This page shows what was measured, who it was measured in, and what that does not settle.
What Muscimol does in the body
Unapproved fly-agaric mushroom products sold as gummies or chocolate.
Fresh fly agaric contains mostly ibotenic acid, which activates glutamate receptors — the excitatory ones — so strongly that neuroscientists use it deliberately to destroy neurons in laboratory animals. Drying or heating removes a carboxyl group and turns some of it into muscimol, which does the opposite: it activates the GABA-A receptor, the main inhibitory switch in the brain, at the same site as the neurotransmitter itself. So the effect a person gets depends on how the mushroom was prepared and how far that conversion went, and both compounds are always present in some ratio. The reported experience — sedation, confusion, twitching, sometimes delirium — reflects that mixture rather than either compound alone.
What happened in people
Two products labelled as fly agaric contained neither expected active compound and contained psilocin instead.
✓ Reviewed first-read answer
Where this came from
A person wrote this and a reviewer approved it against this exact record. It carries no effect size.
A reviewer approved this against this record. The reviewed-claim record carrying the exact population and effect size does not exist yet.
No source is stored against this line.
The limit that matters most
Drying or boiling can change the compounds, but no method has established reliably complete conversion.
Where it acts
GABA-A receptors throughout the central nervous system for muscimol; ionotropic glutamate receptors for ibotenic acid, which is why it is used to make excitotoxic lesions in animal research
Kind of result
The kind of result is not recorded
Supervision
Not usually supervised: sold as a supplement or food ingredient where recorded. That is a legal category, not a safety judgement.
What the registries record it as
The substance registry classes this as chemical.
FDA substance registry · D5M179TY2E · read 2026-08-29
The organism is Amanita muscaria, a species. It is also called fly agaric.
NCBI Taxonomy · 41956 · read 2026-08-29
Where each sentence above came from
No recorded sentence describes the change this makes in a way that stands on its own. The page opens with what it is taken for instead, and the recorded explanation follows below.
Shown as the opening line on this page.
The limit a reviewer approved as the one that matters most here.
The four opening statements run to 135 words.
Words this page uses
Four words worth knowing first
Chosen from what this page shows, with each one explained before the word it depends on.
Biomarker
A biomarker is a number from a test that stands in for something about health.
A picture of it, and where the picture fails
A biomarker is like a fuel gauge.
Where that stops being true. A gauge is wired to the tank. Many biomarkers are only loosely tied to health.
What people get wrong. A better number is read as a better life. Several medicines improved a number and helped nobody.
A measurable indicator used as a substitute for a clinical outcome of interest.
Placebo
A placebo is a dummy treatment given so the real one can be compared with it.
A picture of it, and where the picture fails
A placebo is like a blank control in an experiment.
Where that stops being true. A blank does nothing. People given a placebo often do get better.
What people get wrong. A placebo effect is read as imaginary. The improvement is measured and real.
An inactive intervention matched in appearance to the test intervention, used to control for non-specific effects.
Comparator
A comparator is whatever the treatment was measured against.
A picture of it, and where the picture fails
It is like the other runner in a race.
Where that stops being true. A race has one winner. A study can show both arms improved.
What people get wrong. Results are read without asking what the other group got. Beating nothing is not beating a treatment.
The control condition against which the experimental intervention is assessed.
What happened in people◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
What happened in people
Each card is one study: the exact question it asked, who was in it, and whether it showed what it set out to show.
Accuracy of labelling and quantification of psychoactive content in commercial mushroom gummies
✓ The study showed what it set out to show
Who was studied
Correia et al. 2025 Portland gummy product analysis
How many people
8
Study design
Analytical product survey
Compared against
Not recorded for this study
Kind of result
A number that stands in for health
What was found
Neither ibotenic acid nor muscimol detected in the 2 products claiming Amanita muscaria content; 7 of 8 products contained psilocin, 6 contained 4-AcO-DMT, 1 labelled psilocybin-free contained psilocybin, 1 contained undisclosed delta-9-THC
Repeated elsewhere
Partially Replicated
What this does not prove. Meeting one endpoint in one population does not carry to other goals or other people.
The limits of this study, and where it came from
Main limit. Eight products from seven shops in one city is a small and geographically narrow sample, and the products were purchased at one point in time in a market whose formulations change.
