Table 2.

Fungal biologics of therapeutic potential.

	Mescaline	Psilocybin/Psilocin	LSD
Pharmacodynamics	Naturally occurring substituted phenethylamine extracted from the peyote cactus	Naturally occurring indole-alkylamine (tryptamine) extracted from Psilocybe mushrooms	Semisynthetic indole-alkylamine (ergoline) derived from lysergic acid found in Claviceps purpurea
	5-HT releasing agent, catecholamine-like structure [77]	Close structural analogue of 5-HT	Close structural analogue of 5-HT
	Primarily interacts at 5-HT2A/2C and α2-adrenergic receptors [78]	Primarily interacts at 5-HT2A/2C and 5-HT1A, 5-HT2C [79]	Mixed 5-HT2/5-HT1 receptor partial agonist [80]
	Low binding affinity at dopaminergic and histaminergic receptors [78]	Indirectly increases DA concentration but has no affinity for D2 receptors [81]	High affinity dopaminergic, adrenergic, and histaminergic receptors [82,83]
Pharmacokinetics	Can be ingested orally, smoked, or insufflated	Can be ingested orally or intravenously	Can be ingested orally, smoked, injected, or snorted
	Relatively low-potency: active doses in the 200−400 mg range) [84]	20× more potent than mescaline: active doses in 10–30 mg range [81]	2000× more potent mescaline: active doses in 25–200 μg range [85]
	Rapidly absorbed in GI and distributed to the kidneys and liver	Rapidly absorbed and dephosphorylated to psilocin (bioactive form) [81]	Rapidly absorbed in GI and distributed to tissues and organs
	Low lipid solubility, weak ability to penetrate BBB [77]	Lipid soluble, can easily cross BBB [86]	Can easily cross BBB [87]
	Detoxification via oxidative deamination	Detoxification via demethylation and oxidative deamination	Detoxification via N-dealkylation and/or oxidation processes
	Long-lasting, half-life of 6 hrs	Half-life of 3 hrs	Half-life of 3.6 hrs
	Eliminated in urine mainly in the unchanged form (81.4%) and the remaining as the metabolite TMPA [88]	Eliminated in urine mainly as glucuronidated metabolites (80%) as well as unaltered psilocybin (3–10%) [89]	Eliminated in urine mainly as metabolites, only 1% of the dose is excreted unchanged) [87]
Efficacy	Acute experiences of psychological insight during mescaline use are associated with self-reported improvements in anxiety disorders, depression, and substance abuse [78,84]	Therapeutic efficacy in treating mood and anxiety disorders, depression, cluster headaches, chronic pain, intractable phantom pain, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and substance abuse [79,81,90]	Therapeutic efficacy in treating anxiety disorders, depression, cluster headaches, obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance abuse, psychosomatic illnesses, and anxiety in relation to life-threatening diseases [91,92]