Mushrooms, use

One day, returning from one of my long, introspective rambles, I thought of my abandoned experiments with a new method of growing mushrooms using beds of sterilized rye. Now the beds were doubtlessly dried out or rotting in the small, unattended... 

And here we revert to the miraculous plant that we think is the Salvia divinorum, called (as we believe) in Nahuatl pipiltzintzintli, in the records of the Inquisition dating from 1700. This is obviously related to the name for the sacred mushrooms used by Marina Rosas. Dr. Aguirre Beltran translates it as the most noble Prince and relates it to Piltzintli, the young god of the tender corn. In the accounts of the visions that the Indians see after they consume the sacred food— whether seeds or mushrooms or plant— there frequently figure hombrecitos, little men, mujercitas, little women, duendes, supernatural dwarfs. ... 

These remarks of the French anthropologist become particularly relevant to Mazatee shamanistic practice when one considers that the effect of the mushrooms, used to make one capable of curing, is to inspire the shaman with language and transform him into an oracle. 

In their monumental book Mushrooms, Russia and History (1957), the Wassons, Robert Gordon and Valentina, draw parallels between the beliefs of the Siberian tribes about the mushrooms and those of the Mexican mushroom-using peoples ... 

According to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), Psilocybe mushroom use is on the rise. In 1997, 10.2 million Americans had tried psilo-... 

For millenia, psilocybian mushrooms were used by native Americans, living mainly in Central America but also as far south as Chile. These original mushroom users left few records, but they did establish a tradition of psychedelic mushroom use. 

The first important clues appear in sixteenth-century manuscripts written by Spaniards. The Friar Bernardino de Sahagdn, who spent most of his adult life in Mexico, and Dr. Francisco Hernandez, the personal physician to the King of Spain, both clearly described "mushrooms used as psychoactive agents in tribal rites in post-Conquest Mexico. An educated Indian named Tezozdmoc wrote in 1598 about the ingestion of "inebriating mushrooms by celebrants at the coronation of Montezuma II. 

Meanwhile, the CIA had initiated a search for the so-called "stupid bush and other botanicals that might derange the human mind. The CIA became especially interested in a shrub called piule, whose seeds, they were told, had long been used as inebriants in Mexican religious ceremonies. In early 1933, a scientist from "Project ARTICHOKE went to Mexico in search of this plant. Before he left Mexico with bags of plant material, including ten pounds of piule, he heard wondrous stories about special mushrooms used in connection with religious festivals. 

Although rare, some "hellish experiences have resulted from psilocybin and mushroom use, mainly in the early studies, when these drugs were administered in inappropriate hospital settings by doctors unacquainted with their effects. A vivid account of one such trip appears in Ebin s The Drug Experience—a first-class example of how not to conduct such investigations. 

In SOMA there are forty-two "exhibits, comprising 105 pages of reports by explorers, travelers and anthropologists on mushroom use in Siberia. Only two of these are from people who tried mushrooms, Kopdc s being one of them. The other says "These mushrooms contain a very strong poison, and I can say from personal experience that it is highly intoxicating. The natives often use it to get drunk on when they have no alcohol. These remarks were published in Swedish in 1918. 

L. Racz, L. Papp, B. Prokai, Zs. Kovacs, Trace element determination in cultivated mushrooms an investigation of manganese, nickel and cadmium intake in cultivated mushrooms using ICP atomic emission, Microchem. J., 54 (1996), 444-451. 

L. Racz, A. Bumbalova, M. Harangozo, J. Tolgyessy, O. Tomecek, Determination of cesium and selenium in cultivated mushrooms using radionuclide X-ray fluorescence technique, J. Radioanal. Nucl Chem., 245 (2000), 611-614. 

Riley SC, Blackman G. Between prohibitions patterns and meanings of magic mushroom use in the UK. Subst Use Misuse 2008 43(1) 55-71. 

A few reports on metal ion characterization in metalloenzymes by hyphenated techniques with ICP-MS detection should also be mentioned. Inhibition, reactivation, and determination of metal ions in membrane metalloproteases of bacterial origin was studied by Leopold et al The results obtained by SEC-ICP-MS and the results of enzymological methods indicated that two different membrane proteases from Bacillus cereus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were zinc metalloproteases. In another study, ICP-MS measurements helped in the characterization of a fibrinolytic metalloprotease from the ftniting bodies of an edible mushroom. " Using HPLC-ICP-MS, Suzuki et al. detected a zinc-binding protein present specifically in the livers of male adult rats. ... 

Among the otherwise meager material on mushroom use, there is one... 

Starting in the late 1960s, popular, widespread usage of psychotropic mushrooms began to catch on in Australia. At the same time, these accounts of mushroom use were the only comprehensive reports that originated in a country other than Mexico. 

I would like to close this chapter with a report from an Australian mushroom lover, who illustrates the reasons and circumstances of psychoactive mushroom use in Australia (Southcott)... 

Allen, J.W., Gartz, J. Guzman, G. (1992). Index to the botanical identification and chemical analysis of the known species of the hallucinogenic fungi. Integration, 2 3, 9197. Allen, J.W. Merlin, M.D. (1992). Psychoactive mushroom use in Koh Samui and Koh Pha-Ngan, Thailand. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 35, 205228. 

These hallucinogenic mushroom use dates as far back as the earliest recorded history can relate. Ancient paintings of mushroom-headed humanoids, dating back to 5,000 B.C. have been found in caves on the Tassili plateau of Northern Algeria. Ancient Central and South American cultures built temples to mushroom gods and carved many statues classified as mushroom stones. These stone carvings, in the... 

The p-(1 3)-glucans and their conformations are of interest because of their antitumour, antiviral and immunomodulating activities. Their presence in various mushrooms used as traditional medicaments in East Asia makes them one of the very few such medicaments to have a proven, beneficial elfect. ... 

Identification of Volatile Compounds in Shiitake Mushrooms Using Modern Extraction Techniques... 

Eri, S. Da Costa, N.C., Identification of volatile compounds in shiitake mushrooms using modem analytical techniques including GC-olfactometry, 7th Symposium of Flavor Chemistry and Biology, Wartburg, Germany, 2004. 

In 1953 a researcher was despatched to the mountains of central Mexico in search of the fabled Magic Mushroom used by Indians during religious ceremonies and said to open the doors of perception . Nine years later an unidentified CIA officer wrote to his Division Chief about the problems faced on another expedition. The plan had been to develop a poison based upon the gall bladder of the Tanganyika crocodile. The CIA man had decided there were two options ... 

Some species of psilocybian mushrooms have a not-disagreeable flavor and may be eaten neat, but the majority of species have a strong acrid taste which, while not bitter, some find to be revolting and quite as difficult to tolerate as the taste oip otl. To overcome this, epicurean consumers blend smoothies with raw or dried psilocybian mushrooms, using strong-flavored fruit or chocolate to kill the taste. Hot cocoa in water or milk is a common vehicle, providing good flavor as well as his-... 

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