Lilliputian Mushrooms (Lanmaoa asiatica)

[Loveall]

The University of Utah reports on a traditional mushroom known to cause visions of little people. It has been known by several cultures in Asia.

Research is ongoing and the active chemical(s) are unknown.

Unknown to western science, the mushroom has been used traditionally for possibly thousands of years. From the article ( Mushroom causes fairytale-like hallucinations - @theU ):

" A prominent Daoist text from the 3rd century CE refers to a “flesh spirit mushroom,” which, according to the text, if consumed raw, allows one to “see a little person” and “attain transcendence immediately.”"

Anyone from the region have access to this mushroom? The article mentions a closely related species in the US that is rarely eaten (but are eaten). Anyone know what this species could be?

PS: I searched the nexus for this topic and did not find it. Apologies to the mods if I missed it.

 

[Sakkadelic]

Hallucinogenic bolete mushroom - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Here's the wikipedia article, they do mention related species in north america

Other instances

edit
Other Lanmaoa species closely related to Lanmaoa asiatica, such as Lanmaoa pallidorosea, Lanmaoa carminipes, and Lanmaoa flavorubra, exist in North America.[12] However, there are no reports of such species causing hallucinogenic effects in North America or Europe or anywhere outside of China and Papua New Guinea.[12] In any case, such mushrooms are also not commonly eaten in North America due to apparent stigma against consumption of blue-staining mushrooms in this part of the world, and so possible hallucinogenic effects of such mushrooms may have been missed.[12]

 

[Sakkadelic]

I've found multiple blueing bolete like species, and one looking very similar to the one in the article, they should be popping out soon here.

 

[Loveall]

I've found multiple blueing bolete like species, and one looking very similar to the one in the article, they should be popping out soon here.

Are they known to be edible? What general part of the world?

Nice to hear from you. Still remember you when I squeeze my boiled rue seeds

 

[Sakkadelic]

Are they known to be edible? What general part of the world?

Nice to hear from you. Still remember you when I squeeze my boiled rue seeds

On the eastern Mediterranean, Lebanon more specifically. They're not know to be edible, people here only eat a few very well know wild species.

Haha, a great way to be remembered

 

[Nachooo1]

A related species from Spain, note the blue reaction aparently edible

Lanmaoa fragrans

Lanmaoa fragrans es un especie de hongos con 120 observaciones

spain.inaturalist.org

 

[dithyramb]

L. fragrans is found here too. İt's probably found in a lot of the Mediterranean countries

 

[Transform]

Blue staining is not reliably indicative of anything in particular among the boletes. Among this class some are edible, others not. The superficial resemblance to the psilocyboid bluing reaction is tantalising but misleading!

For example, the rather poisonous Boletus (now Rubroboletus) satanas stains blue, as do the pores of the prized (by some) edible Imleria badia (formerly Boletus, then Xerocomus, badius). I'd be very surprised (not to mention delighted) if a European bluing bolete turned out to be psychoactive rather than merely radioactive…

 

[TheGreenPhantom]

If you're interested in reading articles in Chinese, plug this into your search engine: 見手青.

 

[Sakkadelic]

I've found multiple blueing bolete like species, and one looking very similar to the one in the article, they should be popping out soon here.

I found one the next day. The color of the pores is clearly different, it's likely a Suillellus species. The blueing reaction is intense, I chewed a piece and it tasted a bit sour, it's likely inedible even if safe to eat. There are at least a couple other blueing species in the same area.

 

[PedroSanchez]

a couple of PDF files i have come across. probably not very useful but every little counts.

 

[JungleGhost]

According to Google:
When eaten undercooked, it causes remarkably consistent visions of tiny, 3-dimensional fairy-tale figures or elves. This bizarre, cross-cultural phenomenon is medically known as Lilliputian hallucinations.

What compound is causing this!?

More Google info:

• The Experience: About 96% of affected individuals report seeing dozens to hundreds of tiny, colorful humanoids moving about, clinging to furniture, or even interacting with their food (like jumping into a bowl of soup). [1, 2, 3]
• The "Jian shou qing" Mushroom: Found in Yunnan, China, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea, it is known locally as "Jian shou qing" in China, which roughly translates to "turns blue in the hand," referring to how its flesh rapidly changes color when bruised or handled. [1, 2]
• A Scientific Mystery: Unlike classic magic mushrooms, this fungus contains zero psilocybin. Scientists and mycologists (such as those at the Natural History Museum of Utah) are still actively researching it and believe it may contain an entirely new class of hallucinogenic molecules. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Has anyone used or heard of this!?

 

[JungleGhost]

Has anyone here actually used this or heard of anyone using it? Very curious...

 

[cadoto]

Idk if anyone else has read them but two newer papers on the mushroom have come out, one from University of utah and one from China, and both are linked here

 

[TheGreenPhantom]

Good find!

 

[Sakkadelic]

Idk if anyone else has read them but two newer papers on the mushroom have come out, one from University of utah and one from China, and both are linked here

One study treats it as prized edible wild mushroom and does not refer to its potential psychoactivity at all, while the other treats its psychoactivity as a fact and hypothesize novel unknown compounds to be responsible.

 

[blig-blug]

while the other treats its psychoactivity as a fact and hypothesize novel unknown compounds to be responsible.

Without the psychoactive activity being characterized or even established to happen consistently, this seems quite pointless.

Also, the reason they hypothesize it to be due to novel compounds is that they found "no close hits with any genes known in the production of mushroom psychoactive compounds". This is very poor logic, as it could (I'm not saying it's likely) be synthesizing a known psychoactive compound through a novel pathway and thus have different genes.

It took one year between Wasson's encounter with psilocybin mushrooms and its isolation by Hofmann. Today, all we get with vastly superior technology and knowledge is some baseless speculation. I guess no one is actually willing to bio-assay it during the process of isolation, as Hofmann did.

 

[blig-blug]

no close hits with any genes known in the production of mushroom psychoactive compounds

Also, by "mushroom psychoactive compounds" they refer exclusively to psilocybin and ibotenic acid. Not even psilocin or muscimol!

 

[Sakkadelic]

Without the psychoactive activity being characterized or even established to happen consistently, this seems quite pointless.

Also, the reason they hypothesize it to be due to novel compounds is that they found "no close hits with any genes known in the production of mushroom psychoactive compounds". This is very poor logic, as it could (I'm not saying it's likely) be synthesizing a known psychoactive compound through a novel pathway and thus have different genes.

It took one year between Wasson's encounter with psilocybin mushrooms and its isolation by Hofmann. Today, all we get with vastly superior technology and knowledge is some baseless speculation. I guess no one is actually willing to bio-assay it during the process of isolation, as Hofmann did.

Yes, maybe hypothesis was a strong word, it's more of a suggestion, a not very logically tight suggestion. The lack of presence of known psychoactive compounds could also simply mean the mushrooms are not psychoactive, especially like you said that subjective effects are not consistently established.

I was just shocked by the discrepancy between the two papers.

 

[blig-blug]

maybe hypothesis was a strong word

For sure, and it's the word they use.

On establishing the effects, I think they should team up with the Nexus and send us some samples