DMT and tryptamine in Maize and fermented maize drink

[Woolmer]

I found this paper very exciting!

DMT and tryptamine were found in varying concentrations in either white maize flower or yellow maize flower and in a fermented maize drink of varying constituents called mahewu prepared in South Africa.

Though the concentrations are very low it is still really interesting as this adds to the list of plants in the poaceae family that contain tryptamines and maize is one of the most abundantly grown foods in the world!

The max concentrations found for DMT were 0.00279% in mahewu consisting of yellow maize with sorghum malt.

For tryptamine the highest was 0.038% in mahewu of yellow maize with wheat which is not too bad.

Perhaps there is a strain of maize that may yield reliable high yields for DMT or tryptamine.

Nutritional and Phytochemical Composition of Mahewu (a Southern African Fermented Food Product) Derived from White and Yellow Maize (Zea mays) with Different Inocula

Mahweu is an important indigenous beverage for many low-income and undernourished consumers in southern Africa. As a result, the nutritional and phytochemical profile of mahewu samples (obtained using optimized fermentation and boiling conditions from a previous study) as well as their related...

www.mdpi.com

 

[downwardsfromzero]

And to think Dale Pendell wrote a chapter on "the Psychoactive Propeties of Maize" in his Pharmako* series of books. Little did he know... (Or did he?)

This could turn out to be another game changer - it should be possible to selectively breed a high yielding strain of maize without too much trouble. Wouldn't it be amazing (no pun intended...) if this also conferred drought resistance, somehow echoing the Acacias?

 

[Woolmer]

It seems that maize contains several derivatives of tryptamine.

"Maize contains... Np-coumaril tryptamine, N-ferulyl tryptamine"

Growing maize in tryptamine supplemenated soil was found to increase growth parameters.

"... the application of Tryptamine has a considerable effect on the maize plant growth. The 10-5 M concentration of Tryptamine have a maximum effect on the studied parameter i.e. root length, shoot length, fresh and dry root mass, fresh and dry shoot mass, auxin biosynthesis and total chlorophyll content"

 

[downwardsfromzero]

"Zein represents about 60% of the total protein in corn. Zein contains very low lysine and tryptophan percentages. Zein is comprised of 21.4% glutamine, 19.3% leucine, 9.0% proline, 8.3% alanine, 6.8% phenylalanine, 6.2% isoleucine, 5.7% serine, and 5.1% tyrosine." This low tryptophan content is interesting - the palnts will have to store their axin materials quite carefully.

"Maize contains... Np-coumaril tryptamine, N-ferulyl tryptamine"

Just highlighting a slight typo/mistranslation here - it should read "N-p-coumaryl" - in case anyone is planning on using this as a search term. Those two substituents are among the commonest phenolic acids found in plants, along with caffeic acid.

Back to the first paper,

"Compounds 15, 16, 17, and 18 were classified as monoamine alkaloids (Table 5). Compound 15, at a retention time of 10.48 min, produced a molecular ion at 187 m/z, with fragmentation of m/z = 184, 169, and 127, characteristic of dimethyltryptamine from the group of tryptamines and derivatives. Compound 16 had a precursor ion at 366 m/z and was identified as isatidine (Table 5)."

and another interesting thing was observed:
"Compound 24, at a retention time of 13.94 min, had a molecular ion of 313 m/z with fragments of m/z = 311, 287, and 216, and was identified as dronabinol, which belongs to the class of organic compounds known as 2, 2-dimethyl-1-benzopyrans. Dronabinols are used for the treatment of nausea and vomiting in cancer chemotherapy patients as well as for the treatment of anorexia and weight loss in HIV patients."

Dronabinol is of course a synonym for Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol.

One does begin to wonder if any of their equipment was contaminated or, indeed, what they may have been smoking, if not in the lab, then at least around the brewing vessel at the time. Let's not forget the case of Clement et al and the mysterious case of the mescaline acacias that was never replicated.

There's also the chance that the brews themselves were contaminated with unidentified plant material. The pyrrolizidine alkaloid monocrotaline is a clue in this direction. And as well, the spider toxin JSTX-3:
"Compound 23, with a molecular ion of 564 m/z and fragments of m/z = 353, 314, and 143, was identified as JSTX 3. This is a toxin isolated from spider venom, which could have resulted from an insect infestation on the maize."

10-Deacetyl-2-debenzoylbaccatin III is similarly suspicious.


Mostly this is instructive in the sense of saving one's reactions to an item of research until after a careful reading of the paper.