One of the few good remarks of Uncle Fester in his LSD book was this one at page 5/6:
"Sources Of The Lysergic Amides
Let me begin this chapter by nuking an oft-chanted mantra, this mantra being the claim that a person can grow ergot fungus in a culture medium and get it to produce lysergic acid amides to feed into LSD production. This claim as seen in Psychedelic Chemistry and other publications I read while in college is pure BS. It is truly unfortunate that nature does not cooperate in this manner, since this would obviously be the best way to set up a large-scale production operation, as the logistical complications of crop growth and harvest would then be eliminated.
Let me give a science and literature reading lesson to those who have made these claims. See Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B, Volume 155, pages 26 to 54 (1961). Also see US Patent 3,219,545. You will note while reading these articles detailing how to get lysergic amide production in a culture medium that these guys had to scour the globe to find that rare strain of claviceps fungus that will cooperate in this manner. The vast majority of claviceps fungi just will not produce these alkaloids while being cultured. See the following articles to convince yourself of just how futile it is to collect a wild strain of claviceps and try to get it to produce lysergic acid amides in culture: Ann. Rep. Takeda Res. Lab Volume 10, page 73 (1951); and Farmczco, Volume 1,
page 1 (1946); also Arch. Pharm. Ben. Volume 273, page 348 (1935); also American Journal of Botany, Volume 18, page 50 (1931); also Journal of the American Pharmacy Association Volume 40, page 434 (1951); also US patent 2,809,920; also Canadian Journal of Microbiology, Volume 3, page 55 (1957), and Volume 4, page 611(1958) and Volume 6, page 355 (1960); also Journal of the American Pharmacy Society Volume 44, page 736 (1955). With this matter disposed of, it is time to move on to what actually are viable sources of lysergic acid amides for the production of LSD..."
So far Fester. Unfortunately there is one US patent which he doesn't cite: 3038840. Look it up and you will see in an instant why Claviceps paspali is much better. This fungus produces lysergic acid in aerobic surface culture! (extra bonus: the patent cites a simple 'virulention' technique which re-activates lysergic acid biosynthesis in paspali strains which almost have lost that quality).
Another interesting quality of this funny fungus is that it does not keep the alkaloids in its mycelium (like psilocybians do), no, it excretes the acid in the medium! (*). According to the patent, the lysergic acid can be extracted from the medium with a simple A/B protocol. So you do not need to go through the hassle as described in Am. patent 3183172 for isolating psilocybin (of which the freebase is soluble in water, so A/B doesn't work properly but only yields the less stable psilocin).
In post no. 339507 I described a simple medium for paspali surface cultivation which doesn't need much sterile precautions. It enables mycelium production in the very same container which is later used for the A/B.
The virtue of the addition of peroxide to growing media was first published by K.L. McAlpine in The Orchid Review of January 1947, p. 20-22, and further developed for basidiomycetes by <
www.mycomasters.com>. In my experiments with C. paspali the pinkish color reaction is not hurt in any way after the addition of H2O2 (the fungus decomposes it as usual - I suggest to buy the manuals from <
www.mycomasters.com> if you want to know all the details - do not inform the author about the fungus you would like to use it for if it is not an edible one).
From old notes I can present a medium which is even better than the one in post no. 339507, that is if you live in an area where the temperature does not exceed 20 centigrade or so: a contamination proof solid-to-liquid medium for areobic surface cultures.
It goes like this: prepare a maltose+marmite medium as described in post no. 339507 but add 20g/l (2g/100ml) of gelatin. Pour in cultivation containers (marmelade jar, sep funnel etc.). Allow to soldify in fridge, then put at roomtemp (<20 centigrade or gelatin will liquefy). Inoculate with bit of fungus and leave it alone.
Now what happens is that the fungus will decompose the nutrients, the peroxide and the gelatin in about 2 weeks. The result is a nice watery liquid which can be A/B'd
Determine the lysergic content of the medium by a reagent test (I think Keller reagent but I will have to look that up). Isolate & purify by TLC. Extract the strip of TLC paper you need and purify further.
What I have done so far is the cultivation of paspali on described media, and seen the pink reaction. I have not performed the extraction or the TLC test. Perhaps later, in a country where that is legal to do. I do not possess the knowledge to process the lysergic endproduct further but I hope one of you beez has and will publish results.
P.S. C. paspali Stevens&Hall is not a very restricted fungus. Especially in Eastern Europe and I believe even Germany are culture banks where you can buy it.
(*) McLuhan was right!
bibliopharmacophile