Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The fruiting body, or mushroom, is an irregular brain-shaped cap, dark brown in colour, that can reach 10 centimetres (4 inches) high and 15 cm (6 in) wide, perched on a stout white stipe up to 6 cm (2 + 1 ⁄ 2 in) high.
Muscimol, a psychoactive compound derived from the ibotenic acid found in certain mushrooms, particularly Amanita muscaria, has garnered significant interest due to its unique effects on the nervous system. Muscimol binds to GABA receptors in the brain, resulting in its sedative and hallucinogenic properties.
Cross section of fruiting body, showing pigment under skin and free gills. A large, conspicuous mushroom, Amanita muscaria is generally common and numerous where it grows, and is often found in groups with basidiocarps in all stages of development. Fly agaric fruiting bodies emerge from the soil looking like white eggs.
Muscarine has been found in harmless trace amounts in Boletus, Hygrocybe, Lactarius and Russula. Trace concentrations of muscarine are also found in Amanita muscaria, though the pharmacologically more relevant compound from this mushroom is the Z-drug-like alkaloid muscimol.
The genus Amanita was first published with its current meaning by Christian Hendrik Persoon in 1797. [1] Under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, Persoon's concept of Amanita, with Amanita muscaria (L.) Pers. as the type species, has been officially conserved against the older Amanita Boehm (1760), which is considered a synonym of Agaricus L. [2]
The compound is an alkaloid found in some species of mushrooms, plants, and toads. It is also found naturally in the human body in small amounts. [7] [8] [9] Bufotenin, for instance derived from the trees Anadenanthera colubrina and Anadenanthera peregrina, appears to have a long history of entheogenic use in South America. [1] [5] [10] [11]
In the insect brain, the peduncles of the mushroom bodies extend through the midbrain. They are mainly composed of the long, densely packed nerve fibres of the Kenyon cells, the intrinsic neurons of the mushroom bodies. These cells have been found in the mushroom bodies of all species that have been investigated, though their number varies.
Amanita pantherina, also known as the panther cap, false blusher, and the panther amanita [1] due to its similarity to the true blusher (Amanita rubescens), is a species of fungus found in Eurasia with poisonous and psychoactive properties.