Psilocybe argentipes
Encyclopedia
Psilocybe argentipes is a species of fungus
in the Strophariaceae
family of mushroom
s. It is endemic to Japan
. Fruit bodies
grow on the ground in woody debris, and typically stand 6 to 8 cm (2.4 to 3.1 in) tall with caps
that are 2.5 to 5 cm (0.984251968503937 to 2 in) in diameter. They are chestnut
brown (or lighter brown if dry), and stain blue if bruised or handled. The species is a psychoactive
mushroom, and contains the hallucinogenic compounds psilocybin
and psilocin
. There have been reports of poisoning caused by the accidental consumption of this mushroom. It has been used in research, specifically, to test the effects of its consumption of marble-burying in mice, an animal model
of obsessive-compulsive disorder
.
; subsequent investigations revealed it was a unique species, and in 1976 Yokoyama published it under the name P. argentipes. Known as Hikageshibiretake ("shadow numbness mushroom") in Japanese, its specific epithet refers to the "silvery patches of fibrils adorning the stem."
that are 2.5 to 5 cm (0.984251968503937 to 2 in) in diameter, initially conic or bell-shaped but expanding to become convex, then finally somewhat flattened in maturity. A well-defined umbo
(a rounded elevation resembling a nipple) is typically present. The cap color is chestnut
brown when wet, but the species is hygrophanous
, and when dried, changes color to become a lighter shade of brown. As is characteristic of psilocybin-containing species, P. argentipes stains blue where it has been bruised or injured. The cap margins of young specimens are usually curved inwards, and have irregular, wavy edges; young specimens may also have fragments of the partial veil
hanging off the margin. The whitish partial veil is similar to those of the genus Cortinarius
—cobwebby, and made of silky fibrils. When the cap expands and the veil rips, the fibrils remains briefly as an annular zone on the stem, before fading into nothing.
The gills have an adnate
or adnexed attachment to the stem, which later becomes seceding (pulled away from the stem). The gills are a grayish-orange color initially, later turning purple-brown with whitish edges. The stem
is 6 to 8 cm (2.4 to 3.1 in) long and 0.2 to 0.4 cm (0.078740157480315 to 0.15748031496063 in) thick, and has roughly the same width throughout its length, except for a widening at the base due to the whitish rhizomorphs present. Initially a whitish color, it matures to become yellowish, then brown or reddish-brown. It may have white veil fragments attached to the lower two-thirds of its length.
, the spores
are a dark purple-brown color. Viewed microscopically, spores are roughly ellipsoid in shape, with dimensions of 6.5–7.5 by 9.5 by 3.3–4.4 µm
. The spore-bearing cells, the basidia, are four-spored. P. argentipes does not contain pleurocystidia (cystidia located on the face of a gill); the cheilocystidia (cystidia located on the gill edge) are 13–25 by 5–8 µm.
, Osaka
, Shiga, Saitama
, Niigata
, and Miyagi
), although mycologist Paul Stamets
surmises it may be distributed out of Japan as well.
and psilocin
have been confirmed by using thin-layer chromatography and column chromatography
as the analytical
methods. The concentration of psilocybin varied considerably depending on the locations the specimens were collected; on the basis of dry weights
of the specimens, the values were from 0.003% to 0.55%. The same report also established the presence of the fungal steroid
s ergosterol
and ergosterol peroxide
.
from the period 1980–84, anxiety
and panic
were common to all poisoning victims, even if the anxiety was preceded by an initial period of euphoria
. In a later analysis of 10 cases of poisoning by this species, Musha and colleagues noted that poisoning "produced alterations of consciousness but also disturbances of consciousness such as strong drowsiness, short-term sleeping, fluctuation of vigilance and stuporous state with amnesia."
The effects of P. argentipes consumption on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have been tested using marble-burying behavior in mice, a commonly used animal model of OCD. When presented with an aversive stimulus
such as shocks, puffs of air, or noxious food, rodents will exhibit a behavior called "defensive burying", where they will displace bedding material with their nose and forepaws; the marble-burying test takes advantage of this behavior by measuring how many glass marbles a rodent will bury under the effect of different stimuli. In the experiments, when mice consumed P. argentipes, it significantly inhibited their marble-burying behavior, but, unlike an equivalent dose of purified psilocybin, did not affect locomotor activity
. Further, the mushroom was more effective than purified psilocybin in inhibiting the behavior, and lower doses were required. Based on these results, the authors suggest that the mushroom has the potential "to be efficient in clinical obsessive-compulsive disorder therapy".
