Moonhyuk Kwon

1 INTRODUCTION Salvia divinorum from the mint family (Lamiaceae), also known as diviner's sage or magic mint, is a medicinal plant with potent hallucinogenic effects. S. divinorum is native to the Oaxaca region in Mexico (Casselman et al., 2014), and its use in the ritual ceremonies by the Mazatec people was first documented by anthropologist Jean Basset Johnson in 1939 (Johnson, 1939). The first live specimen was introduced to the USA in 1962 (Wasson, 1962).

Abstract Background: Diviners sage (Salvia divinorum; Lamiaceae) is the source of the powerful hallucinogen salvinorin A (SalA). This neoclerodane diterpenoid is an agonist of the human kappa opioid receptor with potential medical applications in the treatment of chronic pain, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Only two steps of the approximately twelve step biosynthetic sequence leading to SalA have been resolved to date.

Discussion NR is an irreplaceable biopolymer of strategic importance. Thousands of plants across 20 families are known to produce NR with varying length and quantity (Bowers, 1990), but NR needs to be sufficiently lengthy (typically higher than Mw of 1 million Da) to be used in heavy-duty industries. Also, a large quantity of NR has to be easily extractable to be economically viable.