Several specimens of Psilocybe and Copelandia species in Koh Samui, Thailand were recently collected for herbarium deposit and scientific study. This paper presents an ethnomycological and biochemical study of one of the species; P. samuiensis Guzmán, Bandala and Allen, a new psychoactive gill fungus reported from Thailand. Mycelium for the cultivation of P. samuiensis was obtained on 6% malt...
SOME EFFECTS OF GROUP DRUG TAKING ERWIN DI CYAN* The purpose of this paper is to discuss briefly some aspects of the differences between drug effects when drugs are used in groups as distinguished from their solitary use. The human organism responds to a variety of stimuli. Its response to signals may be physiological or psychological. The latter response includes recollections by (a) retrieval...
Abstract The occurrence and extraction of indole derivatives in six species from four genera of higher fungi were investigated. By using pure methanol for extraction of the mushrooms analysis revealed the highest concentrations of psilocybin and baeocystin. The psilocin content of the species was higher by using aqueous solutions of alcohols than with methanol alone but was an artificial...
Several fungi species collected in the Hawaiian Islands have been reported to be psychoactive. Previous chemical analyses together with the present study indicate that 5 coprophilous and one non-coprophilous species occurring in the islands are now known to contain psychoactive alkaloids. At least some of these species are consumed in the Hawaiian Islands, as well as elsewhere, for...
Citing recently published challenges to R. Gordon Wasson's identification of Vedic soma as the psychoactive mushroom Amanita muscaria (fly-agaric), this article reviews unpublished letters by Wasson in which he considered and rejected other psychoactive plants as candidates, including the mint Lagochilus inebrians, Convolvulaceae (morning glory) seeds, the fungal parasite Claviceps purpurea...
A procedure is outlined for comparing dependence potential and acute toxicity across a broad range of abused psychoactive substances. Tentative results, based on an extensive literature review of 20 substances, suggested that the margin of safety ("therapeutic index") varied dramatically between substances. Intravenous heroin appeared to have the greatest risk of dependence and acute lethality;...
This paper presents the results of recent ethnomycological exploration in southern Thailand. Field observations, interviews and collection of fungi specimens were carried out primarily on two islands, Koh Samui and Koh Pha-ngan, situated in the western region of the Gulf of Siam. Some fieldwork was also conducted in the northern Thai province of Chiang Dao and in the southern Thai province of...
THE RISE, DECLINE, AND FALL OF LSD ROBERT F. ULRICH and BERNARD M. PATTEN* The urge to transcend self-conscious selfhood is ... a principal appetite of the soul. When, for whatever reason, men and women fail to transcend themselves by means of worship, good worh and spiritual exercises, they are apt to resort to religion's chemical surrogates.—Aldous Huxley. [1] On April 16, 1943, a fascinating...
Hallucinogenic drugs are unique in that they produce the desired hallucinogenic effects at what are considered non-toxic doses. The hallucinogenic drugs can be categorised into 4 basic groups: indole alkaloid derivatives, piperidine derivatives, phenylethylamines and the cannabinols. The drugs reviewed include lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), phencyclidine (PCP), cocaine, amphetamines,...
The stimulus properties of 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and several related compounds were compared to those of (+)-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and mescaline (3,4,5-trimethoxyphenylethylamine) in a two-lever, water-reinforced, drug discrimination task. In animals trained to discriminate LSD (0.08 mg/kg) from saline (n = 8), LSD-like...