How far it carries. This study is recorded from the curated record, not from the registry match.
Form and route. Dried mushroom, or commercial gummies, capsules and chocolate bars
Interval reported. Not recorded in this summary
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim.
PubChem CID 4266 — muscimol structure, formula and molecular weight (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/4266) · a recorded source, not a stored snapshot
Characterisation of poisonings associated with mushroom-containing chocolate products
73 hospitalisations, 38 ICU admissions, 29 intubations, 2 deaths. Versus other mushroom chocolates: hospitalisation OR 3.29 (1.51-7.40), ICU OR 6.30 (2.17-22.6), seizures OR 8.45 (3.00-27.9), intubation OR 8.04 (2.24-44.2)
Repeated elsewhere
Unreplicated
What this does not prove. Meeting one endpoint in one population does not carry to other goals or other people.
The limits of this study, and where it came from
Main limit. Testing identified muscimol, psilocin, kavalactones and other substances in some but not all tested products, so the exposure differed between cases and no single compound can be assigned responsibility.
How far it carries. This study is recorded from the curated record, not from the registry match.
Form and route. Dried mushroom, or commercial gummies, capsules and chocolate bars
Interval reported. Not recorded in this summary
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim.
PubChem CID 4266 — muscimol structure, formula and molecular weight (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/4266) · a recorded source, not a stored snapshot
Validated quantification of ibotenic acid, muscimol, muscarine, psilocin and psilocybin in authenticated mushrooms and consumer products
✓ The study showed what it set out to show
Who was studied
Katragunta et al. 2025 LC-QToF-MS quantification of mushroom mycochemicals
What this does not prove. Meeting one endpoint in one population does not carry to other goals or other people.
The limits of this study, and where it came from
Main limit. Only two authenticated Amanita muscaria samples anchor the reference range, so the natural variation in the mushroom itself is not characterised by this study.
How far it carries. This study is recorded from the curated record, not from the registry match.
Form and route. Dried mushroom, or commercial gummies, capsules and chocolate bars
Interval reported. Not recorded in this summary
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim.
PubChem CID 4266 — muscimol structure, formula and molecular weight (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/4266) · a recorded source, not a stored snapshot
What we know
RNAWiki holds 3 written-up human studies for this substance, each with the question it asked.
How we know it
Each card names the study, the number of people and what the study set out to measure.
What this does not prove
These summaries were written by a person and have not been signed off as reviewed claims.
Why it matters
A study that failed is as informative as one that worked, and both are here.
What we still do not know
No reviewed claim exists, so no exact population, effect size or interval is published yet.
What it changes in the body◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
The path through the body
From what a person takes to what changes. A solid line is a step measured in people. A dashed line is a step nobody has measured that way.
Start
Muscimol
What a person takes: Dried mushroom, or commercial gummies, capsules and chocolate bars.
The measurement behind this step
Traditional preparation is dried or heated cap material, which partially decarboxylates ibotenic acid to muscimol. The commercial delivery system is confectionery — gummies and chocolate bars sectioned into servings — manufactured without any standardised sampling or testing of the finished product, which CDC identifies as a driver of the 2024 outbreak. In the Portland analysis, the delivery system frequently did not contain the compound it was named for.
Getting in
Eaten as mushroom, gummy or chocolate
Dried caps, or a commercial product whose contents may bear no relationship to its label.
╌╌Described, with no measurement named. No measurement is named for this step, so it is drawn as an unconfirmed link.
The measurement behind this step
Oral ingestion. Authenticated dried Amanita muscaria contains ibotenic acid at 0.03-0.04% and muscimol at 0.01-0.02% by weight. Commercial products vary without bound: in one Portland series, the two products labelled Amanita contained neither compound.
Ibotenic acid and muscimol are small, water-soluble and both centrally active, so the exposure is always a mixture.
──Measured in people. Written by a person from the study named beside the step. Not signed off as a reviewed claim.
The measurement behind this step
Ibotenic acid is additionally decarboxylated to muscimol in vivo as well as during drying, so the ratio reaching the brain is shifted further toward the inhibitory compound than the material assay suggests. Neither compound has published human pharmacokinetics from a controlled study.
