Entheogenic natural products (e.g., psylocybin and dimethyltryptamine) are emerging as effective therapeutics to treat debilitating mood disorders that are unresponsive to conventional treatment. The detailed evaluation of psychotropic plants will conceivably lead to the discovery of structurally distinct entheogens that may offer improved or complementary medicinal properties to the classic...
Quipazine, first identified in the 1960s, has been the topic of >1000 published papers. On the basis of available 5-HT2 serotonin receptor radioligand binding data and various preclinical studies, it might be thought that quipazine bears the hallmarks of a classical hallucinogen or psychedelic agent – agents currently being examined for their potential use in treating certain neuropsychiatric...
The recent heightened public enthusiasm for the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelics, especially for treatment-resistant mental health conditions, has resulted in a renewed interest in the underlying science that governs their properties and pharmacology.The science of psychedelics is an intriguing, multi-disciplinary field and encompasses many known psychedelic substances, including...
Homochiral (R)- and (S)-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) were prepared in six steps (each) from the chiral pool precursors d- and l-alanine, respectively. The key step, copper-catalysed regioselective ring-opening of an N-tosylaziridine with an aryl Grignard reagent, proceeded in high yield with complete regioselectivity. Elaboration was achieved with preservation of configurational...
In this short primer we will discuss the total synthesis of lysergic acid, an important precursor to both lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and its derivatives. Lysergic acid is also noted as a precursor for many drugs targeting the serotonin receptor family of GPCRs, including multiple known hallucinogens. More recently, reinvigorated interest in the therapeutic potential of psychedelics from...
The science of psychedelics is an intriguing, multi-disciplinary field that has recently been the subject of heightened public interest. This has mainly resulted from publicity associated with a number of high-profile investigations into psychedelic-assisted therapy for a range of difficult-to-treat mental health conditions. With many psychedelic substances known, including natural,...
Classic psychedelics such as psilocybin, ketamine and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) are 5HT2A serotonin receptor agonists that produce individualised subjective affects. Today, public interest in psychedelic medicine has reached a fervour but the evidence for clinical benefit still lags. Psilocybin and psilocin are tryptophan based alkaloids found worldwide in mushrooms of the genera...
Salvinorin A 1, a psychoactive neoclerodane diterpenoid from the Mexican sage S. divinorum, has gained interest as a selective ?-opioid receptor agonist. Non-racemic 3-furylamines 9a and 9b have been prepared from (+)-pseudoephedrine and (–)-ephedrine for application in the stereoselective synthesis of the ketone ring of 1. Diels–Alder reaction of 9b with methyl acrylate in aqueous media,...
Ethanol extracts of Ervatamia orientalis have yielded the following known alkaloids: ibogaine, iboxygaine, voacristine, vobasine, dregamine, tabernaemontanine, apparicine, voacamine and 16- demethoxycarbonylvoacamine. In addition, two new dimeric alkaloids of the voacamine group and the novel 2-acylindoles ervatamine, 20- epiervatamine and 19-dehydroervatamine have been isolated from the...
The psychotomimetic agents psilocybinl~2 (1)O\p/ OH and its dephosphorylated derivative psilooin273 were 0, ' '0-first isolated214 from the hallucinogenic Mexican + mushroom Psilocybe mexicanu Heim.The presence C H C H H e 2 of psilocybin, sometimes accompanied by psilooin, \ has subsequently been demonstrated in a number of 2 (1)species of the genus Psilocybe from Mexico,2J*6 North America,7-9...