The cactus contains a spectrum of psychoactive alkaloids, the primary one being the hallucinogen mescaline, and is coveted for those psychedelic properties. Even though it is a controlled ...

Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann synthesized LSD in 1938, and Aldous Huxley popularized his experience on mescaline, a psychedelic compound made by certain cacti, in his 1954 book The Doors of Perception.