Hallucinogenic Psilocybin New ghost mushrooms designed in the laboratory

Researchers decipher hallucinogens in fungi
Chemists have discovered how fungi make psilocybin, the substance that causes hallucinations and altered consciousness. Four different enzymes are responsible for this and are likely to be produced in the laboratory soon.

Way into the spirit world
The magic mushrooms have been a "mount animal" in shamanism for thousands of years in the spirit world, as well as the fly agaric.

Mushrooms containing psylocibin are used by shamans as a remedy,
to get into altered states of consciousness (Image: Yanchenko / fotolia.com)

Holy mushroom
Especially in Central America, they played a central role in spiritual rituals and Mayan medicine.

lucky
If we pick up the mushrooms, the psilocybin turns into psilocin, which binds to the "happiness hormone" serotonin and thus leads to hallucinations that can be compared with LSD.

Hallucinogenic bald heads
Psilocybin is found especially in fungi of the genus Kahlköpfe, in Central Europe in the pointed conical bald head. The concentration of psilocybin is highest at 1.78% for Psilocybe azurescens and lowest for P. Infomans at 0.16%.

How does psilocybin work??
Amounts up to 6 mg cause a slight intoxication, the typical consumption dose is about 10 mg. If more than 20 mg is a strong hallucinogenic effect. Concerned people feel euphoric, physically light and full of energy. Her visual perception changes, objects and living things appear smaller or larger and in different colors.

side effects
A psychologically undesirable effect is the so-called horror trip, which is associated with panic attacks, but psychotic side effects are much less of a threat than LSD. Vomiting and nausea may also occur, especially at high dosages. Organic damage does not know the medicine.

Latent psychoses
However, like all psychedelic substances, psilocybin can trigger an already latent psychosis. The consequences are a distorted sensory perception and a limited self-perception.

Legal situation in Germany
Psilocybinhaltige mushrooms belong in Germany to the not marketable and not vertreibungsfähige substances, the handling with them is forbidden to the public, but not the consumption.

Magic Mushrooms
The ethnomycologist Gordon Wasson coined the term "magic mushrooms" in 1958 in an eponymous article in the magazine "Life". The chemist Albert Hoffmann soon isolated psilocin from cultivated fruiting bodies.

Biosynthesis with enzymes
The chemist Janis Fricke and his team from Jena now deciphered the biosynthesis of psilocybin. They found that the fungi use four enzymes that they use to transform the amino acid tryptopan.

How does Psilocybin develop??
A previously unknown group of tryptophan decarboxylases cleave a carboxyl group from the amino acid. Then, a monooxygenase attaches to an alcohol group, and a kinase supplements a phosphate group. Thereafter, a methyltransferase joins two methyl groups with the molecule. This is how Psilocybin is made.

recreated
The scientists produced three of the four enzymes with fungal and bacterial cultures. Together with 4-hydrox-L-tryptophan they recreated the biosynthesis of psilocybin in the laboratory.

Medical benefitn
If psilocybin can be produced biosynthetically, it could provide the basis for new drugs. Physicians expect a lot of Psilocybon-based medicines for anxiety sufferers, including generalized anxiety disorders, specific anxiety disorders, as well as depression and anxiety in cancer patients. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)