Comment by Beijinger
The whole article feels a bit confusing, and I’m not really sure what they’re talking about. Are they saying the mushroom produces ergot alkaloids—the precursors to LSD? That would be interesting but not groundbreaking. Or are they claiming it actually produces LSD itself?
Fun fact: I once knew someone whose master’s thesis involved a solid-gas fluidized bed reactor—basically wheat kernels suspended in humid air, with ergot fungus growing on them. Ergotamine was then extracted from the air. The reactor was quite complex, spanning several floors, and was a gift from a now-defunct chemical giant.
iirc, it is LSD, but not LSD-25. Which is the kind usually synthesised and sold on blotters. LSD-25 was so named because it was Hoffman's twenty fifth experimental LSD variant.