Since rejoining the psilocybin movement six years ago, I have published many online posts, mostly on my work in psychedelics: PBN = Psilocybin Baeocystin Norbaeocystin
However, from late 1967 to early 2020 when I rejoined the psychedelic space, I had not participated in any activities involving magic mushrooms for over fifty years. But during the past six years, I have been trying to start a PBN Naturals Worldwide Consortium. It is to afford completely natural fungal mycelial products at reasonable prices to fellow humans who suffer the illnesses and side effects caused by synthetic drugs. Our Consortium will be for minimal profits because a nonprofit has too many restrictions for me to handle by myself.
After I completed my teaching assistantship, my advisor and mentor, Dr. Ara G. Paul, assigned me the Psilocybe project and secured a four-year Lilly Foundation fellowship for me. This allowed me to devote nearly all my time to research. I then spent more than a year analyzing tryptamines and indoles related to psilocybin and psilocin using thin-layer chromatography (TLC). Today, high-performance TLC (HPTLC) is more common in America, but the basic operating principle is the same. A key feature of both TLC and HPTLC is the Rf value, which measures how far compounds in a mixture travel across the adsorbent on a plate as solvents carry them upward by capillary action. Among the 36 tryptamines and indoles I studied, psilocybin had the lowest Rf value in numerous solvent systems. After I had begun analyzing extracts of Psilocybe species, I noticed Ps. baeocystis extracts consistently showed a smudgy unclean psilocybin band. So, I did 2-demensional runs on them. Which showed more than three extra spots next to psilocybin. That has led me to the discovery of two new psilocybin analogs, that I named baeocystin (B) and norbaeocystin (B). I suspect another analog is aeruginascin but I didn’t pursue it because it would have taken me another 6 months to finish my PhD.
B and N are the closest analogs simultaneously to psilocybin and serotonin. Since 4- hydroxytryptamine (dephosphorylated N) is the un-identical twin of 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin), an important hormone and neurotransmitter present throughout our body, why has no one studied any of them, especially the twin? I suspect one or both of the following two issues play a role:
- The vicious cycle (VC) is a common element caused by synthetic drug therapy which I have been describing for years. It is a goldmine for drug makers and their interdependent associates. While they perpetually get filthy rich the rest of humanity get poorer and sicker.
I doubt I would have discovered the psilocybin analogs if I had not used the simple TLC for my analyses. Just consider the fact that it has been almost 60 years since I got my PhD from Michigan and published my work, no one has succeeded in growing Ps. baeocystis or any other psychedelic mushroom and produced mycelia that contained natural psilocybin and/or analog(s). Considering I am never interested in making money by exploiting or restricting others, I’ve found it unusual to see so many ‘goldrush’ entrepreneurs after I rejoined the psychedelic movement only about six years ago. One particular group was first a non-profit organization getting free advice from well-known experts, but then went for-profit by themselves and got most of the moneyed investors. They are all sticking to synthetic psychedelics and seem unaware of the VC. If allowed to continue, Americans will continue to suffer from the toxic side effects and new disease inherent in the VC. The only way to resolve this situation is to bypass the VC. That is exactly what our Consortium plans to do.