Stellenbosch University researchers have identified two new species of mushrooms containing numerous substances that induce powerful hallucinations and other mind-altering effects – and which, they discovered, have long been used by traditional healers in Lesotho.
At the same time, US researchers have found that these substances may actually stay in the brain for weeks, which sheds light on why users experience such vivid effects.
The Psilocybe ingeli and Psilocybe maluti mushrooms contain the compound psilocybin, known for its ability to produce hallucinations, changes in mood, and an altered sense of reality, and Cullen Taylor Clark, a citizen mycologist (a self-trained fungi expert) and co-author of a research article published recently, said traditional healers in Lesotho use these mushrooms for spiritual purposes.
“The Psilocybe maluti is the one species with which I was particularly involved, and through my research, I discovered its psychedelic use in tribal settings," he told News24.
“In South Africa, we have an insane amount of knowledge. Our traditional healers are world-renowned for their herbal use. And that’s where the Basotho use of this mushroom comes in… our first official account of psychedelic mushroom use in sub-Saharan Africa.”
He said speaking to traditional healers in Lesotho during his research, he learned that this mushroom was and still is used “in a psychedelic manner”.
“Our mushrooms specimens here in South Africa are excellent sources of psilocybin and psilocin… the most crucial thing is that our traditional healers have been using these for the same purposes for which they are being studied across the globe: for anxiety, depression, for figuring out what’s wrong with human beings on a psychoanalytic spectrum, and then finding a solution for that.”
Spore discoveries
In 2023, Talan Moult, also a self-taught citizen mycologist, discovered the first known sample of Psilocybe ingeli growing in KwaZulu-Natal pastures.
Two years previously, in 2021, Daniella Mulder found the elusive Psilocybe maluti in some cow manure on a small farm in the Free State. Intrigued by the unfamiliar mushrooms, she sent photos to Andrew Killian, a leading expert on South African fungi based in Somerset West.
The researchers turned to Breyten van der Merwe, a trained mycologist and chemical engineering postgraduate student at the University of Stellenbosch, who received the specimens for further analysis.
Van der Merwe employed DNA sequencing and analysis in the Department of Microbiology lab under the leadership of Professor Karin Jacobs, which resulted in the discovery of the two novel species of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Jacobs said it was important to incorporate traditional knowledge into scientific research.
“We possess knowledge systems regarding plant use, including indigenous uses for various medications and medicines. It's essential to involve people without formal scientific training but with expertise on these mushrooms in the research paper. This way, we can acknowledge their existence, promote open dialogue, and prevent misinterpretation by outside parties,” she said.
The main goal is to harness this finding’s potential for the betterment of South African society and economy, she added
“We want to ensure that the advantages of this discovery remain within our borders and are used to improve our communities rather than being exploited for external gain.”
Brain affected for weeks
The finding by US scientists – that the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms not only gives people a day trip but an influence the brain for weeks – may explain why taking psilocybin can result in a distorted sense of space, time and self, and may help in treating severe depression.
Dr Joshua Siegel, a co-author of the work from Washington University School of Medicine, said the research could also bring benefits to companies testing novel psychedelics and similar, but non-hallucinogenic, drugs.
“It could help to determine if a novel drug is hitting the right targets and to decide what is the optimal dose,” he told The Guardian.
Writing in the journal Nature, Siegel and a team of colleagues report how they carried out a randomised control trial with seven healthy participants who agreed to take psilocybin in the name of science.
“It was also a requirement that they had taken a psychedelic at some point in their life, partly because they were taking a high dose, equivalent to 5g of magic mushrooms, and they were getting into a big, loud, banging, claustrophobic magnet (while) on psilocybin,” said Siegel, adding the team needed to be sure participants would be able to tolerate the situation.
“So we wanted to make sure we knew that they would be able to tolerate that.”
The participants were randomly assigned either a 25mg dose of psilocybin, or a 40mg of methylphenidate – the generic form of Ritalin – but were kept in the dark about which they had been given. One to two weeks later the participants were given the drug they did not initially receive.