Fungus
A fungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds , as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from plants, animals, and bacteria...
in the Strophariaceae
Strophariaceae
The Strophariaceae are a family of fungi in the order Agaricales. The family contains 18 genera and 1316 species. The species of Strophariaceae have a red-brown to dark brown spore print, while the spores themselves are smooth and have an apical germ pore. These agarics are also characterized by...
family of mushroom
Mushroom
A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...
s. It is endemic to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Fruit bodies
Basidiocarp
In fungi, a basidiocarp, basidiome or basidioma , is the sporocarp of a basidiomycete, the multicellular structure on which the spore-producing hymenium is borne. Basidiocarps are characteristic of the hymenomycetes; rusts and smuts do not produce such structures...
grow on the ground in woody debris, and typically stand 6 to 8 cm (2.4 to 3.1 in) tall with caps
Pileus (mycology)
The pileus is the technical name for the cap, or cap-like part, of a basidiocarp or ascocarp that supports a spore-bearing surface, the hymenium. The hymenium may consist of lamellae, tubes, or teeth, on the underside of the pileus...
that are 2.5 to 5 cm (0.984251968503937 to 2 in) in diameter. They are chestnut
Chestnut (color)
Chestnut, also known as Indian red, is a color, a medium brownish shade of red, and is named after the nut of the chestnut tree.As Indian red, it is named after the red laterite soil found in India. It is thus an earth tone as well as a red. It is composed of naturally occurring iron oxides. Other...
brown (or lighter brown if dry), and stain blue if bruised or handled. The species is a psychoactive
Psilocybin mushroom
Psilocybin mushrooms are fungi that contain the psychoactive compounds psilocybin and psilocin. There are multiple colloquial terms for psilocybin mushrooms, the most common being shrooms or magic mushrooms....
mushroom, and contains the hallucinogenic compounds psilocybin
Psilocybin
Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic prodrug, with mind-altering effects similar to those of LSD and mescaline, after it is converted to psilocin. The effects can include altered thinking processes, perceptual distortions, an altered sense of time, and spiritual experiences, as well as...
and psilocin
Psilocin
Psilocin , an aromatic compound, sometimes also spelled psilocine, psilocyn, or psilotsin, is a psychedelic mushroom alkaloid. It is found in most psychedelic mushrooms together with its phosphorylated counterpart psilocybin...
. There have been reports of poisoning caused by the accidental consumption of this mushroom. It has been used in research, specifically, to test the effects of its consumption of marble-burying in mice, an animal model
Animal model
An animal model is a living, non-human animal used during the research and investigation of human disease, for the purpose of better understanding the disease without the added risk of causing harm to an actual human being during the process...
of obsessive-compulsive disorder
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Obsessive–compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety, or by a combination of such obsessions and compulsions...
.
History
The species was first identified in 1973 by Japanese scientist T. Yokoyama, who believed it to be P. subcaerulipesPsilocybe subcaerulipes
Psilocybe subcaerulipes is a species of mushroom in the Strophariaceae family. The mushroom contains the medicinal compound psilocybin....
; subsequent investigations revealed it was a unique species, and in 1976 Yokoyama published it under the name P. argentipes. Known as Hikageshibiretake ("shadow numbness mushroom") in Japanese, its specific epithet refers to the "silvery patches of fibrils adorning the stem."
Description
The fruit bodies of Psilocybe argentipes have capsPileus (mycology)
The pileus is the technical name for the cap, or cap-like part, of a basidiocarp or ascocarp that supports a spore-bearing surface, the hymenium. The hymenium may consist of lamellae, tubes, or teeth, on the underside of the pileus...
that are 2.5 to 5 cm (0.984251968503937 to 2 in) in diameter, initially conic or bell-shaped but expanding to become convex, then finally somewhat flattened in maturity. A well-defined umbo
Umbo (mycology)
thumb|right|[[Cantharellula umbonata]] has an umbo.thumb|right|The cap of [[Psilocybe makarorae]] is acutely papillate.An umbo is a raised area in the center of a mushroom cap. Caps that possess this feature are called umbonate. Umbos that are sharply pointed are called acute, while those that are...
(a rounded elevation resembling a nipple) is typically present. The cap color is chestnut
Chestnut (color)
Chestnut, also known as Indian red, is a color, a medium brownish shade of red, and is named after the nut of the chestnut tree.As Indian red, it is named after the red laterite soil found in India. It is thus an earth tone as well as a red. It is composed of naturally occurring iron oxides. Other...
brown when wet, but the species is hygrophanous
Hygrophanous
The adjective hygrophanous refers to the color change of mushroom tissue as it loses or absorbs water, which causes the pileipellis to become more transparent when wet and opaque when dry....
