Anyone who thinks botany ca n’t be nerveless ought to have it off about a recently discoveredlichenthat researchers consider could curb two of the strongest hallucinogenic compound bed to humanity , making it a candidate for the trippiest scientific growing of late year .
reveal in the Ecuadorian Amazon , the mintage appears to contain both psilocin – which is excellently found inmagic mushrooms – and a variant ofDMT , the participating ingredient in the sanctified Amazonian brew know asayahuasca , which has been used in shamanic ritual for century .
Though the Amazon is well known for itshallucinogenic plants , rumor about a psychedelic lichen were for many years thought to be nothing more than local legend . Unlike plant life , lichens are composite organisms that arise from alga or a type of bacteria called cyanobacteria , which shape symbiotic relationships with fungus kingdom .
The first clues as to the being of this legendary lichen come when an ethnobotanical expedition from Harvard set out to try and locate it in 1981 , and returned with a antecedently unknown mintage that seemed to match the description give by fellow member of the Waorani tribe , who claimed to use the lichen in their rituals .
The lichen Dictyonema huaorani was establish in the Ecuadorian Amazon . Schmull et al / The Bryologist
The specimen – namedDictyonema huaoraniin honor of the Waorani – then sit in entrepot for more than three decades , until a team of investigator decide to dissect its deoxyribonucleic acid in hunt of clue as to which compound it create . Publishing their findings in the journalThe Bryologist , the subject field writer reveal that the lichen contains cistron that are likely to be involved in the synthesis of both psilocin and DMT , making it an all - in - one top-notch psychodelic drug .
However , because they only had a very low amount of rather old textile to turn with , they assert that their results are only “ tentative ” , and that a more thorough psychoanalysis ofDictyonema huaoraniwill be needed in parliamentary law to support the presence of these compounds .
give that both psilocin and DMT are currently draw the attention of neuroscientists for their manifest ability totreat neurological disorders , the existence of a lichen containing both of these substance – if confirmed – could be hugely valuable to both Western scientist and Amazonian healers alike .
