Residues from ancient artifacts can help identify which plant species were used for their psychoactive properties, providing important information regarding the deep-time co-evolutionary relationship between plants and humans. However, relying on the presence or absence of one or several biomarkers has limited the ability to confidently connect residues to particular plants. We describe a comprehensive metabolomics-based approach that can distinguish closely related species and provide greater confidence in species use determinations. An ~1430-year-old pipe from central Washington State not only contained nicotine, but also had strong evidence for the smoking of Nicotiana quadrivalvis and Rhus glabra, as opposed to several other species in this pre-contact pipe. Analysis of a post-contact pipe suggested use of different plants, including the introduced trade tobacco, Nicotiana rustica. Ancient residue metabolomics provides a new frontier in archaeo-chemistry, with greater precision to investigate the evolution of drug use and similar plant-human co-evolutionary dynamics.

古代文物的残留物可以帮助识别哪些植物物种因其精神活性而被使用，提供有关植物与人类之间的深层共同进化关系的重要信息。然而，依赖一种或多种生物标志物的存在或不存在限制了将残基可靠地连接到特定植物的能力。我们描述了一种基于代谢组学的综合方法，可以区分密切相关的物种，并为物种使用测定提供更大的信心。来自华盛顿州中部的一根有约 1430 年历史的烟斗不仅含有尼古丁，而且有强有力的证据证明吸烟四瓣烟草和光漆树，与该预接触管中的其他几种物种相反。对接触后烟斗的分析表明使用不同的植物，包括引进的贸易烟草，黄花烟草。古代残留物代谢组学为考古化学提供了一个新的前沿，可以更精确地研究药物使用的进化和类似的植物-人类共同进化动力学。