The Salvia Divinorum plant was indigenous to the Oaxaca region of Mexico. The plant was domesticated and used by the Maztec Indians during their shaman ceremonies for vision quests and divination; they also used to for healing purposes. The Maztec Indians used the herb for not only spiritual purposes but also healing purposes. The Maztec Indians used the herb for not only spiritual purposes but also healing purposes

During an expedition in the 1930's a group of people who where seeking miracle medicines in Mesoamerica found the plant but were more interested in other things such as mushrooms. The plant was only first described by Swedish anthropologist Jean Basset Johnson. Salvia fell out of interest for a long times until it was found in the 1990's by both scientists and hallucinogenic drug enthusiasts, and soon enough a plant that was extremely rare, only found in remote rain forest locations became present around the world in obscure gardens. By the new millennium there were websites selling the plant and its extracts, and it could be found in smoke shops all around. Luckily it is still relatively unknown so that it is not abused.

Although salvia divinorum has for a long time been shrouded in mystery, salvia in 2002 a devoted team of researchers found that it was kappa opiate receptor and started to uncover the chemical properties of it

In 1982 a man named Alfredo Ortega was the first person to make a salvia extract, which was like what is most commonly used today. A major breakthrough was achieved in 1982 when a team of researchers first isolated and extracted the chemicals that gave the plant its sought after affects, they called these two chemicals Salvinorin A and Salvinorin B. recently extracts have been improved to be super concentrated with even a 40x concentration, these advances are increasing in popularity of usage.