Sean:
>I was assuming that the mushroom was like amanitas in that the mycelium can be cultivated but it cant be brought to fruit due to its sybiotic relationship with the tree, but i could be wrong....not that it really matters anyway unless the mature mushroom has more alkaloids than the mycelium, which it might.
Oh, you are probably right about those difficulties. It would be nice to be able to get spores.
> this goes back to selective strain isolation on agar plates.
I guess? But at least when you can get spores, it should be easier to develope new varieties because you don't have to add mutagens and stuff like that.
Biojammer:
> spare swimmingpool? dear god, man!
On the other hand, if the mycelium needs a lot of oxygen, i suppose a jacuzzi might be handier.
About Erlich's reagent, I am not sure, but it sounds as if just about any indolic compound will react, including tryptophan. The standard colour is blue, I think, but there is a range of possible colours from pink to violet and even green, depending on the compound. Of course, a pure extract from a mushroom will most likely have a range of different compounds, and the combined colour of the mixture can't be used to identify the parts of the mixture.
I am not sure if there even is free tryptophan in any mushroom, but extracting the mushroom before testing with Erlich's reagent probably ensures no competing indolic compounds are present, as is stated in the following article referring to ergot:
Public Health Reports;1930;45;1466-81;Smith;A Quantitative Colorimetric Reaction for the Ergot Alkaloids and Its Application in the Chemical Standardization of Ergot Preparations.
(
http://www.geocities.com/botero56/PublicHealthReports.1930.45.1466-81.Smith.pdf):
However, additional reliability could probably be gained from doing paper- or thin-layer chromatography on an extract of the mushroom, and then spraying the finished chromatogram with Keller's (Erlich's) reagent. That way, most bands will probably consist of unique compounds , so the colour given is accurate for the compound (as is kind of the point of chromatography, I guess). Also, the distance of each band has travelled in relation to eachother from the beginning spot will be pretty much identical on any chromatogram developed under identical conditions, and so can be used to identify the compound.
With the huge interest in psilocybin-containing mushrooms within mycology, it seems strange to me that mycologists wouldn't have already tested a lot of species of mushrooms for indolic compounds, so shouldn't they have already registered this Omphalotus as containing indoles?
What might have happened, though, is that thin-layer chromatography has been used to test them, and that they have only looked for psiloc(yb)in, and ergolene compounds are missed. It might be interesting to check out some monographs on Omphalotus to see if some references for chemical testing of the genus are given.
Still, if modern, hugely expensive testing technique like LC/MS has been used, they should have identified the ergolenes. There should really be articles on this already available, I think. A trip to the local Botanical Library, perhaps?
Edit: What I mean is something like this:
http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/pubs/persoonia/pers17_4.htm
"Chemotaxonomical and morphological observations in the genus Omphalotus (Omphalotaceae)
Comparative thin-layer chromatography – for the first time applied to Omphalotus olivascens var. olivascens, O. olivascens var. indigo, O. nidiformis, and to O. mexicanus – revealed strikingly similar pigment patterns for all Omphalotus species except O. mexicanus. Atromentin, thelephoric acid and pulvinic acid derivates were found in dried material and/or culture extracts of all species. Illudin S and illudin M were detected in O. mexicanus by high-performance liquid chromatography-atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation mass spectrometry. Data on morphological features of all described Omphalotus and Lampteromyces species are listed, illustrated, and summarized in a key. New combinations in the genus Omphalotus are proposed for Lampteromyces japonicus and L. mangensis.
When they have examined these species with HPLC/MS, you can bet they have examined Omphalotus illudens and many other north american species. In fact, this article in Persoonia might be a good place to start for references for those examinations.
Many in the genus contain muscarine, so "hallucinations" should probably be qualified:
http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/fungi/pimg028.htm