Keeper Trout (born October 1957), also known as Keeper of the Trout, is an American independent scholar in the area of psychedelics and psychedelic plants, especially cacti. He is variously described as an author, photographer, ethnobotanist, archivist, and conservationist.
Trout first became interested in the psychedelic experience in 1972 when he was 14years old. He studied chemistry and microbiology at university in Texas. Trout worked as a lapidarist but eventually was unable to continue doing this work due having come down with encephalitis, which had led to blindness in one eye and loss of his depth perception. In 1991, he pivoted direction and started working more publicly in the area of psychedelics. In 1993, Trout met Alexander and Ann Shulgin and others at a psychedelic conference and they encouraged him to start writing. He has since written numerous books and other publications on psychedelic plants and alkaloids, including his notable Trout's Notes series. His books are published by Mydriatic Productions, a division of Better Days Publishing.
From 1998 through 2008, Trout was the technical editor of The Entheogen Review. He is a co-founder and board member of the Cactus Conservation Institute and a board member of the Chihuahuan Desert Preserve Association. Trout does work for Erowid and Transform Press, is a board member of the Shulgin Farm, and works at the Shulgin Archiving Project, digitizing the materials of Alexander and Ann Shulgin. He has been interviewed for books like Michael Pollan's This Is Your Mind On Plants (2021) and Mike Jay's Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic (2019).
Selected publications Books and related Trout's Notes: A Simple Alkaloid Volatizer (1995/1998) Trout's Notes on Cultivation of Desmanthus for Rootbark Production (1995/2000) Trout's Notes: The Peyote Crisis & Some Suggestions (1995/1998/1999/2001) Trout's Notes on the Genus Desmodium (1996/2004) Trout's Notes on the Cultivation & Propagation of Cacti (1996/1999/2001) Trout's Notes: Summary of the Reported Occurrences of Mescaline (1997/1999/2001) Trout's Notes on Ayahuasca and Ayahuasca Alkaloids (1997/1998) (subsequently titled Ayahuasca: Alkaloids, Plants & Analogs (2004)) Trout's Notes: Tryptamines from Higher Plants (1997/1998) Trout's Notes on the Acacia Species Reported to Contain Tryptamines and/or Beta-Carbolines (1997/1998) Sacred Cacti and Some Selected Succulents: Botany, Chemistry, Cultivation and Use (later titled simply Sacred Cacti) (1997/2001/2006/2015) Trout's Notes: 5-Bromo- and 5,6-Dibromo-DMT Fact Sheet (1997) Trout's Notes on Cactus Chemistry by Species (1999/2013) Ayahuasca Analogues and Plant-Based Tryptamines: The Best of The Entheogen Review 1992–1999 (2000) Some Simple Tryptamines (2002/2007) Trout's Notes on Some Other Succulents (2004) (from Sacred Cacti) Trout's Notes Tryptamine Content of Arundo donax (2004) Desmanthus leptolobus (2004) Trout's Notes on San Pedro & Related Trichocereus Species (2005)
Journal articles
Book chapters
See also Alexander Shulgin Research Institute Substituted tetrahydroisoquinoline Peyote § Constituents Pachycereus pringlei § Constituents and effects The Simple Plant Isoquinolines (2002)
References
External links and Sacred Cacti Sacred Cacti: Exclusive interview with Keeper Trout (16 June 2017) – Tricho Serious Ethnobotany Salon2 033 – The Psychedelic Archives of Keeper Trout (October 19, 2017) – Lex Pelgar – Psychedelic Salon Interview with Keeper Trout on aspects of Peyote Conservation and Psychedelic History (22 January 2025) – Entheogenesis Australis Erowid Shulgin Archiving Project The Entheogen Review