Blue lotus: Unraveling an Egyptian psychedelic mystery

The blue lotus, a captivating water lily entwined with Egyptian mythology, has long dazzled archaeologists and historians. Its petals were famously found adorning King Tutankhamun’s mummy, and its image flourishes in ancient scrolls and temple art. 

For decades, scholars have speculated that the flower held powerful psychedelic properties – used in wine-soaked rituals steeped in ecstasy and divine visions.

Today, a plant bearing the same name is sold widely online, promising everything from tranquility to heightened awareness. But according to UC Berkeley anthropology student Liam McEvoy, those modern offerings have little in common with the true blue lotus of antiquity.

McEvoy has spent years tracing the story of Nymphaea caerulea, the authentic Egyptian blue lotus. With a minor in Egyptology and support from the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, he’s dug into ancient texts, collaborated with chemists, and even turned to Reddit to track down specimens. 

McEvoy’s findings reveal that the plant revered in ancient Egypt is not the same as the water lilies currently sold in online marketplaces – and that both the species and its supposed effects have been widely misunderstood.

The story of the Egyptian blue lotus 

McEvoy’s journey began unexpectedly during high school when he stumbled upon an old BBC documentary called Sacred Weeds. In it, researchers gave participants wine infused with lotus petals and watched to see if they entered a psychedelic state. The footage, complete with dated special effects and questionable methodology, left a lasting impression.

He was hooked. “I wanted to let the plant tell its story and contribute to a discussion where there’s all this pseudoscience floating around – pseudoscience that makes some people a lot of money.”

Once at Berkeley, McEvoy dove deeper. Through coursework and work at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, he learned to read hieroglyphs and came to recognize the true Egyptian blue lotus by its distinctive spotted sepals and consistent petal count. 

It appeared again and again in scrolls and religious festivals, most notably in the Hathoric Festival of Drunkenness – an event where celebrants drank themselves into a stupor and awoke, if only briefly, to see the face of the goddess Hathor.

Flowers sold as blue lotus

The more McEvoy studied, the more he questioned whether the flowers sold online as “blue lotus” were the real thing. 

Many of these products, often marketed as calming or aphrodisiacal, are used in teas, vapes, or essential oils. They claim effects ranging from spiritual insight to improved sleep. But were they really Nymphaea caerulea?

To find out, McEvoy needed a legitimate sample. With wild populations now rare – dam construction and habitat loss have pushed the species to the edge of endangerment – he turned to the internet. 

On Reddit, he connected with a user in Arizona who claimed to grow authentic blue lotus. The stranger agreed to send a live plant, which botanists at UC Berkeley confirmed as genuine.

That plant now resides in the UC Botanical Garden’s Virginia Haldan Tropical House, making it the only known living Egyptian blue lotus in a U.S. university collection.

McEvoy also ordered petals from Etsy to compare. Partnering with Berkeley chemistry professor Evan Williams and scientist Anthony Iavarone, he used mass spectrometry to analyze both samples. 

The results were clear: the authentic flower contained significantly higher levels of the alkaloid nuciferine, thought to be responsible for its psychoactive effects. The Etsy sample, by contrast, likely came from a common non-psychoactive lily.

A new take on ancient rituals

In ancient Egypt, it’s often assumed that people steeped the blue lotus directly in wine to unlock its effects. But McEvoy’s chemical analysis suggests that’s unlikely. 

While pure nuciferine dissolves in alcohol, the waxy petals of the flower do not release it so easily. Instead, a fatty substance – similar to olive oil – may have been used to extract the compound before mixing it into wine.

“We’re beginning to think the ancient Egyptians didn’t just put it into wine,” McEvoy said. “We hypothesize they actually created an infused oil, which was later added to wine.”

This revised understanding reframes centuries of assumptions about ancient Egyptian ceremonial practices and raises new questions about how they engaged with plant-based compounds.

Searching for molecular remnants

McEvoy’s next steps include a chemical analysis of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian goblet housed in the Hearst Museum. He hopes to detect trace amounts of fats that would support his theory about infused oils – and perhaps even find molecular remnants of the lotus itself.

Together with Williams and Ph.D. candidate Veena Avadhani, he also plans to use liquid chromatography to break down the flower’s chemical makeup even further. 

This advanced method will allow them to isolate individual compounds and gain a clearer understanding of what makes the true blue lotus unique.

Ancient magic and modern science 

As McEvoy prepares to graduate and pursue a career in intellectual property law, he sees his work as a model for how science and the humanities can illuminate each other. 

“There should be someone at the table who has studied people – not just economics, money or political science,” he said. “Someone who sees people as human beings and sees communities as interconnected webs of meaning.”

For now, he’s focused on finishing his research. But in doing so, he’s already redefined the story of a flower once believed to be mythic. His project not only separates fact from fiction in today’s lotus-laced health products – it reopens a window into the lived experience of an ancient civilization.

“This is a rare example of how ancient magic and modern science can come together to deepen our understanding of the nature that has always surrounded us,” he concluded.

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