Morning glory (Convolvulaceae) seeds contain LSD-like compounds that have the potential to treat everything from depression to Parkinson’s disease, at least if trials permitted. Morning glories are tropical vines that produce flowers only in the morning.
They flourish in degraded woods and along riverbanks. They create symbiotic partnerships with highly specialized Periglandula fungi, and mother plants transmit their fungus onto their offspring through the seeds.
The fungus in question has been known to generate ergot alkaloids, a class of chemicals that may cause psychedelic effects in humans. Indigenous Mexicans have long exploited this feature and some of the chemicals responsible, which were discovered in 1960.
Tulane University’s Professor Keith Clay chose to look at how common and different these compounds are. Clay and coauthors write in Communications Biology that ergot-containing seeds found in 53 of the 210 species they studied, largely in taxa where this had never reported before, Sweet potatoes, on the other hand, the most renowned morning glory (apart from this one), revealed no ergot alkaloid content.
In a statement, Clay added, “The symbiosis and ergot alkaloids are exclusive to various branches of the morning glory evolutionary tree, and each branch includes different ergot alkaloids and alkaloid combinations.” As a result, the morning glory family as a whole represents a veritable smorgasbord of physiologically active chemicals to investigate.
Government limitations have made research into the effects of psychedelic substances practically impossible for decades. It is still exceedingly tough, but the barriers are steadily removed and the results are astounding. Ergot derivatives have been shown in several trials to be useful not only for depression but also for illnesses like Parkinson’s disease when used correctly.
Because each variant of the alkaloid compounds has subtly, if not substantially, different effects, having a large number of natural examples gives researchers a higher chance of identifying ones that fit specific demands and have few side effects.
“Our work is the first to illustrate how highly coevolved morning glories and their symbiotic fungus are, and how coevolution is reflected across the morning glorious evolutionary tree by varied mixes and concentrations of ergot alkaloids,” Clay said.
The chemicals are considered to defend the seeds from those that would consume them, implying that beetles, who are their greatest threat, are not fond of seeing god. Although would like to advise anybody who is motivated by this knowledge that going in search of one’s own, untested wild psychedelics is perilous, it was discovered that seed mass correlates with alkaloid content. Even so, it is probably safer than the medicines that more commonly linked with “morning glory.”