, and when dried, changes color to become a lighter shade of brown. As is characteristic of psilocybin-containing species, P. argentipes stains blue where it has been bruised or injured. The cap margins of young specimens are usually curved inwards, and have irregular, wavy edges; young specimens may also have fragments of the partial veil
Partial veil
thumb|150px|right|Developmental stages of [[Agaricus campestris]] showing the role and evolution of a partial veilPartial veil is a mycological term used to describe a temporary structure of tissue found on the fruiting bodies of some basidiomycete fungi, typically agarics...
hanging off the margin. The whitish partial veil is similar to those of the genus Cortinarius
Cortinarius
Cortinarius is a genus of mushrooms. It is suspected to be the largest genus of agarics, containing over 2000 different species and found worldwide. A common feature among all species in the genus Cortinarius is that young specimens have a cortina between the cap and the stem, hence the name,...
—cobwebby, and made of silky fibrils. When the cap expands and the veil rips, the fibrils remains briefly as an annular zone on the stem, before fading into nothing.
The gills have an adnate
Adnation
Adnation in plants is the "union of unlike parts; organically united or fused with another dissimilar part, e.g. an ovary to a calyx tube, or stamens to petals". This is in contrast to connation, the fusion of similar organs....
or adnexed attachment to the stem, which later becomes seceding (pulled away from the stem). The gills are a grayish-orange color initially, later turning purple-brown with whitish edges. The stem
Stipe (mycology)
thumb|150px|right|Diagram of a [[basidiomycete]] stipe with an [[annulus |annulus]] and [[volva |volva]]In mycology a stipe refers to the stem or stalk-like feature supporting the cap of a mushroom. Like all tissues of the mushroom other than the hymenium, the stipe is composed of sterile hyphal...
is 6 to 8 cm (2.4 to 3.1 in) long and 0.2 to 0.4 cm (0.078740157480315 to 0.15748031496063 in) thick, and has roughly the same width throughout its length, except for a widening at the base due to the whitish rhizomorphs present. Initially a whitish color, it matures to become yellowish, then brown or reddish-brown. It may have white veil fragments attached to the lower two-thirds of its length.
Microscopic features
Viewed in deposit, as with a spore printSpore print
thumb|300px|right|Making a spore print of the mushroom Volvariella volvacea shown in composite: mushroom cap laid on white and dark paper; cap removed after 24 hours showing pinkish-tan spore print...
, the spores
Basidiospore
A basidiospore is a reproductive spore produced by Basidiomycete fungi. Basidiospores typically each contain one haploid nucleus that is the product of meiosis, and they are produced by specialized fungal cells called basidia. In grills under a cap of one common species in the phylum of...
are a dark purple-brown color. Viewed microscopically, spores are roughly ellipsoid in shape, with dimensions of 6.5–7.5 by 9.5 by 3.3–4.4 µm
Micrometre
A micrometer , is by definition 1×10-6 of a meter .In plain English, it means one-millionth of a meter . Its unit symbol in the International System of Units is μm...
. The spore-bearing cells, the basidia, are four-spored. P. argentipes does not contain pleurocystidia (cystidia located on the face of a gill); the cheilocystidia (cystidia located on the gill edge) are 13–25 by 5–8 µm.
Habitat and distribution
This species grows in groups, or clustered together on the ground on soil that is rich in woody debris. It has been noted to grow near the tree species Cryptomeria japonica (known locally as Sugi), Quercus glauca (Japanese Blue Oak), and Pinus taeda (Loblolly Pine). It has only been found in Japan (specifically, in KyotoKyoto
is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
, Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
, Shiga, Saitama
Saitama Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of the island of Honshu. The capital is the city of Saitama.This prefecture is part of the Greater Tokyo Area, and most of Saitama's cities can be described as suburbs of Tokyo, to which a large amount of residents commute each day.- History...
, Niigata
Niigata Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Honshū on the coast of the Sea of Japan. The capital is the city of Niigata. The name "Niigata" literally means "new lagoon".- History :...
, and Miyagi
Miyagi Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku Region on Honshu island. The capital is Sendai.- History :Miyagi Prefecture was formerly part of the province of Mutsu. Mutsu Province, on northern Honshu, was one of the last provinces to be formed as land was taken from the indigenous Emishi, and became the...
), although mycologist Paul Stamets
Paul Stamets
Paul E. Stamets is an American mycologist, author, and advocate of bioremediation and medicinal mushrooms.- Research and advocacy :...
surmises it may be distributed out of Japan as well.
