The ancient history of psilocybin

“Psilocybin, a psychoactive alkaloid contained in hallucinogenic mushrooms, is nowadays given a lot of attention in the scientific community as a research tool for modeling psychosis as well as due to its potential therapeutic effects. however, it is also a very popular and frequently abused natural hallucinogen. this review summarizes all the past and recent knowledge on psilocybin. it briefly deals with its history, discusses the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, and compares its action in humans and animals. it attempts to describe the mechanism of psychedelic effects and objectify its action using modern imaging and psychometric methods. finally, it describes its therapeutic and abuse potential. ?? 2013 elsevier b.v. and ecnp.”

“April 30, 1960, vol. 8 2 patient, without class distinction, and consist of a private room with private toilet and bath and usually a small private veranda, and common lounge, dining and recreation rooms. most of them are like good hotels in the standard of luxury provided. in america, wallace found the community attitude to old age, the numerous old people’s classes and recreational centres, and the quantity of medical research on the ageing process commendable. in his summary evaluation wallace states that the best course would be to follow the british lead in setting aside wards, or at least beds, in the hospitals for acute illness and in appointing geriatric consultants to look after the ill geriatric patient; to have a definite break between hospitals and homes for the frail and needy old people (the homes to be no larger than 50-100 beds); and to increase the amount of medical research with the hope of being able to understand, and possibly to halt, the progress of the ageing process. charitable and church organizations could be of particular assistance by providing first-class homes of the type described, rather than by trying to build and maintain proper hospitals which would be beyond the financial ability of most private organizations. psilocybin, its history and pharmacology the effect of certain mexican mushrooms in producing visions and hallucinations in human beings was described in the 16th century by a franciscan monk. a fascinating review of the history of knowledge concerning the mushroom psilocybe mexicana has recently been given by cerletti of basle, switzerland (deutsche med. wchnschr., 84: 2317, 1959). according to cerletti, knowledge of this fungus was lost until it was rediscovered in 1953 by wasson who with his wife, who is a physician, took part in ceremonies of tribes still using this ‘holy mush-room’ for its intoxicating effects. having obtained the mushrooms, he sent them to a french mycolo-gist, hime, who cultured them artificially and was able to extract the active drug. by 1958, the substance , which was named psilocybin, was extracted in crystalline form and was found to have the activity ascribed to the original mushroom. cerletti describes the relationship between such tryptamines as serotonin and psilocybin and its derivative psilo-cin, and the latter’s structural resemblance to lysergic acid-diethylamide. it was found in the sandoz laboratories that the activity of the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated by psil…”