Last weekend, enthusiasts of plant medicine took part in the first-ever Psilocybin Cup. The event, which was organized by an incubation lab and consulting firm in Oakland, California, called Oakland Hyphae, had growers of magic mushrooms submit their mushrooms to the lab.
This event comes after the City Council of Oakland decriminalized psychoactive plants and fungi, which include psilocybin mushrooms, in 2019.
Researchers tested the samples that had been submitted for the cup by more than 50 cultivators in order to determine how much psilocin and psilocybin were in each mushroom. The two ingredients are hallucinogenic compounds found in psilocybin mushrooms.
The event also hosted virtual lectures from experts in the psychedelic community, who discussed a wide range of topics, from the science of plant medicine to representation and equity in the psychedelic field.
Ian Bollinger, a researcher and biologist with Hyphae Labs, explained that harm reduction was the reason behind the mushroom-testing exercise. Given that Oakland is among the few cities in the United States that have decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms, individuals are actively going to pursue and consume psychedelics.
Presently, people assess the quality of a dose of psilocybin mushrooms by how it was cultivated and its cultivated variety, among other factors. The method isn’t an exact measurement, given that the amount of psychedelic compounds in a mushroom is dependent on its age. The researchers used high-performance liquid chromatography technology to determine the amount of psilocin and psilocybin in each mushroom that was submitted.
Bollinger explained that the machine separated substances from each other after a sample was introduced, noting that the amount of absorbency of a particular frequency of light corresponded to the number of compounds a sample had. This allowed researchers to determine the compounds present in each mushroom.
He added that while it was necessary to understand the compounds that gave rise to a strong psychoactive effect in individuals, it was also necessary to understand how the compounds interacted together.
Bollinger noted that the objective of the study was to make testing accessible to people, adding that the lack of standardization in marijuana testing had been challenging for the industry. He asserted that this was something the Hyphae laboratory and research team hoped to change when it came to psilocybin mushrooms.
With regard to the competition, all results were posted on the lab’s website, with Magic Myco farms coming in first with its Tidalwave cultivated variety and Chip Forseyte taking second place for its Fuzzy Balls-cultivated variety. Third place was taken by Penis Envy, a cultivated variety by Blackapple411.
While entities such as Hyphae Labs are playing their part to push the industry forward by organizing competitions, other companies including XPhyto Therapeutics Corp. (CSE: XPHY) (OTCQB: XPHYF) (FSE: 4XT) are launching programs to develop medicine formulations from psychedelics. As all these different efforts converge, there is likely to be a transformation in the societal perceptions as well as the regulatory landscape surrounding these substances.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to XPhyto Therapeutics Corp. (CSE: XPHY) (OTCQB: XPHYF) (FSE: 4XT) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/XPHYF
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