'Synthetic' substances that turned out to be in nature. [list]

[1ce]

Psilocybe mushrooms produce trace levels of amphetamine don't they?

 

[1ce]

1ce: I'm not sure any psilocybes produce phenethylamine, personally, there is only one paper stating they found PEA as a decarboxylation product of phenylalaine but the results have not been confirmed by any other studies (especially not by actual mycologists). My interpretation is that perhaps the liberty cap samples were contaminated by grass root exudate or organic material such as cattle urine/manure which contained phenethylamine.
see paper here http://jat.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/1/45.full.pdf

ND: don't be so literal about poppies. Indeed they do heal the earth. Seeds of poppy family can be dormant in the ground up to 80 years! They are a very intelligent and sensitive plant, knowing when is best for them to germinate and prefer soils which are relatively not as fertile and can grow in soils which are extremely compacted when not much else will. This is what qualifies them as a pioneer plant and are very capable of aerating a 'broken' piece of land within a growing season or two, opening the field to other less hardy plants quite quickly and drawing up water as well as creating a much cooler, moister microclimate when colonizing (reverse-albedo effect). Are you familiar with the concept of ecological niches and succession?

Perhaps, it does exhibit what appears to be demonstratable repeatability.

Presence of phenylethylamine in hallucinogenic Psilocybe mushroom: possible role in adverse reactions - PubMed

The use of mushrooms containing the hallucinogenic substance psilocybin for intentional intoxication is relatively common. Occasionally, this results in adverse reactions with typical tachycardia that is not evidently caused by psilocybin. This study demonstrates the presence of phenylethylamine...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Nathanial.Dread]

ND: don't be so literal about poppies. Indeed they do heal the earth. Seeds of poppy family can be dormant in the ground up to 80 years! They are a very intelligent and sensitive plant, knowing when is best for them to germinate and prefer soils which are relatively not as fertile and can grow in soils which are extremely compacted when not much else will. This is what qualifies them as a pioneer plant and are very capable of aerating a 'broken' piece of land within a growing season or two, opening the field to other less hardy plants quite quickly and drawing up water as well as creating a much cooler, moister microclimate when colonizing (reverse-albedo effect). Are you familiar with the concept of ecological niches and succession?

Yes, I am familiar with niches and succession, and the poppy's status as a pioneer plant is very well documented, but that doesn't mean that the poppy itself is in any way isomoprhic to the pain-killing properties of the opioid compounds it produces.

The pattern is not conserved across scales.

Blessings
~ND

 

[LSDvibes]

Fascinating post, a lot to learn about here! I mainly like learning about the different mind-altering substances plants contain. It's sort of a twist though if they synthesized some of these substances first and then found out that plants already had some of them in the first place.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

It's an interesting debate here about the pain sensing capabilities of ecological systems. Is it not the case that mycorrhizal networks facilitate communication between plants in some way? And people document here their experiential data regarding their interactions with plant awareness? The ecological pain hypothesis has a certain poetic appeal...

Not all science is necessarily quantifiable. The mushroom counteth not its spore output (in all likelihood), oh bean counters!

Meanwhile, back to the synthetic/natural thing: polyester?

 

[Nathanial.Dread]

Not all science is necessarily quantifiable. The mushroom counteth not its spore output (in all likelihood), oh bean counters!

I object to this statement in the strongest possible terms. Everything is quantifiable if you're creative enough with your counting procedure.

Blessings
~ND

 

[mitosis]

Wasn't LSA first synthesized from ergot-alkaloids before it was discovered LSA was present
in Hawaiian Baby Woodrose seeds and Morning Glory seeds? Not sure.

yes, in My Problem Child, specifically the chapter titled The Mexican Relatives of LSD pp.136, Hofmann explains,
"the active principles from the ancient Mexican magic drug ololiuhqui proved to be identical with substances that were already present in my laboratory. They were identical with alkaloids that had been obtained in the course of the decades long investigations of ergot; partly isolated as such from ergot, partly obtained through chemical modification of ergot substances.
lysergic acid amide, lysergic acid hydroxyethylamide, and alkaloids closely related to them chemically were established as the main active principles of ololiuhqui. Also present was the alkaloid ergobasine, whose sysnthesis had consituted the starting point of my investigations on ergot alkaloids.

"my colleagues received my talk with skepticism ... the occurence in higher plants (i.e., in the morning glory family) of ergot alkaloids that hitherto had been known only as constituents of lower fungi, contradicted the experience that certain substances are typical of and restricted to respective plant families.

"Our results were confirmed [by independent labs]. Nevertheless, the skepticism went so far that the seeds could have been infected with alkaloid-producing fungi. That suspicion, however, was ruled out experimentally.