Jonathan Ott (January 6, 1949 â July 5, 2025) was an American ethnobotanist, writer, translator, publisher, natural products chemist and botanical researcher of psychoactive substances and their cultural and historical use, helped coin the term entheogen, and confirmed the psychoactivity of bufotenin.
Ott wrote eight books, co-written five, and contributed to four others, and published many articles in the field of entheogens, pharmacology and ethnobotany. His comprehensive 1993 book, Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History has been described as one of the important works on the subject of entheogenic drugs. It describes over 1,000 plants and chemical compounds. He collaborated with other researchers like Christian Rätsch, Jochen Gartz, Richard E. Schultes and the late ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson. He translated Albert Hofmann's 1979 book LSD: My Problem Child (LSD: Mein Sorgenkind), and On Aztec Botanical Names by Blas Pablo Reko, into English. His articles have appeared in many publications, including The Entheogen Review, The Entheogen Law Reporter, the Journal of Cognitive Liberties, the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (AKA the Journal of Psychedelic Drugs), the MAPS Bulletin, Head, High Times, Curare, Eleusis, Integration, Lloydia, The Sacred Mushroom Seeker, and several Harvard Botanical Museum pamphlets. He was a co-editor of Eleusis: Journal of Psychoactive Plants & Compounds, along with Giorgio Samorini.
Ott had experience of field collecting in Mexico, where he lived and managed a small natural-products laboratory and botanical garden of medicinal herbs. A number of his ethno-botanical products have been studied to determine their possible benefits to individuals suffering various mental illnesses. In his book Ayahuasca Analogues, he identifies numerous plants around the globe containing the harmala alkaloids of Banisteriopsis caapi, which are MAOIs, and plants containing dimethyltryptamine, which together are the chemical base of the South American Ayahuasca brew.
In March 2010, Ott's home in Mexico was destroyed by arson. While most of his books survived the fire, Ott's laboratory and personal effects were destroyed in the blaze. Books given to Ott by Albert Hofmann were reportedly used as fuel.
Ott died on July 5, 2025, at the age of 76 due to complications with sepsis.