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To explain how drugs increase dopamine and cause positive emotions while at the same time lowering reproductive fitness, researchers posited that evolutionarily novel drugs hijack the brain's mesolimbic dopamine system and generate a false positive signal of a fitness benefit as well as inhibiting negative effects, to signal a lack of negative ...
Many of these plants are used intentionally as psychoactive drugs, for medicinal, religious, and/or recreational purposes. Some have been used ritually as entheogens for millennia. [1] [2] The plants are listed according to the specific psychoactive chemical substances they contain; many contain multiple known psychoactive compounds.
An aphrodisiac is a substance alleged to increase libido, sexual desire, sexual attraction, sexual pleasure, or sexual behavior. [1] [2] [3] These substances range from a variety of plants, spices, and foods to synthetic chemicals. [1] [4] Natural aphrodisiacs, such as cannabis or cocaine, are classified into plant-based and non-plant-based ...
In China, Japan, India, and Germany, there is a great deal of interest in and support for the search for new drugs from higher plants. [4] For example, the Herbalome Project was launched in China in 2008 and aims to use high throughput sequencing and toxicity testing to identify active components in traditional herbal remedies.
3D model of 2-Arachidonoylglycerol, an endocannaboid. The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a biological system composed of endocannabinoids, which are neurotransmitters that bind to cannabinoid receptors, and cannabinoid receptor proteins that are expressed throughout the central nervous system (including the brain) and peripheral nervous system.
The discovery of the first cannabinoid receptors in the 1980s helped to resolve this debate. [10] These receptors are common in animals. Two known cannabinoid receptors are termed CB 1 and CB 2, [11] with mounting evidence of more. [12] The human brain has more cannabinoid receptors than any other G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) type. [13]
A parasympathomimetic drug, sometimes called a cholinomimetic drug [1] or cholinergic receptor stimulating agent, [2] is a substance that stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS). [ 3 ] [ 2 ] These chemicals are also called cholinergic drugs because acetylcholine (ACh) is the neurotransmitter used by the PSNS.
The action of drugs on the human body (or any other organism's body) is called pharmacodynamics, and the body's response to drugs is called pharmacokinetics. The drugs that enter an individual tend to stimulate certain receptors, ion channels, act on enzymes or transport proteins. As a result, they cause the human body to react in a specific way.