Muscimol opens the brain's main inhibitory channel
It binds the GABA-A receptor at the same place the natural neurotransmitter does, and it is the standard reference compound for doing so.
╌╌Described, with no measurement named. No measurement is named for this step, so it is drawn as an unconfirmed link.
The measurement behind this step
Potent orthosteric agonism at the GABA-A receptor, producing chloride influx and neuronal inhibition. Muscimol is the reference GABA-A agonist in pharmacology and is used in tritiated form as a binding ligand for that receptor.
Ibotenic acid does the opposite, and damages what it excites
It activates glutamate receptors so powerfully that neuroscientists use it deliberately to destroy neurons in a chosen brain region.
╌╌Described, with no measurement named. No measurement is named for this step, so it is drawn as an unconfirmed link.
The measurement behind this step
Agonism at ionotropic glutamate receptors including NMDA, with excitotoxicity as the defining property that makes it a standard lesioning reagent — it destroys cell bodies while sparing fibres of passage. Its presence at roughly twice the muscimol content in authenticated material is the reason the mushroom is not simply a sedative.
A mixed picture — and, in the 2024 outbreak, intensive care
Reported effects run from sedation and confusion to twitching, agitation and delirium. In the CDC outbreak, 38 of 180 people needed intensive care and two died.
╌╌Described, with no measurement named. No measurement is named for this step, so it is drawn as an unconfirmed link.
The measurement behind this step
The clinical picture reflects simultaneous GABA-A agonism and glutamatergic excitation rather than either alone. In the 2024 mushroom-chocolate outbreak, 73 of 180 cases were hospitalised, 38 required ICU admission, 29 required intubation and two died, with seizures strongly associated with the implicated product (OR 8.45, 95% CI 3.00-27.9).
No suggested links are held for this record, so nothing is hidden from this path.
What we know
The record describes 5 steps from taking it to an effect in a person.
How we know it
Each step names the study behind it in the technical detail beside it.
What this does not prove
A change inside the body is a reason to look. It is not a result in a person.
Why it matters
A reader can see exactly where the chain stops being measured in people.
What we still do not know
No reviewed claim binds any of these steps to a named population.
What is missing or unclear◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
Were people like you studied?
RNAWiki cannot tell whether a study fits you. It can show who was in it, and where the result stops carrying.
Who was studied
People similar to this profile were included.
People buying products from smoke shops, and — in the 2024 CDC outbreak — 180 people across 34 states who ate mushroom-containing chocolate bars.
Who is missing from the studies
Which groups were under-represented in the studies has not been recorded for this substance. Pregnancy, breastfeeding, children, older adults, and people with liver or kidney conditions are commonly excluded from trials; nothing here says whether they were.
Where the result stopped carrying
Product labelling in this category was found inaccurate and inconsistent across almost every product tested in the Portland series
Diamond Shruumz products were recalled after 180 poisonings, having been sold as microdosing confectionery with no standardised composition
This is a scope explorer, not a diagnosis engine.
It shows who was studied so you can see whether people similar to you were included.
RNAWiki cannot tell whether a study fits you. It can show who was in it.
What it would be like to take◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
Why it might seem to do nothing
A real effect and a noticed effect are different things. These are the recorded reasons the two come apart.
It was studied in different people
The people in the studies were not much like the reader.
On this record: Which groups were under-represented in the studies has not been recorded for this substance. Pregnancy, breastfeeding, children, older adults, and people with liver or kidney conditions are commonly excluded from trials; nothing here says whether they were.
The evidence may simply be wrong
Small early studies often do not hold up.
On this record: RNAWiki has not yet published a reviewed conclusion for this use.
Other reasons RNAWiki checked and found nothing for (11)
It was studied for a different goal
The studies measured something else entirely. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
A different form was studied
The studied form is not the form on the shelf. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
There was nothing to correct
Where a level is already normal, topping it up may change nothing. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
Something else had to happen too
In the studies it was paired with training, a diet or another treatment. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
The change is too small to feel
A real change can still sit below what a person notices. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
Day-to-day swing hides it
Sleep, food, stress and time of day move most numbers more than this would. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
Not enough time yet
The studies ran longer than the person has waited. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
It was not taken as studied
Missed days change the result, and studies count them. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
Something else changed at the same time
Two changes at once cannot be told apart afterwards. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
The product may not be what it says
Contents of a sold product are not always what the label states. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
No recorded reason
RNAWiki has nothing stored that would explain it. Nothing in this record points to this reason.
