Research on hallucinogenic drugs used in Shaman religious activities.
The development of medicine experienced a long history, and the origin of medicine is not appeared overnight. Due to the lack of historical data, the question of the origin of medicine has not been agreed upon. As an ancient primitive religion, Shamanism retains the use of hallucinogenic drugs in its early religious activities rather well, providing a guidance for exploring the cognition on drugs in early human. Through the review of the hallucinogenic plants used by shaman religious activities in different countries and areas, it was found that hallucinogenic drugs can be classified into two categories single and mixed, which came mainly from plants and fungi, and the origin of hallucinogenic drugs has a high fitting degree with Shaman location. The study result suggests that, based on the worldwide research literature on the application of such hallucinogens with local characteristics in the shamanistic religious activities, it is very likely that important clues can be found to understand the facts of discovery and application of natural drugs, thus providing a new approach for the studies on the origin of drugs. 药物的起源一直是医史界长期探讨但至今仍待深入研究的问题之一。萨满教作为古老的原始宗教，较好地保存了宗教活动中使用的致幻药物，可为探究早期人类对药物的认知提供重要借鉴。不同国家与地区萨满宗教活动中使用的致幻药物可分为单一药物与混合药物2大类，主要来自于植物与真菌，且与萨满所在地具有很高的契合度。通过对萨满宗教活动中使用的具有地域特色的致幻药物进行研究，极可能会为追寻人类早期发现与使用天然药物提供重要线索，为研究药物起源另辟新蹊。.