African Dream Root

Silene undulata, known as African dream root, is a plant native to the Eastern Cape of South Africa. It is also called Silene capensis, and its Xhosa name, iindlela zimhlophe, means white ways or paths. In cultivation it is an easily grown but thirsty herb that tolerates great heat and moderate cold; its fragrant flowers open at night and close by day, and it is a biennial to short-lived perennial whose root can be harvested after the second year. The Xhosa regard it as a sacred plant. Its root is traditionally used to bring vivid dreams, which the Xhosa consider prophetic, during the initiation of traditional healers. That puts it among the plants called oneirogens, which are plants that bring dreams, like the better-known dream herb Calea zacatechichi. Analysis has found beta-carboline compounds in it, including harmine and harmaline, as well as ibogaine, and the article notes that these may be involved in its psychoactive effects.