How many species are there in the Lophophora genus of cacti?

It has been proposed that there are only 2 species in the Lophophora genus:

Lophophora Williamsii (Peyote) and Lophophora Diffusa (False Peyote).

However, a few other species have come into the spotlight in recent times.

Lophophora Koehresii, Lophophora Fricii, Lophophora alberto-vojtechii

These names have been chosen to more accurately define the cacti, however, they are not particularly new species in themselves but mutations, or rather, variations of either L. Williamsii or L. Diffusa. this is why the division of the Lophophora species has been categorized into two sections: Lophophora and Diffusae. but for the sake of being able to more accurately classify the cactus, they have given names to the different variations, sometimes when doing research you may see something like L. Diffusa var. fricii, and sometimes just L. fricii. for example.

For the following part of this post, I will refer to each variation as a species type.

I want to go lateral here and discuss the different alkaloid content of each species and my idea for how to continue using these plants in entheogenic preparations, or at least using the alkaloids from these plants.

There are over 80 different active alkaloids in peyote/false peyote. the main alkaloids are tyramine, N-methyltyramine, hordenine, mescaline, N-methylmescaline, N-halinine, O-methylanhalinine, anhalidine, anhalamine, anhalonidine, pellotine, anhalonine and lophophorine.

The main alkaloids that seem to produce psychoactive effects are primarily Mescaline, pellotine and lophophorine. However, people speculate that the entire spectrum has roles to play in the experience of consuming the cactus.

Here is a little chart of the content of alkaloids in different species of Lophophora created by Dr Štarha

Many people only attribute mescaline to be the be-all and end-all alkaloid that is responsible for the effect of the cactus, and while mescaline on its own produces powerful visionary experiences the experience of peyote in itself is regulated by many other alkaloids that all play a role in the experience.

Sadly in recent times Peyote has been overharvested in the wild and is almost not even found naturally anymore. It is protected and near extinction, the only way peyote will remain alive will soon be through cultivation, the use of this plant has been causing devastating effects on the abundance of the plant. I have a proposal for how this can be mitigated.

People always want the genuine experience of taking a psychedelic, whether it be ayahuasca, mushrooms, peyote etc. I think that we are making a big mistake by not allowing the synthetic production of these psychedelics to still be considered genuine, many people who take peyote will be eating 40-year-old peyote just for a single experience, I think we should let the peyote live! Let us not consume this plant unless we have adequate ways of continuing cultivation. I think we should be using our modern minds and creating entheogenic blends of synthetic alkaloids to get the experiences we desire.

Because many of the alkaloids in the plant are responsible for the effect and not just mescaline, people are apprehensive about taking synthetic mescaline alone because it doesn’t feel genuine, but I think it would be interesting for chemists to produce a full spectrum experience and mix all the alkaloids and essentially create a ‘synthetic peyote’ experience, and synthesize all the different alkaloids and consume that instead of mutilating these plants just for our exploration.

Immagine a mescaline, pellotine and lophophorine blend, it is unheard of, most of the time when people use synthetics they only consume one alkaloid, and this could be the reason many people don’t find the experience to be comparative to peyote itself.

This would also allow for the plant itself to continue to grow and spread, without humans essentially removing them from the ecosystem.

The same argument can be made for the Bufo Alvarious toad. people have been harvesting these toads just for the venom that has been shown to only really contain 5-MeO-DMT and Bufotenine, two compounds that are very easily synthesized.

Instead of taking the synthetic route, we are essentially driving an entire species to extinction. I think the conscious individual who cares for these plants and animals would like to see them in abundance!

This is my dream and I have been proposing this idea to many chemists. I think this is an idea that could save a lot of plants and animals while still allowing us to explore, let us learn more from the plants than what we can by merely consuming them. We have, in the western world been so far removed from these plants that we don’t even know what to do when they are in our possession, we have the tools and knowledge available to us to be able to use these powerful plants without causing ecological damage. I think it is almost our responsibility to do so.