High-dose MDMA tablets and variable-purity cocaine and ketamine samples are commonly encountered by drug checking services and police forces in the United Kingdom and Europe. At the time of writing, there are few simpleto-operate field-portable technologies that provide semi-quantitative information on MDMA tablet dosage or cocaine and ketamine purity at the point of sampling. We previously...
ChemRxivMarch 2, 2026William Charles Hosie, Artem Pyrozhok, Massimo Filgiomeni et al.
preprint
Clinical trials of psychedelics have shown preliminary promise for the treatment of psychiatric conditions such as major depressive disorder, substance use disorder, and treatment resistant depression.The most common psychedelic administration routes explored so far include intravenous injection, heated vapor inhalation, or a simple buffered salt solution administered to the nasal cavity.Given...
ChemRxivNovember 26, 2025Anton A. Homon, P. V. Vara Prasad, Elham Pourian et al.
preprint
The recent resurgence in psychedelic research has increased demand for these molecules for clinical studies. Due to the differences between national regulations and considering the dominance of the American market and its continued prohibition of many such molecules, the commercial availability of many of these compounds remains poor. This has also inhibited research into developing scalable...
Bufotenin (also spelt as bufotenine) and its methylated derivative, 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) are potent psychedelics (although the activity of the former is attenuated due to its low propensity to cross the blood-brain-barrier) that are found in many plants but also excreted by specific species of toads. The compounds are regulated differently around the world, and although...
ChemRxivFebruary 27, 2025William Charles Hosie, Mary Augustina Egbuta, Kasra Razmkhah et al.
preprint
Nanoformulation is often used to improve the solubility and uptake of bioactives; however, it also protects sensitive bioactives from chemical decomposition. We report a class of biocompatible emulsifiers created by conjugating hemp protein with green tea polyphenols. A simple pH-assisted coupling protocol was employed to synthesize covalent and non-covalent conjugates, which were then used to...
The Church of Psilomethoxin claims to produce a novel tryptamine by adding 5-MeO-DMT to the substrate of cultivated Psilocybe mushrooms, which is then biosynthesized into psilomethoxin, the church’s sacrament. In this study, we investigate the validity of this claim using comprehensive analytical techniques, namely ultra-performance liquid chromatography with high-resolution mass spectrometry...
Classic psychedelics are compounds that target the 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor type 2A (5-HT2AR), inducing profound changes in consciousness. Although these compounds most closely resemble the natural neurotransmitter serotonin, their therapeutic and psychoactive action is still not well understood. Therefore, a quantitative atomistic description of their interaction in the 5-HT2AR receptor is...
ChemRxivOctober 26, 2021Alexzander Samuelsson, Eric Janusson, Sajni Shah et al.2 citations
preprint
The alkaloid psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) and the neurologically active psilocin (4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) are the foremost compounds of pharmaceutical interest in Psilocybe mushrooms. As these compounds are infrequently analyzed in analytical labs, validated methods for rapid purity analysis are lacking. Newfound therapeutic use has invigorated academic and...
Anecdotal reports and open label case studies in humans indicated that the psychedelic alkaloid ibogaine exert profound anti-addictive effects. Ample preclinical evidence demonstrated the efficacy of ibogaine, and its main metabolite noribogaine, in substance use disorder rodent models. In contrast to addiction research, depression-relevant effects of ibogaine or noribogaine in rodents have not...
Ibogaine is a psychedelic alkaloid which has been subject of intense scientific research due to its reported ability to attenuate drug-seeking behavior. Recent work suggested that ibogaine effects on alcohol self-administration in rats was related to the release of Glial Cell Derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF) in the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA), a mesencephalic region which hosts soma of...
ChemRxivDecember 27, 2017Ryan A Shenvi, Shun Hirasawa, Min Cho et al.1 citation
preprint
Salvinorin A (SalA) is a potent and selective agonist of the kappa-opioid receptor (KOR), but its instability has frustrated medicinal chemistry efforts. Treatment of SalA with weak bases like DBU leads to C8 epimerization with loss of receptor affinity and signaling potency. Here we show that replacement of C20 with H and replacement of O6 with CH2 stabilizes the SalA scaffold relative to its...
Salvinorin A (SalA) is a plant metabolite that agonizes the human kappa -opioid receptor (κ-OR) with high affinity and high selectivity over mu- and delta- opioid receptors. Its therapeutic potential has stimulated extensive semi-synthetic studies and total synthesis campaigns. However, structural modification of SalA has been complicated by its instability, and efficient total synthesis has...
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and analogs are psychedelic drugs commonly submitted to forensic chemistry laboratories. These drugs are often present on items of evidence at low concentrations, requiring sensitive analyses to positively identify their presence. The injection port of a gas chromatograph (GC) plays an important role in vaporizing and transferring substances to the column for...
Renewed scientific interest in psychedelic compounds represents one of the most promising avenues for addressing the current burden of mental health disorders. Classic psychedelics are a group of compounds that exhibit structural similarities to the naturally occurring neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT). Acting on the 5-HT type 2A receptors (5-HT2AR), psychedelics induce enduring...