Amanita Muscaria

Buy Amanita Muscaria UK, Amanita Muscaria, benefits of Amanita Muscaria, Effects of Amanita Muscaria, use in pregnancy Amanita Muscaria

Amanita Muscaria is a fun and interesting fungi.

In edible Amanita lectures that I have given around the country, I often cite the official United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) document on edible fungi, where dozens of species of edible amanitas, among many, many other species of edible mushrooms, are listed by name. These are all amanitas, from Caesarea to Zambia, commonly eaten or sold in markets around the world. This list even includes some Amanita species that might reasonably give us the willies, like Amanita manginiana, an edible, market amanita from China that is related to and even resembles Amanita phalloides (Boa, 2004). But even in this very even-handed, strongly Fung Philip international document, muscaria is listed not as an edible but as a medicinal mushroom. Even more emphatically, the U.N. actually proposed a resolution against its sale and use as an edible species:

But please, gentlemen, don’t tout Amanita muscaria as a perfectly reasonable edible species with a long history of safe usage and cultural acceptance both here and overseas, when the evidence clearly refutes your claim. And if you do someday revise Mushrooms Demystified, Mr. Arora, please, err on the side of caution. The many people who look to you for personal safety, as well as honest answers, will appreciate it.

Amanita muscaria (and another similar variety, Amanita pantherina) is a mushroom of the Agaricales order that appears in very broad habitats of the temperate and boreal zones of the Northern Hemisphere. It grows both in low altitudes and high mountainous areas, especially in coniferous forests such as fir and black pine, as well as in beech and birch forests. It usually appears during the end of the summer months and is especially prevalent in autumn.

Amanita Muscaria has some beneficial effects.

Amanita caesarea, an edible mushroom found mainly in Asia and southern Europe, has shown good antioxidative activities. In the present study, the neuroprotective effects of A. Caesarea aqueous extract (AC) was determined in an l-glutamic acid (l-Glu) induced HT22 cell apoptosis model, and in a d-galactose (d-gal) and AlCl3-developed experimental Alzheimer’s disease (AD) mouse model. In 25 mM of l-Glu-damaged HT22 cells, a 3-h pretreatment with AC strongly improved cell viability reduced the proportion of apoptotic cells, restored mitochondrial function, inhibited the overproduction of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and Ca2+, and suppressed the high expression levels of cleaved-caspase-3, calpain 1, apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) and Bax. Compared with HT22 exposed only to l-Glu cells, AC enhanced the phosphorylation activities of protein kinase B (Akt) and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and suppressed the phosphorylation activities of phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN). In the experimental AD mouse, 28-day AC administration at doses of 250, 500, and 1000 mg/kg/day strongly enhanced vertical movements and locomotor activities, increased the endurance time in the rotarod test and decreased the escape latency time in the Morris water maze test. AC also alleviated the deposition of amyloid beta (Aβ) in the brain and improved the central cholinergic system function, as indicated by an increase in acetylcholine (Ach) and choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) concentrations and a reduction in acetylcholine esterase (AchE) levels. Moreover, AC reduced ROS levels and enhanced superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels in the brain of experimental AD mice. Taken together, our data provide experimental evidence that A. Caesarea may serve as potential food for treating or preventing neurodegenerative diseases. PMID:28749416

Muscazone is another compound that has more recently been isolated from European specimens of the fly agaric. It is a product of the breakdown of ibotenic acid by ultra-violet radiation. Muscazone is of minor pharmacological activity compared with the other agents. Amanita muscaria and related species are known as effective bio accumulators of vanadium; some species concentrate vanadium to levels of up to 400 times those typically found in plants. Vanadium is present in fruit bodies as an organometallic compound called amantadine. The biological importance of the accumulation process is unknown.

For some time, muscarine was believed to be the psychoactive alkaloid of the Amanita, but in 1964 independent researchers in Japan, England, and Switzerland isolated ibotenic acid and muscimol and discovered their psychoactive properties. Muscarine is the alkaloid responsible for undesired effects and the feeling of intoxication (discomfort, upset stomach, and vomiting).

Amanita Muscaria is used in pregnancy.

Amanita muscaria is traditionally used for catching flies possibly due to its content of ibotenic acid and muscimol. Recently, an analysis of nine different methods for preparing A. muscaria for catching flies in Slovenia has shown that the release of ibotenic acid and muscimol did not depend on the solvent (milk or water) and that thermal and mechanical processing led to faster extraction of ibotenic acid and muscimol.

Amanita muscaria is traditionally used for catching flies possibly due to its content of ibotenic acid and muscimol. Recently, an analysis of nine different methods for preparing A. muscaria for catching flies in Slovenia has shown that the release of ibotenic acid and muscimol did not depend on the solvent (milk or water) and that thermal and mechanical processing led to faster extraction of ibotenic acid and muscimol.

Amanita muscaria was widely used as an entheogen by many of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. Its use was known among almost all of the Uralic-speaking peoples of western Siberia and the Paleosiberian-speaking peoples of the Russian Far East. There are only isolated reports of A. muscaria use among the Tungusic and Turkic peoples of central Siberia and it is believed that on the whole entheogenic use of A. muscaria was not practiced by these peoples. In western Siberia, A. muscaria was restricted to shamans, who used it as an alternative method of achieving a trance state. (Normally, Siberian shamans achieve trance by prolonged drumming and dancing.) In eastern Siberia, A. muscaria was used by both shamans and laypeople and was used recreationally and religiously. In eastern Siberia, the shaman would take the mushrooms, and others would drink his urine. This urine, still containing psychoactive elements, may be more potent than the A. muscaria mushrooms with fewer negative effects such as sweating and twitching, suggesting that the initial user may act as a screening filter for other components in the mushroom. The Koryak of eastern Siberia has a story about the fly agaric (wapaq) which enabled Big Raven to carry a whale to its home. In the story, the deity Vahiyinin ("Existence") spat onto the earth, and his spittle became the wapaq, and his saliva becomes warts. After experiencing the power of the wapaq, Raven was so exhilarated that he told it to grow forever on earth so his children, the people, could learn from it. Ramsbottom, p 45. Among the Koryaks, one report said that the poor would consume the urine of the wealthy, who could afford to buy the mushrooms. It was reported that the local reindeer would often follow an individual intoxicated by the muscimol mushroom, and if the said individual was to urinate in the snow the reindeer would become similarly intoxicated and the Koryak people would use the drunken state of the reindeer to more easily rope and hunt them.