The participants underwent MRI scans before, during, between and after being given each drug, while after six to 12 months four of the participants returned to receive another dose of psilocybin and scans. Participants made, on average, 18 MRI visits each.
The results reveal taking psilocybin – but not methylphenidate – was associated with a loss of synchrony in what is known as the default mode network. This is an interconnected group of brain regions that is active when the mind is wandering and the brain isn’t working on a particular task.
Crucially, says Siegel, this network is involved in creating a sense of self, as well as showing links to the perception of space and time.
“The interpretation is that that disruption is what creates this very out of the ordinary experience when taking psilocybin,” he said.
While participants’ brain scans largely returned to normal the day after taking psilocybin, Siegel noted a reduction in communication between the default mode network and the anterior hippocampus, a part of the brain critical for memory and perceptions of space and time, which lasted for three weeks after the dose.
Siegel said the finding may help explain reports of an increase in flexibility in how people view themselves and their relationship to their environment after taking psilocybin. This plasticity is thought to underpin psychedelic-based interventions for conditions such as treatment-resistant depression by making the brain more open to therapy.
Siegel added while the research process was demanding, there seemed to be plenty of volunteers for studies into psychedelics. “We didn’t have trouble finding participants,” he said.
Study 1 details
A description of two novel Psilocybe species from southern Africa and some notes on African traditional hallucinogenic mushroom use
B. van der Merwe, A. Rockefeller, K. Jacobs et al.
Published in Mycologia on 2 July 2024
Abstract
Two new Psilocybe species (Hymenogastraceae), P. ingeli and P. maluti, are described from southern Africa. Morphology and phylogeny were used to separate the two novel fungi from their closest relatives in the genus. Psilocybe ingeli was found fruiting on bovine manure–enriched grasslands in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa and differs from its closest relative P. keralensis and others in the internal transcribed spacer ITS1-5.8S-ITS2, partial 28S nuc rDNA, and translation elongation factor 1-alpha regions, distribution, and having larger basidiospores. Similarly, P. maluti was collected from the Free State Province of South Africa and observed in the Kingdom of Lesotho, growing on bovine manure. A secotioid pileus, geographic distribution, and differences in the same DNA regions distinguish P. maluti from its closest relative P. chuxiongensis. Furthermore, the spore dispersal and traditional, spiritualistic use of P. maluti are discussed here.
Study 2 details
Psilocybin desynchronises the human brain
Joshua Siegel, Subha Subramanian, Demetrius Perry et al.
Published in Nature on 17 July 2024
Abstract
A single dose of psilocybin, a psychedelic that acutely causes distortions of space–time perception and ego dissolution, produces rapid and persistent therapeutic effects in human clinical trials. In animal models, psilocybin induces neuroplasticity in cortex and hippocampus. It remains unclear how human brain network changes relate to subjective and lasting effects of psychedelics. Here we tracked individual-specific brain changes with longitudinal precision functional mapping (roughly 18 magnetic resonance imaging visits per participant). Healthy adults were tracked before, during and for three weeks after high-dose psilocybin (25 mg) and methylphenidate (40 mg), and brought back for an additional psilocybin dose six–12 months later. Psilocybin massively disrupted functional connectivity (FC) in cortex and subcortex, acutely causing more than threefold greater change than methylphenidate. These FC changes were driven by brain desynchronisation across spatial scales (areal, global), which dissolved network distinctions by reducing correlations within and anticorrelations between networks. Psilocybin-driven FC changes were strongest in the default mode network, which is connected to the anterior hippocampus and is thought to create our sense of space, time and self. Individual differences in FC changes were strongly linked to the subjective psychedelic experience. Performing a perceptual task reduced psilocybin-driven FC changes. Psilocybin caused persistent decrease in FC between the anterior hippocampus and default mode network, lasting for weeks. Persistent reduction of hippocampal-default mode network connectivity may represent a neuroanatomical and mechanistic correlate of the proplasticity and therapeutic effects of psychedelics.
The Guardian article – Psilocybin in magic mushrooms can influence brain for weeks, study finds (Open access)
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