Muscaria

C,2H220ii,2H20. M.p. 9TC. A non-reducing disaccharide, which forms the principal carbohydrate of insect haemolymph. It comprises about 25% of trehala manna, the cocoons of a parasitic beetle. Trehalose also occurs in fungi, e.g. Amanita muscaria, generally replacing sucrose in plants lacking chlorophyll and starch. 

Muscarine is a poisonous substance present in the mushroom Amanita muscaria. Its structure is represented by the constitution shown here. 

Fliegen-gift, n. fly poison, -holz, n. quassia wood, -kobalt, m, = Fliegenstein. -leim, m. fly glue, -papier, n. fly paper, -pilz, m. — Fliegenschwamm. -pulver, n. fly powder, -schwamm, m. fly agaric, fly amanita (Amo-nita muscaria). -stein, m. native arsenic. 

A number of mushrooms, liberty cap (psilocybe), psilocybin, fly agaric, Amantia muscaria and the peyote cactus contain hallucinogenic agents. They are usually eaten raw but can be dried out and stored or cooked into food or made into a tea and drunk. The effects are highly variable and whereas 20-30 liberty caps would be required to give a full dose, just one fly agaric mushroom would produce similar actions. Some recent local surveys in the UK have found between 12% and 15% of 16-year-olds claiming to have used these at least once. 

Michelot, D. and Melendez-Howell, L.M., Amanita muscaria chemistry, biology, toxicology, and ethnomycology, Mycol. Res., 107, 131, 2003. 

Kuehnelt, D., W. Goessler, and K.J. Irgolic. 1997a. Arsenic compounds in terrestrial organisms. I. Collybia maculata, Collybia butyracea and Amantia muscaria from arsenic smelter sites in Austria. Appl. Organometall. Chem. 11 289-296. 

Krogsgaard-Larsen, P Brehm, L and Schaumburg, K. (1981) Muscimol, a psychoactive constituent of amanita muscaria, as a medicinal chemical model structure. Acta Chem. Scand. B 311, 0-24. 

High levels of vanadium are found in the mushroom Amanita muscaria and in marine tuni-cates (sea squirts). In the former organism, a siderophore-like ligand that binds vanadium(IV)... 

The betalains are confined to ten families of the order Caryophyllales20 The only foods containing betalains are red beet (Beta vulgaris), chard (B. vulgaris), cactus fruit (Opuntia ficus-indica) and pokeberries (Phytolacca americana). They also occur in the poisonous mushroom Amanita muscaria but this is not a normal food source. The importance of the betalains as colorants is confined to preparations from red beet. 

Amino Acid Hallucinogens Fly Agaric Amanita muscaria... 

Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is a mushroom that grows in forests, often under birches, firs, and larches (Schultes and Hofman 1980, 1992). It has a reddish, flat, and ovate cap, with distinct white warts over the surface. Another variety has an orange or yellowish cap, with yellow warts. The stem is white, cylindrical, and hollow, with a bulbous shape at the bottom (figure 9.17). 

The Amanita genus comprises about 50 or 60 species, with vaiying chemical constituents—a number of which are toxic (Schultes and Hofman 1980, 1992). Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) grows in widespread northern temperate zones of Eurasia and North America. In North... 

Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria). Schultes RE, Flofman A. (1980). The Botany and Chemistry of Hallucinogens, 2nd ed. Springfield, III. Charles C. Thomas Publishers. 

Eugster CH, Muller GF, Good R. (1965). [The active ingredients from Amanita muscaria ibotenic acid and muscazone]. Tetrahedron Lett. 23 1813-15. 

Patients may appear to be intoxicated, presenting nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. They have color hallucinations, slow pulse, hypotension, irritability, and incoordination. Children may develop fever and seizures. Death from A. muscaria is rare, usually occurring only in severely poisoned young children, older patients, or persons with serious chronic illnesses. A. pantherina caused... 

Muscarine is found in tiny amounts, usually under 20 pg/g, in other agaric genera, too, such as Amanita, Boletus, Hygrocybe, Lactarius, Mycena, and Russula. It was by the small amounts of muscarine present in A. muscaria, 90 pg/g, that the toxin was detected and identified (and got its name) but muscarine in A. muscaria usually does not account for the symptoms that occur after ingestion of this fungus, which are produced by muscimol and its precursor ibotenic acid. 

Benjamin, D.R. (1992). Mushroom poisoning in infants and children The Amanita pantherina/muscaria group, J. Toxicol. Clin. Toxicol., 30, 13-22. 

Tupalska-Wilczynska, K., Ignatowicz, R., Poziemski, A., Wojcik, H. and Wilczynski, G. (1997). Amanita pantherina and Amanita muscaria poisonings - pathogenesis, symptoms and treatment, Pol. Merkuriusz Lek., 3, 30-32. 

Note that it shares some structural features with the acetylcholine molecule. Specifically, both molecules possess an oxygen atom separated by two methylene (-CH2-) groups from a positively charged nitrogen atom. Muscarine was isolated from Amanita muscaria, a poisonous mushroom, more than a century ago. Muscarine causes sweating and pupillary constriction. These are some of the same effects that are caused by acetylcholine itself, confirming that muscarine is an acetylcholine agonist. 

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