Scientists Gene Hacked a Plant So It Grows Five Types of Psychoactive Drugs at Once

Uncategorized
Noel Joshua Hadley

From the psilocybin in magic mushrooms to dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in toads to the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in marijuana, a wide variety of organisms can produce psychoactive substances, despite belonging to entirely different kingdoms.

But what if a plant were to be able to bridge those gaps and produce several different psychedelic compounds at once?

In a trippy experiment, detailed in a study published this week in the journal Science Advances, a team led by researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, have genetically engineered super tobacco plants that can produce five natural psychedelics — psilocin and psilocybin found in magic mushrooms, DMT from the ayahuasca plant, and bufotenin and 5-methoxy-DMT, which is secreted by the Sonoran Desert toad — at once.

Besides possibly making for one hell of a trip if ingested — as far as we can tell, nobody has tried to eat the leaves of one of these plants yet — the achievement could lay the groundwork for more sustainable and scalable production of these psychoactive compounds, called psychedelic indolethylamines.

The goal isn’t to get high for recreational purposes, as co-lead and Weizmann Institute postdoctoral researcher Paula Berman told 404 Media, instead emphasizing how these substances could have “therapeutic potential.” Previous research has shown that psilocybin therapy, for instance, could be used to treat mental health conditions such as depression.

It’s a wild foray into the world of psychedelics, demonstrating how far modern genetic research has come.

“This combination of five psychedelics — I don’t think anyone has ever tried something like it,” senior author and Weizmann Institute of Science researcher Asaph Aharoni told 404 Media.

The research also highlights the need for a more sustainable way to source these compounds. As interest for these psychoactive substances grows for both recreational and therapeutic use, the organisms that produce them are often being over-harvested and poached. Conventional methods to synthesize them can also be complex and laborious.

For their study, the researchers inserted the active genes of five tryptamines, a class of hallucinogens, into the leaves of a tobacco plant.

“While the concentrations of DMT 4 and 5-MeO-DMT 10 achieved in this study are lower than those in natural producers, our platform offers a cruelty-free, ecological alternative to harvesting indolethylamines from vulnerable sources,” the paper reads.

“The Sonoran Desert toad is increasingly threatened by habitat loss, poaching, and overcollection, raising serious conservation concerns,” they added. “Similarly, the slow growing P. viridis faces growing pressure in its native habitats due to land loss and the rising demand for Ayahuasca tourism.”

The team intentionally stopped short from having the plants pass on these substances to their offspring since it was a proof of concept. Besides, the danger of having seeds that can produce all five tryptamines land into the wrong hands could be considerable.

“In one leaf, we get five different psychedelics from three different kingdoms,” Aharoni told 404 Media. “But since it is not inherited, it will stay in the leaves and will not go through to seeds, flowering, pollination, and to the next generation.”

Besides establishing the groundwork for a far more efficient production of these substances, the team was interested in why these plants produce them in the first place, something that remains a topic of scientific debate.

For now, chances are, their “trippy tobacco,” as Science described it, likely won’t be a hit at the next shamanic ritual. For one, the amounts the plants produced are very low compared to the source organisms.

“That has some cool novelty, but it doesn’t have a lot of practicality,” Miami University bioengineer Andrew Jones, who was not involved in the study but called it “exciting work,” told the publication. “There are a few psychonauts out there that will get a kick out of it.”

More on tripping: People Are Taking Massive Doses of Psychedelic Drugs and Using AI as a Tripsitter

The post Scientists Gene Hacked a Plant So It Grows Five Types of Psychoactive Drugs at Once appeared first on Futurism.

Sacred Scripture

Acts 28 ends abruptly and that’s never sat right with me. With the inclusion of Acts 29, we are given a nice well-rounded finale to Luke’s biography and some interesting closure to Pontius Pilate as well. Join me as I continue my Lost Books of the Bible series on YouTube, reading from Acts 29, 3 Corinthians, and the Phoenix of Tertullian.

You can read along with these texts and more on our Sacred Scripture page. 

IN the summer of 2019, I was seated in the wine cellar of a walled Medieval town high above the Dordogne Valley of France, not far from Sarlat-la-Canéda, making phone calls, writing reports. I have given this story in other places and it appears as though you’re about to hear it again. Rob Skiba is a name you that you might be familiar with. Though he had made a name for himself as a Nephilim researcher, more recently Rob had taken a dive into the deep end of the pool via flat earth research. The recorded interviews I conducted between he and Rick Hummer, a fellow flat earth investigator and close friend of his, was published while still occupying that very wine cellar. Read all about it. Chicago Is Not a Mirage.

Word quickly spread. Within a few short weeks, dozens of flat earth researchers began accepting my invite for a private interview, if not a series of interviews. From a 17th-century tower built by King Louis XIV, and with a stunning view of the Alps, I sat down with Robbie Davidson, founder of the Flat Earth International Conferences, conducting multiple sessions. While staying in Dumfries, Scotland, David Weiss agreed to take part in the interviews, as did Bob Knodel of Globebusters. There were others. But when I asked the interviewees to discuss the moments that shaped their lives, among the many PSYOPs, false flag attacks, and hoaxes that were discussed, only these men committed commentary to the false 9/11 narrative.

The resulting recordings ballooned into The Unexpected Cosmology, a book which became a website and was even intended as an anthology. And of course, the following discourse was originally a chapter. It was Walt Disney who stated, “Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.” Those sentiments remain applicable here as well. American Sensationalism: The 9/11 Interviews was always intended to be expanded upon with the inclusion of new researchers. So I’m sorry to say the project became stagnant during the Covid-19 psychodrama. I took a break to tackle other projects. We lost Rob Skiba. Rob offered hours of private conversation regarding his life but we never got around to the big one. 9/11. It was in the cards. Sadly, Bob Knodel died soon afterwards. Voices are being squeezed from an entire generation. Gnosis passes with them.

In the aftermath, the FE community became fractured. People began going their separate ways. Robbie Davidson, among a noted few others who were interviewed for the project, got up and left the movement altogether. It is not my intent to erase his or the contributions of others if only brief. They came, they went, their testimonies remain.

The original vision may have hit roadblocks but it is not forgotten. I expanded this paper a few years later to include testimony from author Pauly Hart, a dear friend of mine. I had wanted to continue that trend every year thereafter but you know how it goes. For the 25th anniversary of the attack I have redirected my efforts to its first large scale expansion, including Andrew Hoy and Darrin Geisinger into the mix. Perhaps others will lend their experiences to the recorder in time.

The following is their report.

Read the 9/11 Interviews

Watch the Interviews