None of these is a reason to take more. Taking more is not a step this page ever suggests.
What it would be like to take◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
What taking it involves
The recorded facts about getting hold of it and using it. Nothing here is a suggestion about what you should do.
How it is supplied
Varies by country
❝ Quoted from a source
Where this came from
Copied from a source RNAWiki stored, with the source named.
Read from the recorded approval status.
No source is stored against this line.
Form and route
Dried mushroom, or commercial gummies, capsules and chocolate bars
✎ Source-linked record
Where this came from
A person wrote this into the record with the study named beside it. No reviewer has signed it off.
The form and route recorded on this substance.
No source is stored against this line.
Who oversees it
Not usually supervised: sold as a supplement or food ingredient where recorded. That is a legal category, not a safety judgement.
❝ Quoted from a source
Where this came from
Copied from a source RNAWiki stored, with the source named.
The identity record classes it as a botanical or organism preparation; no register records an approval.
No source is stored against this line.
What is in the pack
Traditional preparation is dried or heated cap material, which partially decarboxylates ibotenic acid to muscimol.
✎ Source-linked record
Where this came from
A person wrote this into the record with the study named beside it. No reviewer has signed it off.
Recorded notes on how this is sold. The rest of the recorded wording: The commercial delivery system is confectionery — gummies and chocolate bars sectioned into servings — manufactured without any standardised sampling or testing of the finished product, which CDC identifies as a driver of the 2024 outbreak. In the Portland analysis, the delivery system frequently did not contain the compound it was named for.
No source is stored against this line.
Where it is registered
Not recorded.
∅ Nothing recorded
Where this came from
RNAWiki holds nothing here and says so rather than guessing.
No register entry is recorded.
No source is stored against this line.
Why people stop
Not recorded.
∅ Nothing recorded
Where this came from
RNAWiki holds nothing here and says so rather than guessing.
No record of why people stopped taking it is stored for this substance.
No source is stored against this line.
What it would be like to take◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
What can go wrong
Sorted by where each line came from. A regulator's label and a report somebody sent in are not the same kind of fact.
·Worth asking a clinician aboutWritten into the record from the studies named on this page
The reported clinical picture is mixed and reflects simultaneous GABA-A agonism and glutamatergic excitation: sedation, confusion, ataxia, myoclonic twitching, agitation and delirium. It is not a muscarinic toxidrome and atropine is not the treatment, despite the mushroom's name. In the 2024 mushroom-chocolate outbreak, 73 of 180 cases were hospitalised, 38 required intensive care, 29 required intubation and two died, with seizures strongly associated with the implicated product. Because ibotenic acid is an excitotoxin used deliberately for neuronal lesioning in research, the fresh material carries a hazard the dried material carries less of, though how much less has not been quantified for any defined preparation. Product-level risk dominates: content is not standardised, labels were inaccurate in nearly every product tested, and undisclosed psilocin, psilocybin, tryptamine congeners and THC have all been found.
Nobody counted how many people took this and were fine, so this cannot be turned into a rate.
Over a long time. No completed tested study window is recorded, so long-term effects are not established by the registry record.
Groups the studies covered thinly. Which groups were under-represented in the studies has not been recorded for this substance. Pregnancy, breastfeeding, children, older adults, and people with liver or kidney conditions are commonly excluded from trials; nothing here says whether they were.
What is missing or unclear◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
Does the exact form matter?
Evidence belongs to the exact thing that was tested. A different salt, a different mixture or a different preparation is a different question.
The form that was studied
Dried mushroom, or commercial gummies, capsules and chocolate bars
✎ Source-linked record
Where this came from
A person wrote this into the record with the study named beside it. No reviewer has signed it off.
The form used in the studies cited on this page.
No source is stored against this line.
What is sold
A recorded note compares this form with the others that are sold. It is kept below, word for word.
§ A fixed RNAWiki sentence
Where this came from
Wording RNAWiki always uses, not a finding about this substance.
