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Psychoactive Mushrooms in Thailand: Some Aspects of Their Relationships to Human Use, Law and Art
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Recent ethnomycological investigations on the islands of Koh Samui and Koh Pha-ngan in the Gulf of Siam, Thailand (Allen & Merlin 1992) revealed that many restaurants were offering food items containing psychoactive mushrooms known as hed keekwai. In English this refers to a "mushroom which appears after water buffalo defecates." The hed keekwai mushrooms discussed in this paper are two macroscopically indistinguishable species of fungi, Psilocybe cubensis (Earle) Singer (fig. A.) and Psilocybe subcubensis Guzmán (fig. B.). The latter species was previously only known from Mexico, Central and South America, and Australia (Guzmán 1983; Allen, Merlin, and Jansen 1991).
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... Furthermore, many craftspeople and artists in third world countries also market various hand-crafted mushroom motif related items to tourists and are available in Mexico, South America, India, Thailand, and Bali. They include hand painted and factory machine printed T-shirts, dress shirts, hats, postcards, posters, key chains, cigarette lighters and pencil holders (Allen, 1991;Allen and Merlin, 1992b). Schultes andHofmann (1980 [1973]) first report the recreational use of psilocybian fungi outside of the Americas. ...
... The entheogenic fungi season occurs with the first monsoon rains in mid to late May through October and the mushrooms may continue to grow as late as December and January. Allen and Merlin (1992b) also reported that a recently enacted Thai law (December, 1989) prohibits the use, possession, and sale of "hed keequai" fungi in Thailand. This enactment of a law proscribing magic mushrooms was created due to the many dysphoric reactions by tourists who ingested mushroom omelettes and because of numerous complaints from Samui natives regarding fungi related shenanigans and problems created by intoxicated tourists. ...
I: The Symbiosis of Entheogenic fungi, Illicit Drug Use, and Tourist Influence on Third World Indigenous Peoples.
The following notes regarding indigenous third world inhabitants who cater to tourist influence through entheogenic fungi association is not a scientific report but merely a subjective report based on some personal observations of the authors.
Special attention is focused on the transition from the traditional use of the sacred mushrooms by indigenous peoples residing in México to the popular and widespread illicit use by tourists in some third world countries.
... However, restaurant waiters at many resorts can have the resort chefs prepare "hed kee kwai" omelettes, if requested. There appeared to be no new cases of emergency room treatment due to dysphoric reactions and accidental overdoses from the consumption of adulterated LSD laced-omelettes as the author had earlier reported in the late 1980s and early 1990s (see Allen & Merlin, 1992a, 1992b. ...
In the continuing studies began by Allen and Merlin in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as the recent discoveries of a 2nd bluing Psilocybe from SE Asia (Psilocybe antioquiensis), first found at the Temple of the Women (Citadel of the Women) known as Banteay Srei, situated near the hill of Phnom Dei, 25 km (15 miles) northeast of the main group of temples at Angkor Wat, and the presence of Psilocybe samuiensis is also noted now from Kampuchea (formally Cambodia). Because of these new findings, the authors of this present study were prompted into presenting an updated report concerning the known species of neurotropic fungi found in certain regions of South and Southeast A s i a , O c e a n e a and the Asian/Polynesian Pacific. Previous investigations on the Thai islands of Koh Samui, Koh Pha-Ngan, Phuket and in various locales situated in Orissa, India, Kampuchea, Vietnam, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia and Bali, and in several tourist resort locations in the Philippine Islands, indicated that three species of psilocybian fungi (Psilocybe cubensis, Psilocybe subcubensis and a complex mixture of variations of Copelandia species, consisting primarily of Copelandia cyanescens), are used for ludible purposes amongst foreign tourists vacationing in that region of the world. A single specimen of Copelandia cyanescens and spore prints obtained from 2 separate collections of Psilocybe cubensis were successfully cultivated along with Psilocybe samuiensis, Psilocybe antioquiensis, Psilocybe mexicana, as well as another species, Psilocybe pegleriana. Cultivation of several species of Psilocybe are presented along with their comparative chemical analyses of several related species (Psilocybe samuiensis, Psilocybe mexicana, Psilocybe antioquiensis, Psilocybe semilanceata, including Psilocybe weilii and Inocybe aeruginascens), and are herein described, along with SEM photography of the first above f o u r noted species. SEM (scanning electron microscopy) results of fragments f r o m collected specimens of the Malaysian collections are presented, as are SEM images of spores from several o t h e r known neurotropic species in Southeast Asia. Additional collections of both Psilocybe cubensis and Copelandia cyanescens from Phuket Island along t h e Andaman Sea off the East Coast of Thailand facing India were forwarded to México for proper identification by Guzmán. Additionally, JWA traveled to Angkor Wat in Siem Riap, Kampuchea where he again collected specimens of both Psilocybe cubensis and Copelandia cyanescens. This is the first report of Copelandia cyanescens from the temple grounds of Angkor Wat, Kampuchea. Three new unidentified Psilocybe species were also studied but have not as yet been identified. A new species was given the tentative name, Psilocybe violacea nom. prov., due to the nature of a violet spore deposit that was present on several caps of a single collection of the wild fungi. That species was discovered in 2002 by Travis Canaday wild grasses more than ten feet
Verzeichnis von Pilzen, welche in der Ethnomykologie, Ethnomedizin, Toxikologie, Pharmazie, Kunst und Literatur eine Rolle spielen, mit aktueller Nomenklatur und wichtigen Synonymen. Im Anschluss wird ein Verzeichnis von Namen mykologischer Produkte und Inhaltsstoffe erläutert. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
An enumeration of fungi which play a role in ethnomycology, ethnomedicine, toxicology, pharmacy, art and literature, with actual nomenclature and important synonyms. As an appendix, names of mycological products and metabolites are explained.
