DETERMINATION OF TRYPTAMINE ALKALOIDS AND THEIR STABILITY IN PSYCHOTROPIC MUSHROOMS

Abstract Synthetic psilocybin (PSB), but also the PSB-containing mushrooms are used for psychedelic therapy and microdosing. It is necessary to know alkaloids variability and stability in wild-grown mushrooms. Concentrations of other psychotropic (or potentially psychotropic) tryptamines such as psilocin (PS), baeocystin (BA), norbaeocystin (NB), and aeruginascin (AE) are also relevant. This study aims to determine the concentrations of PSB, PS, BA, NB and AE in a large sample set of mushroom genera previously reported to contain psychotropic tryptamines. Freshly cultivated fruit bodies of Psilocybe cubensis were used for monitoring stability (including storage and processing conditions of fruiting bodies). Mycelium and the individual parts of the fruiting bodies (caps, stipes, and basidiospores) were also examined. The concentration of tryptamines was analyzed using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Analytical standards were synthetized in house and UHPLC-MS/MS method was fully validate for quantification of tryptamine alkaloids in mushroom samples. Most mushroom collections were documented by fungarium specimens and/or ITS rDNA/LSU/EF1-α sequencing.The tryptamine concentrations in mushrooms are extremely variable, which could possibly influence the medicinal effect compared to therapy with chemically pure PSB. The storage conditions strongly affected the alkaloids decay and showed that the highest degradation of tryptamines was seen in fresh mushrooms stored at −80° C, and the lowest decay was seen in dried biomass stored in the dark at room temperature. This study was funded by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic (NU21-04-00307). References GOTVALDOVA, K., BOROVICKA, J., HAJKOVA, K., CIHLAROVA, P., ROCKEFELLER, A. &KUCHAR, M. 2022. Extensive Collection of Psychotropic Mushrooms with Determination of Their Tryptamine Alkaloids. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23. GOTVALDOVA, K., HAJKOVA, K., BOROVICKA, J., JUROK, R., CIHLAROVA, P. &KUCHAR, M. 2021. Stability of psilocybin and its four analogs in the biomass of the psychotropic mushroom Psilocybe cubensis. Drug Testing and Analysis, 13, 439-446.