Malone , A. Rother
year = 1979
title = "Heimia salicifolia": A phytochemical and phytopharmacologic review
journal = J. Ethnopharmacol.
volume = 42
issue = 3
pages = 135-159
pmid = 7934084
doi = 10.1016/0378-8741(94)90080-9
url = http://erowid.org/references/refs_view.php?A=ShowDoc1&ID=6470 Erowid references] Ololiuqui ("Rivea corymbosa"), peyotl ("Lophophora williamsii"), marihuana ("Cannabis sativa"), toloachi ("Datura stramonium" var. tatula), ayahuasca, colorines ("Erythrina" and "Sophora" species), coztic-zapote ("Pouteria campechiana"), xomil-xihuite ("Gelsemium sempervirens"), camotillo ("Dioscorea composita)", and cohombrillo ("Ecballium elaterium"). The second edition also contained chicalote (supposedly obtained from a cross between "Argemone mexicana" and "Papaver somniferum"), minapatli ("Sebastiania pavoniana", Mexican jumping bean), and herbas locas ("Dioon edule", "Astragalus amphyoxys", and "Oxytropis lambertii").cite journal
author = V. E. Tyler
year = 1979
title = The case for Victor A. Reko - an unrecognized pioneer writer on New World hallucinogens
journal = J. Nat. Prod.
volume = 42
issue = 5
pages = 489-495
pmid = 392053
doi = 10.1021/np50005a009]

Victor A. Reko was a cousin of the physician and ethnobotanist Blas Pablo Reko who discovered and investigated the indigenous use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in Mexico.

Victor A. Reko became a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences.

See also

* Louis Lewin, author of "Phantastica"

References