Student Discovers Long-Awaited Mystery Fungus Sought By LSD's Inventor (sciencedaily.com)
(Saturday June 07, 2025 @04:59PM (EditorDavid)
from the you-answer-quite-slowly dept.)
- Reference: 0177955015
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/06/07/1854211/student-discovers-long-awaited-mystery-fungus-sought-by-lsds-inventor
- Source link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/06/250602154912.htm
LSD "is used to treat conditions like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction," [1]notes Science Daily . And now a microbiology student "has found a long sought-after fungus that produces effects similar to the semisynthetic drug..."
> Morning glory plants live in symbiosis with fungi that produce the same ergot alkaloids the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann modified when he invented LSD in the late 1930s. Hofmann hypothesized that a fungus in morning glories produced alkaloids similar to those in LSD, but the species remained a mystery...
>
> The researchers dubbed the fungus "Periglandula clandestina" for its ability to have eluded investigators for decades.
[1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/06/250602154912.htm
> Morning glory plants live in symbiosis with fungi that produce the same ergot alkaloids the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann modified when he invented LSD in the late 1930s. Hofmann hypothesized that a fungus in morning glories produced alkaloids similar to those in LSD, but the species remained a mystery...
>
> The researchers dubbed the fungus "Periglandula clandestina" for its ability to have eluded investigators for decades.
[1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/06/250602154912.htm
Time to pick up gardening. (Score:2)
by JamesTRexx ( 675890 )
n/t
"Mornings Glory Seeds" (Score:2)
by newbie_fantod ( 514871 )
Mentioned in Abby Hoffman's Steal This Book , in the Free Drugs chapter - so there was some truth that you could get high from them.
In the sink? (Score:2)
A typical student's kitchen must be good hunting grounds for a microbiologist!
Re:In the sink? (Score:4, Interesting)
[1]A lab bench [pbs.org] in one case, but no kidding.
[1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/the-real-story-behind-the-worlds-first-antibiotic
Re: (Score:1)
Thanks. That was a great article about penicillin. It sucks that orangeutan is trying to destroy PBS.
Re: (Score:2)
PBS has some great science content. [1]Fascinating Fails [youtube.com] is a really good series about a range of discoveries. As well as an episode on penicillin (Fleming may have jazzed up the origin story) there is an interesting episode on ergot and LSD.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnNZYWyBGJ1FJ57PV_tV3-gMpA4z9XFOX
Re: (Score:2)
...And this is all going on my "to watch" list.
PBS is amazing and cutting off funding to it is a shameful act when one considers how little we spend on it.