I just learned about the ancient emperor Shennong, considered the father of Chinese agriculture and herbal medicine. Somewhere around 2737 BC, he experimentally ingested hundreds of different herbs, including 70 that turned out to be toxic, to figure out their effects. The results of these experiments were passed down orally before eventually being written down.
He is credited with the discovery of tea, and also recommended the use of ephedra. One page I read claimed he was the first to describe the use of "narcotics", but the
Wikipedia entry on opium says that some kind of use of poppy pods has been identified as early as 4200 BC, so that doesn't hold up.
Clearly this guy was an earlier incarnation of Shulgin...
Another good link is here:
http://www.itmonline.org/arts/shennong.htm
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