Mushrooms, hallucinogens

Hallucinogens Drugs that stimulate the nervous system and produce varied changes in perception and mood. Examples are LSD, DMT, mescaline, and magic mushrooms. Hallucinogens are also known as psychedelics... 

CAS 520-52-5. C8H5N(0P03H2)C2H4N(CH3)2. An indole derivative. An alkaloid from certain mushrooms hallucinogenic drug. 

Other well-known indoles that have various natural sources are skatole (3-methylindole) (2), serotonin (3), L-tryptophan (4), tryptamine (5), the plant growth hormones 3-indoleacetic acid (6) and 4-chloro-3-indoleacetic acid (7) [19], the mushroom hallucinogen psilocin (8), and the indole-derived ancient dyes indigo (9) [20] and Tyrian Purple (10) [19] (Scheme 1). 

Lincoff GH, Mitchel DH Toxic and Hallucinogenic Mushroom Poisoning A Handbook for Physicians and Mushroom Hunters. Edited by Williams WK. New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1977... 

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. 

Psilocybin An indolylamine hallucinogen found in a number of mushrooms of the... 

There are several related species of mushrooms that have hallucinogenic effects. Many are in the psilocybe genus, including Psilocybe aztecorum, P. caerulescans, and P. mexicana (Schultes and Hofman 1980, 1992). Other related species include Stropharia cubensis, Panaeolus sphinctrinus, and P. foenisecii (see table 9.1 and figure 9.3). 

Use of these mushrooms was well known to Native American civilizations in Central America. The Aztec referred to them as Teonanacatl, meaning "divine flesh," or "god flesh" and reserved them for use in religious ceremonies. Religious use of hallucinogenic mushrooms is also known to the Mazatec, Chinantec, Mije, Zapotec, and Mixtec of Oaxaca. The Mazatec still actively employ mushrooms in religious ceremonies, referring to them as Nti-si-tho. There is evidence that mushrooms were also used by the Maya. 

The two principal hallucinogenic constituents of psilocybe mushrooms (and related genera) are psilocybin and psilocin (Schultes and Hofman 1980,1992) (figure 9.4). They are very similar, having a dimethyltryptamine structure and differing only by a phosphoric acid molecule. Psilocybin may be called 4-phosphoryl-DMT and psilocin may be called 4-hydroxy DMT. They are both approximately 1/200 as potent as LSD. Absorption is adequate through the oral route, making this a common form of consumption. 

Several mushrooms reported os hallucinogenic agents In Mexico. 

Psilocybe intoxication is very similar to other monoamine hallucinogens in terms of the subjective and hallucinogenic effects. Similar to other monoamine hallucinogens, psilocybe mushroom intoxication produces sympathomimetic features of tachycardia, hypertension, and hyperreflexia (Peden et al. 1982). Many experience nausea and vomiting. Perceptual distortions are primarily visual, but paresthesia and feelings of depersonalization also occur. The acute effects of psilocybe intoxication are shorter-lived than LSD, typically lasting 4-6 hours and completely clearing by 12 hours. 

Lassen, J.F., Ravn, H.B. and Lassen, S.F. (1990). Hallucinogenic psilocybin containing mushrooms. Toxins contained in Danish wild mushrooms, Ugeskr Laeger., 152, 314-317. 

Musha, M., Ishii, A., Tanaka, F. and Kusano, G. (1986). Poisoning by hallucinogenic mushroom higakeshibiritake Psilocyhe argentipes K. Yokohama) indigenous to Japan, Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 148, 73-78. 

Musshoff, F., Madea, B. and Beike, J. (2000). Hallucinogenic mushrooms on the German market - simple instructions for examination and identification. Forensic Sci. Int., 113, 389-395. 

Persson H. and Karlson-Stiber, C. Cytotoxic fungi - an overview, Toxicon, in press. Pierrot, M., Josse, P., Raspiller, M.F., Goulmy, M., Rambourg, M.O., Manel, J. and Lambert, H. (2000). Intoxication by hallucinogenic mushrooms, Ann. Med. Interne (Paris), 151, Suppl. B B16-19. 

Further chemical changes lead to psilocin, another psychoactive molecule, and finally psilocybin, a well-known hallucinogen found in magic mushrooms. ... 

For THOUSANDS OF YEARS the visions imparted by hallucinogenic mushrooms have been sought and revered as a true religious mystery. Much of my thought over the past twenty or more years has been caught up in describing and contemplating this mystery. 

The words of my journal are revealing. I wrote matter of factly of "gaining entry into the world of elf chemists" I called the mushroom a transdimensional doorway and linked it to a transformation of life on the planet. A younger, more naive, more poetic self is revealed—a more intuitive self, at ease with proclaiming wild unlikelihoods as hallucinogenically derived Gnostic Truth. 

In those early mushroom experiences at La Chorrera there was an aura of the animate and the strange, the idea that the mushroom was somehow more than a plant hallucinogen or even a shamanic ally of the classic sort. It had begun to dawn on me that the mushroom was in fact a kind of intelligent entity—not of earth—alien and able during the trance to communicate its personality as a presence in the inward-turned perceptions of its beholder. 

Munn, Henry. "The Mushrooms of Language." In Shamanism and Hallucinogens. Edited by Michael Harner. London Oxford Univ. Press, 1973. 

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