Is there mush-room to improve the environmental sustainability of psilocybin production?
Journal of CO2 Utilization June 10, 2025 Luke Lanham, Alistair R. Mctaggart, James R. Falconer
Mental health disorders and their economic burden are rising. In 2023, Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration permitted psychiatrist-led psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for treatment-resistant depression. Psilocybin, a psychedelic tryptamine from mushrooms, is currently produced via synthetic or chemoenzymatic methods, which suffer from low yields, high costs, and complex processes. Supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) extraction offers an environmentally sustainable alternative, operating at low temperature and pressure (31.7°C, 72 bar) with high selectivity and no residues. No publications yet describe scCO2 extraction of psychedelic tryptamines from biomass. This review compares current production methods with scCO2 extraction as a viable, eco-friendly alternative and provides background on psychedelic mushrooms and their medicinal tryptamines.