The Analysis of Hallucinogenic Drugs from Plants and Fungi
May 14, 2025 Michael D. Cole, Lata Gautam, Agatha Grela 1 citation
The chapter describes the physical and chemical identification of plant- and fungus-derived drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, DMT, and mescaline. It explains that fluorescence detection in HPLC offers greater selectivity than UV or diode array detection for analyzing these drugs. Derivatization before GC-MS analysis is discussed, and NMR is emphasized as a valuable technique for identifying complex molecules like LSD. Finally, DNA analysis is presented as a powerful tool for identifying fungal drugs when morphological characteristics are lost.