Just after some thoughts on a crude extraction.

Muscimol seems to be a intriguing substance for many, yet many are hesitant due to anecdotal reports and the lack of research surrounding neurotoxicity of muscimol and more importantly its prodrug counterpart ibotenic acid.

Ibotenic acid is considered a neurotoxin however the reason for this may not quite translate in terms of human consumption.

10.1016/0091-3057(93)90020-t Study found direct injection of ibotenic acid into lab animals brains caused lesions and neuron degeneration. (One would think many substances not considered neurotoxic that are consumed and metabolized could cause a similar effects if injected into the brain).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2005.06.015 Study found muscimol on the other hand to protect brain neurons by blocking β-amyloid peptides (that cause plaque build up in the brain).

Further studies indicate ibotenic acid may not be neurotoxic at all when ingested.

Rats treated with huge IP doses of ibotenic acid showed no brain morphological changes, no neuron death. Notably with a few of the larger doses administered a select few of these rats did die but this was thought to be due to respiratory depression. Again no brain morphological changes or neuron death was observed. For rats the doses given where huge.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7093745

Also to note Muscarine is highly poisonous but luckily in A. muscaria it is only present at about 0.0003%, it can effect blood pressure and cause cardiac arrest as well as tremors, convulsions and hypothermia in much much higher doses.

There's been other studies on how ibotenic acid is metabolized in to muscimol in the liver, intestines and brain but I'll edit this post later with the links (as i can't find them). Even when ingesting raw A. muscaria, which is high in ibotenic acid death is rare and GI distress is most common, most patients are discharged the following day with no neurological deficits. This ofcourse doesn't mean all ibotenic acid is converted to muscimol nor does it mean ibotenic acid isn't neurotoxic. But it indicates perhaps on ingestion ibotenic acid may not be neurotoxic or at least neurotoxic enough to cause significant damage. There are many anecdotal reports on A. muscaria trips and these people do not report any serious neurological deficits. Humans have had a long history with muscimol and ibotenic acid, weather or not it is indeed neurotoxic or not needs further research and weather or not that neurotoxcicity is minuscule or not again needs further research. What is clear high doses of ibotenic acid will make you sick.


Regardless, if one was to consume muscimol found in A. muscaria for example there are ways to reduce and convert ibotenic acid to muscimol. Perhaps even all ibotenic acid or atleast enough for the liver to easily process the small amount of ibotenic acid left.

Which leads to thoughts on a crude extraction with the intention of converting as much ibotenic acid as possible based on available literature. This has been touched on by members before but I did have a few thoughts and questions.


https://doi.org/10.3358/shokueishi.34.153 This studied indicated sun drying was the best method in reducing ibotenic acid while maintain a high level of muscimol. However dehydrating in front of a heater reduced the ibotenic acid to a lower level than sun drying but muscimol content was lower than that of the sun dried samples. Meaning theres a trade off depending on if you are aiming for lower ibotenic acid or higher muscimol content.

In addition, the study also indicated that decarbing dried mushroom to convert ibotenic acid to muscimol in the oven was most successful between the 80 an 100 degree celsius range.

Interesting raw samples (I believe are raw not dried) were cooked at a PH of 4 for 90mins, this increased muscimol content from 1-2 ppm to 16ppm while ibotenic acid fell from 38 ppm to 8 ppm. At a PH of 10 muscimol went relatively unchanged and ibotenic acid fell very little. Concluding the more acidic the boil is the better the conversion of ibotenic acid to muscimol.


My question is could you do a crude extraction by:
-Drying the mushroom sundried or dehydrator. (Weigh dried mushroom to aid in dose later)
-Powderize the mushrooms
-Decarb in the oven at 80-100 degrees.
-Boil for 90 minutes with furmuric acid with a PH of say 2.5 ish. (all this should greatly decrease ibotenic acid and increase muscimol).
-Filter through a lab filter
-Boil down the solution and evaporate the last little bit.
-Scrape up the left over powder or resin.

At this step I thought optionally you could reconstitute the resin/ powder in warm distilled water, let cool and then add yeast. Bakers/ brewing yeast produces a GAD enzyme which converts or breaks down ibotenic acid. In addition the yeast may eat any sugars left in the crude powder/resin. Leave for a day or more???? Then evaporate it again to leave powder/ resin.


-The next step would be to defat the crude dried extract in xylene x 3 pulls. This should pick up fats and non polar molecules including the furmaric acid (hence the use of furmaric and not vinegar etc). Leaving behind muscimol and ofcourse some left over molecules that are also polar.
-One could then use ethanol to pick up the muscimol and leave behind maybe some left over gunk that wont dissolve in ethanol.
This could be pulled 3 times evaporated and one could theoretically be left with a crude muscimol extract.

Any thoughts on this?
Particularly on the use of yeast to convert what ibotenic acid may be left??

In addition i found the PKA range of ibotenic acid is listed as 1-6.94 (theoretically), muscimol is 5.78-7.46 (theoretically), another source put muscimol at 5.86 to 8.87. Is there any way to use this to ones advantage and crash it out in a crude extraction, separating ibotenic acid and muscimol?

Anyway I'm sure I've butchered the science here and i ain't no chemist but would like thoughts.