Bioactive compounds
The presence of the hallucinogenic compounds psilocybinPsilocybin
Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic prodrug, with mind-altering effects similar to those of LSD and mescaline, after it is converted to psilocin. The effects can include altered thinking processes, perceptual distortions, an altered sense of time, and spiritual experiences, as well as...
and psilocin
Psilocin
Psilocin , an aromatic compound, sometimes also spelled psilocine, psilocyn, or psilotsin, is a psychedelic mushroom alkaloid. It is found in most psychedelic mushrooms together with its phosphorylated counterpart psilocybin...
have been confirmed by using thin-layer chromatography and column chromatography
Column chromatography
Column chromatography in chemistry is a method used to purify individual chemical compounds from mixtures of compounds. It is often used for preparative applications on scales from micrograms up to kilograms.The main advantage of column chromatography is the relatively low cost and disposability...
as the analytical
Analytical chemistry
Analytical chemistry is the study of the separation, identification, and quantification of the chemical components of natural and artificial materials. Qualitative analysis gives an indication of the identity of the chemical species in the sample and quantitative analysis determines the amount of...
methods. The concentration of psilocybin varied considerably depending on the locations the specimens were collected; on the basis of dry weights
Dry matter
The dry matter is a measurement of the mass of something when completely dried.The dry matter of plant and animal material would be its solids, i.e. all its constituents excluding water. The dry matter of food would include carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants...
of the specimens, the values were from 0.003% to 0.55%. The same report also established the presence of the fungal steroid
Steroid
A steroid is a type of organic compound that contains a characteristic arrangement of four cycloalkane rings that are joined to each other. Examples of steroids include the dietary fat cholesterol, the sex hormones estradiol and testosterone, and the anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone.The core...
s ergosterol
Ergosterol
Ergosterol is a sterol found in fungi, and named for ergot, a common name for the members of the fungal genus Claviceps from which ergosterol was first isolated. Ergosterol does not occur in plant or animal cells...
and ergosterol peroxide
Ergosterol peroxide
Ergosterol peroxide is a steroid derivative. It has been isolated from a variety of fungi, yeast, lichens and sponges, and has been reported to exhibit immunosuppressive, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antitumor activities....
.
Effects of consumption
There have been several Japanese reports of intoxication following accidental consumption of this species. In a report of five cases of unintentional ingestion in Miyagi PrefectureMiyagi Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku Region on Honshu island. The capital is Sendai.- History :Miyagi Prefecture was formerly part of the province of Mutsu. Mutsu Province, on northern Honshu, was one of the last provinces to be formed as land was taken from the indigenous Emishi, and became the...
from the period 1980–84, anxiety
Anxiety
Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...
and panic
Panic
Panic is a sudden sensation of fear which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight-or-flight reaction...
were common to all poisoning victims, even if the anxiety was preceded by an initial period of euphoria
Euphoria
Euphoria is an emotional and mental state defined as a sense of great elation and well being.Euphoria may also refer to:* Euphoria , a genus of scarab beetles* Euphoria, a genus name previously used for the longan and other trees...
. In a later analysis of 10 cases of poisoning by this species, Musha and colleagues noted that poisoning "produced alterations of consciousness but also disturbances of consciousness such as strong drowsiness, short-term sleeping, fluctuation of vigilance and stuporous state with amnesia."
The effects of P. argentipes consumption on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have been tested using marble-burying behavior in mice, a commonly used animal model of OCD. When presented with an aversive stimulus
Stimulus (physiology)
In physiology, a stimulus is a detectable change in the internal or external environment. The ability of an organism or organ to respond to external stimuli is called sensitivity....
such as shocks, puffs of air, or noxious food, rodents will exhibit a behavior called "defensive burying", where they will displace bedding material with their nose and forepaws; the marble-burying test takes advantage of this behavior by measuring how many glass marbles a rodent will bury under the effect of different stimuli. In the experiments, when mice consumed P. argentipes, it significantly inhibited their marble-burying behavior, but, unlike an equivalent dose of purified psilocybin, did not affect locomotor activity
Locomotor activity
Locomotor activity refers to the movement from place to place. In psychopharmacology, locomotor activity of lab animals is often monitored to assess the behavioural effects of these drugs. Locomotor activity is useful and less robust than most behavioural tests such as operant conditioning and...
. Further, the mushroom was more effective than purified psilocybin in inhibiting the behavior, and lower doses were required. Based on these results, the authors suggest that the mushroom has the potential "to be efficient in clinical obsessive-compulsive disorder therapy".