I first became aware of the presence of entheogenic mushrooms as occurring on the Island of Fiji after reading a private communication written to R. Gordon Wasson concerning an accidental ingestion of psilocybian mushrooms. The letter was written in response to Wasson’s May 13, 1957 and June 10 (International Edition) of a Life Magazine publication, “Seeking the Magic Mushroom,” in which R. Gordon Wasson wrote of his re discovery of an hallucinogenic mushroom cult in Mexico (Wasson, 1957).
In “Wild Mushrooms: A World of Wonder and Adventure,” Wasson drew attention to four historically noted specific cases of accidental ingestion of toxic mushroom. Species which were at the time, believed to have been the cause of a psilocybian nature (Magnus,
c. A. D., 1250; Glen, 1816; Verrill, 1914; Douglas, 1917). Wasson also provides us with some historical background information regarding some anecdotal details both on edibles as well as toxic species and introduces to the reader, a partial list of foreign epithets for some of these mushrooms throughout the world. His paper describes several past incidents of accidental ingestions of both toxic and early noted possible cases of psilocybian inebriations, focusing on three specific case studies, one of which is outstanding in its description of the identification and subsequent physical and mental effects caused by an accidental ingestion of a psilocybian mushroom species. This noteworthy description was sent to Wasson in a letter from a gold miner in Fiji in 1957.
Two new records from Mexico and one from Cambodia of the hallucinogenic mushroom Psilocybe antioquensis, originally known only from Cambodia are discussed. This fungus grows on soil in subtropical meadows, and it is defined by its subumbonate pileus, long pseudorhiza ovate-subrhomboid thick-walled spores, and for their pleuro- and cheilocystidia. It belongs to the section Mexicanae in genus Psilocybe.
SUMMARY The distribution of 214 species of neurotropic fungi in the world is discussed. The neurotropic fungi considered are divided in: 1) species with psilocybin's indoles, or probably with these substances, 2) species with ibotenic acid, 3) ergot fungi, and 4) species used as sacred fungi but without any reliable chemical studies. In the first group are Psilocybe (116 species), Gymnopilus (13 species), Panaeolus (13 species), Copelandia (12 species), Hypholoma (6 species), Pluteus (6 species), Inocybe (6 species), Conocybe (4 species), Panaeolina (4 species), Gerronema (2 species) and Agrocybe, Galerina and Mycena (each with one species), although in several species of this group, mainly in the Panaeoloideous fungi, there are no chemical studies. In the second group are Amanita muscaria, A. pantherina and A. regalis; in the third group is Claviceps purpurea and allies: 5 species of Claviceps and 2 of Cordyceps, and in the fourth group are bolets (two genera with 8 species), Russula (6 species), and 5 species of gasteromycetes in 3 genera. Concerning the distribution of Psilocybe, the majority of the species are in the Austral hemisphere, or close to this, mainly in the subtropical humid forests, where reside the most important ethnic groups that use the neurotropic fungi, as native peoples in Mexico and New Guinea. Mexico has the highest number of neurotropic species of fungi, with 76 species, of which 44 belong to Psilocybe (39 % of the world). More than 450 bibliographic references were considered.
Several specimens of Psilocybe and Copelandia species in Koh Samui, Thailand were recently collected for herbarium deposit and scientific study. This paper presents an ethnomycological and biochemical study of one of the species; P. samuiensis Guzmán, Bandala and Allen, a new psychoactive gill fungus reported from Thailand. Mycelium for the cultivation of P. samuiensis was obtained on 6% malt agar from the spores of a dried specimen. The growth of P. samuiensis was similar to that of P. tampanensis Guzmán and Pollock, but more rapid than the mycelium of P. semilanceata (Fr.:Sacc.) Kumm. Laboratory analyses indicates that the alkaloid content in cultured fruit bodies of P. samuiensis is of the same order of magnitude as that found in naturally occurring mushrooms of this species. HPLC analyses of both naturally occurring and in vitro cultivated fruit bodies of P. samuiensis revealed high concentrations of psilocybin and psilocin. Small amounts of baeocystin were also detected. Psilocybin levels varied from 0.23% up to 0.90%. The psilocybin content was highest in the caps. Psilocybin was also found in the cultured non-bluing mycelia of P. samuiensis and varied from 0.24% to 0.32% dry weight. The relative alkaloidal content of psilocybin, psilocin, and baeocystin found in P. samuiensis was similar to that measured in many other psychoactive fungi species, but completely different from that found in P. semilanceata.
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