Now Available: The Shulgin Index Vol. 1
Our NEWEST BOOK: The Shulgin Index: Volume One is now available!
The Shulgin Index, Volume 1:
Psychedelic Phenethylamines and Related Compounds
The Shulgin Index is the latest work by Alexander (“Sasha”) Shulgin, the world’s most prolific explorer of the chemistry and effects of the psychedelic drugs. The Index is a comprehensive survey of the known psychedelics, and will be presented in two volumes: I. Psychedelic Phenethylamines and Related Compounds, and II. Psychedelic Tryptamines and Related Compounds.
The first volume presents a structure-oriented survey of psychedelic phenethylamines, amphetamines, phenylpiperazines, and others. There are 126 main compounds with detailed physical properties, synthesis and analytical chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacological properties and legal status. Fully referenced with over 2,000 citations.
An invaluable source for researchers, physicians, chemists, and law enforcement.
The Shulgin Index Vol. 1
PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story
TiHKAL: The Continuation
The Simple Plant Isoquinolines
Psilocybin is an “agonist[ ] or partial agonist[ ] at several subtypes of the serotonin (5HT) receptor: 5HT-2, 5HT-1c, and 5HT-1a” (Strassman, 1992, p. 241), and the chemical structure of psilocybin’s metabolite, psilocin, is close in structure to serotonin. While this may suggest a reason for the general psychoactive effects of psilocybin and psilocin, it cannot solely account for the tryptamine, psilocybin-specific auditory voice phenomenon. The reasons for this are many. As already stated, serotonergic neurotransmitters and receptors are strongly involved in the psychoactive effects of many of the psychedelics, including, for example, the phenethylamines; yet reports of voices are absent in one major work on phenethylamine compounds (Alexander Shulgin & Ann Shulgin, 1992). It is also not enough to say that the auditory effects of tryptamines are the result of their having a unique structure in comparison with other psychedelics: for example, it can be pointed out that LSD and other of the ergolines “can [also] be viewed as rigid tetracyclic tryptamines” (Nichols, 1986, p. 338). If tryptamines, particularly psilocybin, are shown to have specific and somewhat unique abilities to stimulate auditory voice phenomena in human beings, their mere similarity to serotonin is not sufficient explanation. However, the serotonergic system is somehow specially involved in auditory experience, as is Brodmann areas 41-42 in the temporal cortex and Broca’s area (P. McGuire, Shah, & Murray, 1993).