- Victor A. Reko
Victor A. Reko, (born
August 3 ,1880 inVienna ) 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-Worldpsychoactive drugs , including the first modern recognition thatteonanácatl 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 containedchicalote (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
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