The recorded note, unchanged: The commercial delivery system is confectionery — gummies and chocolate bars sectioned into servings — manufactured without any standardised sampling or testing of the finished product, which CDC identifies as a driver of the 2024 outbreak. In the Portland analysis, the delivery system frequently did not contain the compound it was named for.
No source is stored against this line.
What is recorded as being sold
108169 marketed supplement labels list this ingredient, classed as botanical, multi-vitamin and mineral (mvm), non-nutrient/non-botanical and other combinations.
Those labels carry all other, nutrient and structure/function claims. A claim of that kind is written by the manufacturer and is not assessed by any regulator, so its presence says nothing about whether it is true.
Evidence carries across two names for one substance. It does not carry across a salt, a mirror form or a mixture.
What it would be like to take◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
What you could measure
Watching one thing carefully can tell you whether it moved. It cannot tell you what moved it.
This is sold without a prescription, so a person can sensibly watch one thing and see whether it moves.
Pick one goal. One goal only. Two at once cannot be told apart afterwards.
Pick one thing to watch. No registered study lists a measure RNAWiki could read for this.
Measure before you start. Take the same measurement several times first. One reading is not a starting point.
Know the swing. Write down how much it moves on its own across a normal week.
Change one thing. Change nothing else at the same time, including training and sleep.
Give it the study length. No finished study window is recorded, so no length is suggested here.
Track whether you took it. Missed days are the most common reason a home test shows nothing.
Read the trend. Look at the line across weeks. A single reading tells you almost nothing.
What not to measure
Anything that swings more day to day than the change you are looking for.
A wearable estimate of sleep stages, which is an estimate and not a measurement.
Weight on one morning, which mostly records water.
A feeling you did not write down before starting.
When to stop
Stop if something new and unpleasant starts, and ask a pharmacist or doctor.
Stop if you cannot keep everything else steady, because the result will not mean anything.
Stop at the end of the window you set, and read the trend then.
Tracking can show whether something changed for you. It cannot show what caused it.
RNAWiki does not work out an amount for anyone.
What is missing or unclear◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
Claims that go past the evidence
Things said about this substance that sound reasonable, and the exact step that is missing between the evidence and the claim.
✗Goes past the evidence
That drying or parboiling converts ibotenic acid to muscimol completely enough to change the character of the exposure
Why it sounds right. It follows from something real on this page: a body step, an animal result or a related finding.
The missing step. Nobody measured this in people for this use, or the study that did measure it did not show it.
What would change this
A study in people, for this exact use, measuring this exact thing, that a reviewer signs off.
RNAWiki has not yet published a reviewed conclusion for this use.
✗Goes past the evidence
That the mushroom acts through muscarine, the compound it is named for, which is present only at trace levels
Why it sounds right. It follows from something real on this page: a body step, an animal result or a related finding.
The missing step. Nobody measured this in people for this use, or the study that did measure it did not show it.
What would change this
A study in people, for this exact use, measuring this exact thing, that a reviewer signs off.
RNAWiki has not yet published a reviewed conclusion for this use.
✗Goes past the evidence
That a product labelled Amanita muscaria contains it, or that a product labelled psilocybin-free is free of psilocybin
Why it sounds right. It follows from something real on this page: a body step, an animal result or a related finding.
The missing step. Nobody measured this in people for this use, or the study that did measure it did not show it.
What would change this
A study in people, for this exact use, measuring this exact thing, that a reviewer signs off.
RNAWiki has not yet published a reviewed conclusion for this use.
✗Goes past the evidence
That legal availability implies a characterised exposure; CDC identifies the absence of standardised testing of finished products as a driver of the outbreak
Why it sounds right. It follows from something real on this page: a body step, an animal result or a related finding.
The missing step. Nobody measured this in people for this use, or the study that did measure it did not show it.
What would change this
A study in people, for this exact use, measuring this exact thing, that a reviewer signs off.
RNAWiki has not yet published a reviewed conclusion for this use.
What is missing or unclear◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
What nobody knows yet
Open questions, each with why it is open and what would close it.
Missing populations
Which groups were under-represented in the studies has not been recorded.
Why it matters. Recorded by the evidence model as a gap on this record.
What would answer it
A study that measures it, and a reviewer to sign it off.
Last checked 2026-09-04. Searched: The sources listed in the receipts at the foot of this page.
