Scientists Engineered a Plant To Produce 5 Different Psychedelics At Once (sciencealert.com) 48
Plants, toads, and mushrooms "can all produce psychedelic substances," writes ScienceAlert.
"And now their powers have been combined in one plant." [S]cientists have taken the genes these organisms use to make five natural psychedelics and introduced them into a tobacco plant ( Nicotiana benthamiana), which then produced all five compounds simultaneously. As interest grows in psychedelics as potential treatments for illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD, the newly developed system could offer scientists a new way to produce these compounds for research purposes...
[P]rogress in this field remains limited, in part due to regulatory restrictions, underscoring the need for more research. This creates practical challenges for scientists. "Traditionally, the supply of psychedelics relies on natural producers, mainly plants, fungi, and the Sonoran Desert toad," the researchers write. "Harvesting these organisms for their psychoactive compounds raises ecological and ethical concerns, being increasingly threatened by habitat loss and overexploitation..."
[T]he team carefully monitored the plant's production of five psychedelic tryptamines: DMT originally from plants; psilocin and psilocybin from mushrooms; and bufotenin and 5-MeO-DMT from toads. The modified tobacco plants were found to produce all five compounds simultaneously.
The article points out that the researchers "also took it a step further." By tweaking the enzymes they were able to "produce modified versions of the compounds that do not naturally occur in plants, and which may also have therapeutic value."
"And now their powers have been combined in one plant." [S]cientists have taken the genes these organisms use to make five natural psychedelics and introduced them into a tobacco plant ( Nicotiana benthamiana), which then produced all five compounds simultaneously. As interest grows in psychedelics as potential treatments for illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD, the newly developed system could offer scientists a new way to produce these compounds for research purposes...
[P]rogress in this field remains limited, in part due to regulatory restrictions, underscoring the need for more research. This creates practical challenges for scientists. "Traditionally, the supply of psychedelics relies on natural producers, mainly plants, fungi, and the Sonoran Desert toad," the researchers write. "Harvesting these organisms for their psychoactive compounds raises ecological and ethical concerns, being increasingly threatened by habitat loss and overexploitation..."
[T]he team carefully monitored the plant's production of five psychedelic tryptamines: DMT originally from plants; psilocin and psilocybin from mushrooms; and bufotenin and 5-MeO-DMT from toads. The modified tobacco plants were found to produce all five compounds simultaneously.
The article points out that the researchers "also took it a step further." By tweaking the enzymes they were able to "produce modified versions of the compounds that do not naturally occur in plants, and which may also have therapeutic value."
Where can I get some? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: Where can I get some? (Score:3)
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If you think psychedelics make people stupid then you are ignorant.
The ignorant part is people assuming a mind on psychedelics can’t make stupid and sometimes deadly decisions. Especially an ignorant immature mind.
Yeah. You’re right. It wasn’t the mushrooms that killed the young adult they’re hosing off the front grill of an 18-wheeler. It was the psychedelic trip they were on that thought it looked like a grilled cheese sandwich wanting a fucking hug.
Now go tell his Mother the doctor is still as right as you are.
Re: Where can I get some? (Score:2)
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Asking for a friend
Hello, friend!
Sounds like a great business opportunity. (Score:2)
Re:Sounds like a great business opportunity. (Score:5, Insightful)
Tomacco [fandom.com]
Unfortunately this doesnt look like an April fools (Score:4, Interesting)
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I certainly hope so, but more likely it'll get locked up by Big Pharma and cost a zillion dollars a dose
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i think the value of this is just the knowledge adquired in the process. psilocybin is already trivial and dirt cheap to produce in mass quantites anywhere, even at home. frogs and ayahuasca not so much but just like your average farming product. there is no real need for a superplant. any hurdles are legal/political.
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And if it does end up on the streets? None of those compounds are usable for more than a few days in a row before tolerance makes them ineffective for recreational use.
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Aside from it just being a scientific research project, in practice even if they were produced in combination it's almost certain that they would be refined and purified for medicinal use.
But it would be much easier to not have to separate them and do one molecule per plant/field.
That aside your monoamine oxidase would prevent all but the psylocin from being orally active. Maaybe if the tobacco were very carefully dried and not fermented you could smoke it.
Now if they were to engineer in some harmaline/tel
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Why stop there? Most modern cuisines use tomatoes, giving you lots of possibilities. How about a adult-grade version of catsup or salsa? Or, if you prefer, tex-mex chili with a new type of kick to it?
Re:Unfortunately this doesnt look like an April fo (Score:5, Interesting)
I have no idea if people experiment with mushrooms and ayahuasca simultaneously.
As a rule, no, in part because they grow in two entirely different environments, plus ayahuasca doesn't keep well. I can't really imagine the cross-effects, but it would be weird. Psilocybin tends to be best when done alone, especially when surrounded by nature. Ayahuasca on the other hand is almost always done in groups, where it can generate hallucinations experienced by the entire group at once (which is weird to even contemplate).
