Medical Uses of Salvinorin A and Salvia divinorum

Salvia divinorum is a plant which has been used by the indigenous peoples of Mexico for spiritual and medicinal purposes, and contains the active compound Salvinorin A as a primary constituent. Only recently has traditional Western medicine begun to consider the possible therapeutic uses of this plant, and studies have uncovered a variety of potentially beneficial ways it could be used. These uses all hinge upon the fact that Salvinorin A is a kappa-opioid agonist, but is not habit forming.

One promising field of research is investigation into using Salvinorin A to prevent relapse after overcoming drug addiction. Kappa agonists such as Salvia divinorum have been shown to reduce the desire of animals exposed to cocaine and opiates to seek out these addictive drugs after they had been removed and then re-exposed to the drugs. Additionally, Salvinorin A usage has been shown to decrease alcohol consumption and lower rates of alcoholism in experimental animals. These anti-addicting properties of Salvinorin a have been shown to work with both short-term and long-term reductions in drug craving with repeated administrations of Salvinorin A.

Traditionally, Salvia divinorum has been used in Mexico to treat gastrointestinal disorders. Further research has documented that it is indeed effective in reducing diarrhea and intestinal pain among human volunteers. The reason Salvinorin A can provide this benefit is that it reduces gut and colon motility directly, and blocks neuronal signals for the body to increase this motility, making Salvia divinorum potentially useful in treating ailments such as irritable bowel syndrome. Also, since studies using Salvinorin A have shown that it only affects inflamed tissue areas while avoiding normal tissue, the side effects common to many current anti-diarrheal drugs are reduced.

Other areas of potential medical use for Salvia divinorum include a treatment for depression which would lack the side effects of conventional pharmacotherapies. Oral administration of the leaf 2-3 times a week was shown to improve moods in a case study involving 20 individuals. Since depression and chronic headaches are often mediated by similar pathways in the brain, researchers are also considering Salvia divinorum as a treatment for migraines and other headaches, after discovering that indigenous Mexican tribes have used this plant for such a purpose for centuries.

The prospects of the medical usage of Salvia divinorum are only now beginning to be fully researched and proven, but the existing knowledge shows it to have many possible therapeutic applications.