Missing long-term data
No completed tested study window is recorded.
Why it matters. Recorded by the evidence model as a gap on this record.
What would answer it
A study that measures it, and a reviewer to sign it off.
Last checked 2026-09-04. Searched: The sources listed in the receipts at the foot of this page.
No reviewed conclusion
RNAWiki has not yet published a reviewed conclusion for this use.
Why it matters. Recorded by the evidence model as a gap on this record.
What would answer it
A study that measures it, and a reviewer to sign it off.
Last checked 2026-09-04. Searched: The sources listed in the receipts at the foot of this page.
Missing interaction studies
No interaction was found in the registers checked. Not finding one is not the same as showing there is none.
Why it matters. Recorded by the evidence model as a gap on this record.
What would answer it
A study that measures it, and a reviewer to sign it off.
Last checked 2026-09-04. Searched: The sources listed in the receipts at the foot of this page.
Formulation uncertainty
Several salts, forms or products of Muscimol are recorded. Results from one form may not transfer to another.
Why it matters. Recorded by the evidence model as a gap on this record.
What would answer it
A study that measures it, and a reviewer to sign it off.
Last checked 2026-09-04. Searched: The sources listed in the receipts at the foot of this page.
Mechanism not reviewed
No reviewed mechanism story exists for this substance.
Why it matters. Recorded by the evidence model as a gap on this record.
What would answer it
A study that measures it, and a reviewer to sign it off.
Last checked 2026-09-04. Searched: The sources listed in the receipts at the foot of this page.
What happened in people◇Read from sources, not yet reviewed
Check any of this yourself
Every line above traced back to the study it came from. This is the technical layer, and the vocabulary changes here.
Every line above can be traced to the study named beside it. Follow the link and read it.
The products labelled Amanita muscaria contained no Amanita compounds
In plain words
Eight mushroom gummies were bought from seven Portland shops and analysed. The two that claimed to contain Amanita muscaria contained neither of its active compounds — they contained psilocin instead.
What was measured
Presence and quantity of ibotenic acid, muscimol, psilocin, psilocybin, tryptamine congeners and THC across 8 commercial gummy products
Effect estimate
No reviewed effect estimate exists for this record.
Limits
See the technical detail.
From the source
Correia et al. procured eight gummy products from seven smoke and vape shops in Portland, homogenised them and analysed them by liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry with isotope-dilution quantification, screening for psilocybin, psilocin and their analogues as well as for purported Amanita muscaria derivatives. Neither ibotenic acid nor muscimol was detected in the two products claiming to contain Amanita muscaria extracts; those products contained psilocin and tryptamine derivatives. One product labelled psilocybin-free tested positive for psilocybin. Another marketed as nootropic contained undisclosed delta-9-THC. Overall, seven of the eight products contained psilocin and six contained 4-acetoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine; kavalactones and other tryptamine congeners were also present. The authors conclude that labelling was inaccurate and inconsistent, and that users are likely to experience psychoactive symptoms at the concentrations found. The finding inverts the premise of the market: the legal-mushroom product was delivering a Schedule I tryptamine.
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim
180 poisonings, 73 hospitalised, 29 intubated, two deaths
In plain words
CDC investigated an outbreak linked to microdosing chocolate bars sold as mushroom products. A hundred and eighty people across 34 states were poisoned, thirty-eight went to intensive care, and two died.
What was measured
Case count, hospitalisation, ICU admission, intubation and death across 180 poisonings in 34 states, with odds ratios by product
Effect estimate
No reviewed effect estimate exists for this record.
Limits
See the technical detail.
From the source
CDC and FDA investigated poisonings associated with Diamond Shruumz microdosing chocolate bars and other mushroom-containing chocolate products between January and October 2024. A case was defined as an illness with moderate or major clinical effects in a person who had eaten such a product. 180 cases were reported across 34 states: 73 hospitalisations, including 38 intensive care admissions, 29 endotracheal intubations, and two deaths. Compared with other mushroom-containing chocolate products, eating Diamond Shruumz bars carried higher odds of hospitalisation (OR 3.29, 95% CI 1.51-7.40), ICU admission (OR 6.30, 95% CI 2.17-22.6), seizures (OR 8.45, 95% CI 3.00-27.9) and intubation (OR 8.04, 95% CI 2.24-44.2), with dose-trend relationships for hospitalisation, ICU admission and intubation (p-trend 0.023, 0.004 and <0.001). Testing identified muscimol, psilocin — a Schedule I substance — kavalactones and other substances in some but not all tested products. CDC attributes the risk to variability in ingredient composition and the absence of standardised regulatory oversight for sampling and testing finished products.
