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Weekend


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August 19, 2005

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q. What did the LSD acid-trippers of the 1960s have in common with "witches" of medieval Europe?

    A. Both may have been "flying high" on varieties of alkaloids, a large group of plant compounds including piperine in pepper, capsaicin in chili peppers, and penicillin that can affect the central nervous system and are at times highly toxic, say Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson in "Napoleon's Buttons: 17 Molecules that Changed History." Some of these naturally occurring compounds have been used as medicines for millennia and are in some modern pharmaceuticals.


     
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