Psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is an indole-based secondary metabolite produced by numerous species of mushrooms. South American Aztec Indians referred to them as teonanacatl, meaning "god's flesh," and they were used in religious and healing rituals. Spanish missionaries in the 1500s attempted to destroy all records and evidence of the use of these mushrooms. Nevertheless,...
In our continuing search for structurally interesting and bioactive metabolites from Korean wild mushrooms,1–5 we have collected scores of endemic Korean mushroom species in the mountainous areas during the hot humid summer and prepared MeOH extracts from them for antitumor activity. Among the collected wild mushrooms, the extract of Gymnopilus spectabilis showed significant cytotoxicity...