Re:Unfortunately this doesnt look like an April fo (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd like to see them produce Tabernanthalog, a synthetic, non-hallucinogenic analogue of ibogaine developed to treat substance use disorders and mental health conditions. It promotes structural neural plasticity (psychoplastogen) without causing the severe cardiac risks or hallucinogenic effects associated with ibogaine.
It will take forever to get through FDA human trials, but make it part of a plant and it's a "Nutraceutical"
Don't exhale (Score:2)
Now you can smoke yourself silly.
That's what I call (Score:5, Funny)
Whackytobbacy
Tobacco plants (Score:2, Interesting)
Why all at once? (Score:3)
I realize that there are cases where some plant-sourced pharmacological effect looks like it is actually driven not by the identified 'active ingredient'; but by dozens or hundreds of assorted things, and in that case you just have to live with the complexity if you get better results with that than with purified isolates; but if you are deliberately engineering for very specific outputs why a mix of 5?
Re: (Score:1)
presumably so that dipshit nerd psychiatrists can claim it's not a medicine for the same reason they complain about weed
Re:Why all at once? (Score:5, Insightful)
We don't make drugs by giving patients some leaves to munch on. The point of the research was to develop a platform for producing any of a wide variety of common psychoactive drugs in a crop plant. They demonstrated its flexibility by producing compounds from three different kingdoms of life. If you were going to do it for real production you could engineer exactly what you wanted into their system. You might well go for more than one compound because you've got to purify them anyway so separating two or more is no big deal, and you get multiple pharmaceuticals with each harvest.
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Lol. There are some pretty good zingers buried in the literature.
I'd add a footnote to my post observing that although mainstream medicine no longer gives patients leaves to munch on, an important "medical" industry called alternative medicine, nutraceuticals, or just "supplements" frequently does. Several studies suggest these are usually shredded mixtures of generic houseplants of questionable origin.
Have a cigar (Score:3)
Come in here, dear boy, have a cigar, you're gonna go far
You're gonna fly, you're never gonna die
Re: (Score:3)
"underscoring the need for more research" (Score:2)
it underscores the need for research not to be illegal, shut the hell up if you're going to be polite about it
Tobacco? (Score:3)
Sampling their wares? (Score:4)
[P]rogress in this field remains limited
Well, it could be that progress is limited because the scientists keep sampling their wares.
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Drat. (Score:2)
I was hoping at the bottom of the article it would say that Professor Utonium accidentally added Chemical X.
\o/ (Score:2)
Make it taste like red wine/beer and chocolate too and we're good!
Smoking (Score:5, Funny)
The therapeutic value of psychedelics % (Score:2)
“You’re either on the bus or off the bus” Ken Kesey as quoted by Tom Wolfe
“One day you can be a respected assistant professor of psychology at Harvard University and the next chanting and dancing down the sidewalk in a bed sheet.”
Published April 1 (Score:2)
in Science Advances.
It's very good. Lots of detail and references.
Finally someone has found a legitimate use for AI.
Or you could ... (Score:2)
*Transit buses are an option as well.
5 genes? (Score:2)
Psycho-active pharmacological effects come from dozens of substances working together in the source of each drug. To pull just one gene from 5 difference drug sources seems like a "can this be done?" experiment, not a procedure aimed at producing a desired product.
Seriously? (Score:2)
We need new drugs for cancer, diabetes, vascular problems, liver problems, rebuilding nerves, destroying proteins and collagens that build up in eyes and blind people, etc. and we have a bunch of drug researchers who are, instead, working to supply a bunch of new (almost certainly addictive) mind-altering drugs to keep people with addictive personalities properly numb?!?
Sheer madness. Probably driven by cash - people will ALWAYS pay for a "high", and some will pay any price to any low-life vendor to live a
Re: Seriously? (Score:1)
From some recent discussions with a medical professional, I learned something that may mitigate some of your frustration: the serious research into psychoactive compounds isnâ(TM)t about enhancing recreational experiences, but rather about developing key components in biochemical therapies for real and serious things like PTSD. The part provided by the psychoactive compounds can be thought of as âoetemporary induced neuroplasticityâ, which allows brains whose patterns of myelination and pruni
Re: (Score:2)
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That's why they legalized pot... make money off the drug, and leave it up to the user to "responsibly" use it (like smoke up in your car, then go driving). I'm sure there'll be a warning on the prescription bottle "Do not drive or operate heavy machinery while taking this medication", just so people can ignore it.
Just wait until the kids start sneaking pills from their folks pill bottle and tripping balls in their treehouse.
Hook me up (Score:2)
Put that in your pipe and smoke it! (Score:1)