Festi/Samorini/claviceps paspali

In the second chapter of the book The Road to Eleusis (Wasson et al. 1978) Albert Hofmann answered to the question promoted by R.G. Wasson about the possibility that the old Greeks would have been able to isolate an hallucinogen from ergot, capable to induce an experience comparable to the experiences produced by psilocybin or LSD.

The Hofmann's positive answer was articulated on three hypothesis: the first and the third ones conjectured the separation from Claviceps purpurea [Clavicipitaceae] parasiting respectively wheat and barley or the infestant Lolium temulentum L. [Gramineae] of the water-soluble psychoactive and no-toxic alkaloids (belonging to the ergonovine group) from those responsible of the gangrenous and/or convulsive syndroms (belonging to the ergotamine-ergotoxine group).

The second hypothesis, perhaps more suggestive and renowned, supposed the integral use of Claviceps paspali Stevens et Hall, whose sclerotia appear to exclusively contain the psychoactive water-soluble alkaloids. The host species ipotetically individuated by Hofmann was Paspalum distichum L., which "grows commonly all around the Mediterranean basin and is often infected with Claviceps paspali" (Hofmann 1978: 31).

After a closer examination of the data on the corology of the Paspalum genus, this second Hofmann's hypothesis needs a correction, due to an ethnobotanic oversight, already forecasted by Rätsch (1998: 643).

The genus Paspalum, including 250 to 450 species - depending by the author - is spread in tropical and subtropical areas of the Old and overall the New World. In fact, less then 10% of the species is native of Africa and/or Asia. No one species is indigenous of Europe, where the following species are present today (Clayton 1980: 263; Conert 1998: 36-37; Garbari 1972; Häfliger & Scholz 1985: 94-109):

- P. dilatatum Poiret in Lam. [=P. pratense Sprengel, P. ovatum Nees von Esenbeck ex Trinius, P. lanatum Sprengel, Panicum dilatatum (Poiret) O. Kuntze, Digitaria dilatata (Poiret) Coste]; it originally came from South America (Argentine and Brasil); sometimes it is cultivated as fodder, became wild or naturalized (in wet and shady uncultivated lands) in Portugal, Spain, Azores, Italy, Austria, and Germany.

- P. urvillei Steudel, original from South America, naturalized in rice-fields and wet places of Portugal, but very likely to be found in other countries of Southern Europe.

- P. paspalodes (Michaux) Lamson-Scribner [=P. distichum auct. non L. Digitaria paspalodes Michaux, P. digitaria Poiret, P. michauxianum Kunth, P. distichum var. digitaria (Poiret) Hackel, P. distichum subsp. paspalodes (Michaux) Thellung], original from tropical areas of America, cultivated as fodder mainly in subtropical countries, by this time subcosmopolite and still expanding (as example, it became spontaneous in Cornwall the seventies of this century; cfr. Sell & Murrell 1996: 239); naturalized in Portugal, Spain, Azores, Italy, France, Austria, Germany, Great Britain, Albany, Bulgary, Greece, Turkey, and European Russia.

- P. racemosum Lamarck, original from Peru and Ecuador, became wild in Germany.

- P. vaginatum Swartz [=P. tristachyum Leconte, Digitaria tristachya (Leconte) Schultes, P. inflatum A. Richard, Panicum vaginatum (Swartz) Grenier & Godron, Digitaria vaginata (Swartz) Bubani], original from tropical America and (verisimilarly) from tropical Asia, it has been reported on sea-sands and rice-fields of Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, and Germany.

- P. quadrifarium Lamarck (=P. ferrugineum Trinius), original from southern America, adventitious in Italy.

- P. lentiferum Lamarck (=P. curtisianum Steudel, P. glaberrimum Nash, P. tardum Nash, P. kearneyi Nash, P. amplum Nash), original from USA and recently reported as adventitious in Germany.

Concerning the particular species reported by Hofmann, it has to be underlined that the most part of taxonomists consider P. distichum L. a nomen ambiguus, that is a name that is not possible to refer with sureness to any known species, while preferring the binomium P. paspalodes (Michaux) Lamson-Scribner. Observing the above-mentioned list, P. paspalodes is now the most widespread species of Paspalum in Europe, and the only one reported in Greece. Nevertheless, also for this species, like for other Paspalum, its diffusion has to be seen in recent times and however, in the farest hypothesis, many years after the Conquest. Indeed, considering the dates of the first reports in the neighbouring countries (for example, in Italy no one species of Paspalum has been observed before 1900; cf Fiori, 1923-1925, Garbari, 1972), the presence of Paspalum spp. in Greece cannot be dated before the past century.

It is therefore possible to state with sureness that all the Paspalum species, which originated from the New or the Old World, spread in recent times, due to voluntary or not voluntary action by man: because originally cultivated as fodder then became wild, or because imported and spread together other cultivated seeds (for example fodders and cereals). On the basis of these data the presence of P. paspalodes and any other species of Paspalum in old Greece has to be excluded.

Furthemore, the insubstantiality of the second Hofmann's hypothesis about the preparation of the kykeon with ergot, is supported by the fact that Claviceps paspali is an ergot which exclusively infect graminaceous plants of the Paspalum genus (Grasso 1955), and its presence in Europe is linked to the recent spreading of its host plants. It's enough to consider that the presence of C. paspali in France has been reported for the first time only in 1991 (Raynal 1996), and that Greek phytopathologists seem to exclude the presence of C. paspali today in Greece (Aaronson 1989: 252). Again, in Italy Paspalum dilatatum has been introduced in 1929 and appeared to be free from ergot until 1948 (Tonolo 1965).

Beside the botanic-corological considerations here exhibited, a symbolic-iconographic argumentation could be taken in consideration. The ergot hypothesis of the Eleusinian kykeon is supported also by the frequent representations of cereals in the iconography associated to the Eleusinian Mysteries. All the above-mentioned species of Paspalum have an appearance strongly different from that of the cereals cultivated for human alimentation; P. paspalodes has an inflorescence constituted by two (rarely more than one) thin spikes at the top of the stem. It could appear strange that such characteristic shape would have not found place among the Eleusinian images. Nor we may believe to a hidden link between cultivated cereals and Paspalum, verified the species of this last genus have a strongly different ecology (rice apart) and are not infestants of the cultivated fields spread during the Classic Greece.

However and in conclusion, we want to underline that the reduction of the possibilities proposed by the Swiss chemist does not reduce the possibility of the ergot hypothesis. Hofmann himself stated concerning this: "I mention it only as a possibility or a likehood, and not because we need P. distichum to answer Wasson’s question" (Hofmann 1978: 33). All this will be examined with more details inside an article in publication (Samorini 1999).

References

Claviceps paspali and the Eleusinian kykeon
A correction

Francesco Festi, Giorgio Samorini

The Entheogen Review, 8/3, pp. 96-97, 1999

Claviceps paspali and the Eleusinian kykeonA correction

Francesco Festi, Giorgio Samorini The Entheogen Review, 8/3, pp. 96-97, 1999

Claviceps paspali and the Eleusinian kykeon
A correction

Francesco Festi, Giorgio Samorini

The Entheogen Review, 8/3, pp. 96-97, 1999