Hello All,

I've gotten permission to work on a personal project from my supervisor and I'm interested in researching some local Lichen. Unfortunately I'll only have time to work on a single species and not sure I'll get the chance again. I only have access NMR (proton, carbon, dept, cosy), IR, and GCMS at the moment. Any species I should be on the lookout for around Bay Area? At this point I might just pick something random in the Collema genus if I can find any. I'll be posting any research progress here over the next few months hopefully something will come out of it. Kind of a shot in the dark but should be fun.

Also interested in traditional asian or other cultural medicines, could do something from that sector that instead. Any leads are appreciated. As long as it's not explicitly illegal or widely published to contain something illegal (ie. Acacias and well known genus/species). If I happen to come across say some simple tryptamines or analogs by "chance" that's not an issue.

Best

Hello!

Sounds like an exciting project!

Why are you focusing on lichens in particular? What are trying to look for, and how do you think this information will be useful? Have you researched what compounds are usually present in the genus you are interested in, and are you interested in finding a particular type of compound?

We had a couple of discussions in the past about it (1, 2). Sounds interesting to read about, though I never felt tempted to actually bioassay something like that, too many unknown compounds with unknown pharmacology/toxicity.

It is excellent to have access to analytical instruments, and you should make use of it if you can. As for what to test, if not lichens, I think it depends on your personal interest and what is around you. Me personally, i´d try and find plants that could have DMT or such compounds. This might give some leads on what is around you.

Please do share any developments. We can help out with further analysis if something interesting turns out.

By the way, out of curiosity, what frequency is the NMR?

Good luck!

Hello Endlessness,

Lichens interest me because they are abundant in nature and could possibly be easily harvested by the laymen. Also they have historically received far less inquisitive attention than plants and fungi, despite often being producers of interesting secondary metabolites. I think there's allot of room for discovery in the Lichen kingdom.

I haven't done any research myself on Lichen other than recreational reading of published literature. But I have seen one publication that surveyed a couple species in the Collema genus and found them to contain bufotenine and norbufotenine. This leads me to believe the presence of the proper metabolic pathways for the production of other tryptamines may exist within the genus.

I'd be pretty happy if I stumbled upon some interesting tryptamines! I'm certainly not stuck on Lichen, and new plant sources would be great as well. Hopefully something novel or an unconfirmed but a possible carrier than needs attention. I figured if someone had information on such a thing they might be hanging around here, and might just need access to analytical resources.

This may lead nowhere as I'm limited to a single species, at least for the moment. Hopefully something comes out of it.

Great thank you for the links I will read them over! Any leads are highly appreciated! The NMR is 300 MHz, it's a Bruker Fourier.

Any Updates from this Project?

Would love if we finally get something that does not have the Phalaris Problems - Lichens are quite alien creatures so maybe would just fit perfectly