Morning Glory Seeds Create LSD

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Most are blue and shaped like mini bells, and the morning glory adds great beauty to any yard and garden.

Through new research, scientists discovered morning glory seeds have a cooperative relationship with fungus, which gives them psychedelic properties.

Morning Glory LSD Seeds

This flower fungus can create compounds known as ergot alkaloids. Ergot alkaloids have been shown to help aid in Parkinson’s disease and migraines, and cluster headaches. Ergot alkaloids are very closely related to LSD.

Researchers from West Virginia University, and Indiana University, studied the morning glory seeds taken from all over the world. They uncovered that 25% of the 210-morning glory species they tested had at least one kind of ergot alkaloid in their seeds.

“We have for a long time now studied and known the effects of the fungal alkaloid chemistry and the effects on the mind and body,” wrote fungal biologist Keith Clay.

This study is the first to prove the fungal morning glory and the ergot evolution formed by various concentrations and mixtures of ergot alkaloids growing with the morning glories evolutionary tree.

The Fungal-Flower Relationship

The relationship perks for both parties involved of two different species is called symbiotic.

Sometimes the symbiotic relationship may be programmed through evolution, explains the researchers in the study published in Communications Biology.

There are some species of plants with a parallel relationship with fungi. For example, some grasses and the fungus ergot can cause a Saint Anthony’s Fire to create ergot alkaloids that can’t stay in the fungus but can be passed down through the seeds.

Plants with ergot alkaloids are terrible in taste, so everybody wins.

There are morning glory species that have created a similar relationship. Ergot alkaloids found in its seeds “have been of long-lasting interest involving the toxic effects on animals and humans, psychoactive properties and medical applications,” wrote the researchers.

The most well-known ergot alkaloid, lysergic acid, is how you get LSD, the synthetic derivative.

Morning Glory Potential  

Indigenous American communities have used natural ergot alkaloid compounds for their physical and mental effects.

Discovering many new ergot alkaloid compounds can be new psychedelics, beneficial mental health treatment and anti-inflammatory effects.

The alkaloids may have many more uses than just as a psychedelic.

Presently, the potential of ergot alkaloids’ constricting blood vessels in the head could make migraine and cluster headache meds. And their capability to goose nerve cells like that of dopamine means they can be a valuable therapy for Parkinson’s.