The Detection of Psilocin in Human Urine
Journal of Forensic Sciences May 1, 2001 Alison Grieshaber, Kate Moore, Barry Levine 77 citations
Psilocybin, the active compound in psychedelic mushrooms, is rapidly converted to psilocin in the body. Psilocin is then further metabolized into a glucuronide conjugate that can be detected in urine. By using enzymatic hydrolysis to break the conjugate and derivatization to make the molecule suitable for gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS), the detection limit for psilocin in urine improved from 200 ng/mL to 10 ng/mL. Testing of real urine samples found psilocin in 6 out of 8 samples, with concentrations ranging from 10 ng/mL to over 200 ng/mL. Without hydrolysis and derivatization, no samples tested positive.