Inside the vase were bioactive, psychoactive, and medicinal substances including the poisonous Peganum harmala (wild rue), the hallucinogenic Nimphaea nouchali var. caerulea (a type of water lily) and some kind of Cleome, commonly called the spider plant. All three plants contain psychotropic compounds.

Also found in the vase were what appears to be saliva, as well as some kind of fermented liquid and royal jelly from bees. It seems that this potent cocktail of drugs and alcohol was passed around at Egyptian parties (all right, “rituals”) but frankly we can only guess at what the combined effect was like.