According to vedic literature, juice of soma plant was considered to be a divine drink with medical efficacy. It acted as a restorative for natural health, Dr SN Padhy from Department of Botany of Orissa's Government Science College, said at a symposium on `Biotechnological Innovations in Conservation and Analysis of Plant Diversity' here.

Mr Padhy, who is heading the team which is searching the `actual' Soma plant, said the plant was neither hallucinogenic nor intoxicating, but kept its consumer awake and alert.

The US scientists RE Schultes and A Hoffman have proposed the mushroom, Amanita muscaria, as Soma plant in their book `Plant of Gods' in 1979, he said adding that the acceptance of this proposal is so high that Ethnobotanical Society's emblem has this mushroom marked as Soma plant. "Our argument is based on the fact that this mushroom, in contrast to the vedic Soma, produces hallucinogenic and intoxicating drug," he said.

`Somaras' was neither hallucinogenic nor intoxicating. Besides, morphology of vedic Soma plant differs from this mushroom and Hindu system prohibits offerings of mushrooms to Gods, he said. The original plant, according to vedic literature, had 15ves which emerged and shed one by one keeping pace with the appearance of moon, Padhy said. It had a bulb, creeper like appearance and had milky secretions.

During the last two centuries, about 20 plants have been identified as the soma plant. The old school of thought has tried to overcome the mythological concept of Soma, correlating it with plants like Sarcostemma, Asclepias acida, Ceropegia elegans and Cannabis sativa, he said.

(PTI)