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim
Ibotenic acid outweighs muscimol in authenticated mushroom material
In plain words
In two verified Amanita muscaria samples, the excitotoxic compound was present at roughly twice the level of the sedating one — and muscarine, the compound the mushroom is named for, was at the same low level as muscimol.
What was measured
Percentage by weight of ibotenic acid, muscimol and muscarine in authenticated Amanita muscaria, against psilocin and psilocybin in Psilocybe species
Effect estimate
No reviewed effect estimate exists for this record.
Limits
See the technical detail.
From the source
Katragunta et al. developed and validated an LC-QToF-MS method for five characteristic compounds — ibotenic acid, muscimol, muscarine, psilocin and psilocybin — with satisfactory linearity, precision and recovery for all five. In two authenticated Amanita muscaria samples, ibotenic acid was 0.03-0.04%, muscimol 0.01-0.02% and muscarine 0.01-0.02% by weight; in five Psilocybe samples, psilocin was 0.001-1.6% and psilocybin 9.9-19.3%. Twenty-seven commercial products across gummies, chocolates and other formulations were compared against the authenticated material. Two things follow. First, the mushroom as collected carries more of the excitotoxin than of the GABA-A agonist, so an unprocessed exposure is weighted toward ibotenic acid. Second, muscarine — the compound named after this mushroom and long blamed for its effects — is present at the same trace order as muscimol, far below what a muscarinic toxidrome would require.
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim
Named for muscarine, and muscarine is not what it does
In plain words
Muscarine was isolated from fly agaric in the nineteenth century and gave its name to a whole receptor system. The mushroom contains almost none of it, and its effects come from two entirely different compounds.
What was measured
Muscarine content of authenticated Amanita muscaria against the receptor system named after it
Effect estimate
No reviewed effect estimate exists for this record.
Limits
See the technical detail.
From the source
Muscarine takes its name from Amanita muscaria, and the muscarinic acetylcholine receptors take their name from muscarine — one of the foundational naming chains in pharmacology. The mushroom nonetheless contains muscarine only in trace amounts: 0.01-0.02% by weight in authenticated samples, the same order as muscimol and far below the level required to produce a cholinergic toxidrome. The compounds responsible for its effects, ibotenic acid and muscimol, were not identified until the 1960s. The practical consequence is clinical: an Amanita muscaria exposure does not produce the muscarinic picture of salivation, lacrimation and bradycardia that the name implies, and atropine is not the treatment. The naming survives because receptor nomenclature is fixed by history rather than revised by later chemistry, which is exactly the kind of durable error this record exists to note.
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim
One mushroom, two compounds, opposite directions
In plain words
Ibotenic acid switches neurons on so hard that researchers use it to kill them on purpose. Muscimol switches them off. Drying the mushroom converts some of the first into the second.
What was measured
Receptor targets and quantified content of ibotenic acid and muscimol in the same material
Effect estimate
No reviewed effect estimate exists for this record.
Limits
See the technical detail.
From the source
Ibotenic acid is an agonist at ionotropic glutamate receptors including NMDA, and its standard use in neuroscience is as an excitotoxin for producing selective neuronal lesions in defined brain regions — a reagent chosen precisely because it destroys cell bodies while sparing fibres of passage. Muscimol is a potent agonist at the orthosteric GABA site of the GABA-A receptor and is the reference agonist for that receptor, used in radioligand form as [3H]-muscimol. The two therefore act at opposite ends of the excitatory-inhibitory balance. Ibotenic acid decarboxylates to muscimol on drying and heating, so preparation shifts the mixture toward the inhibitory compound. This is the pharmacological basis for the whole record: the exposure from this mushroom is a ratio, not a compound, and the ratio is set by how the material was handled.
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim
Not scheduled — which is the entire commercial premise
In plain words
Neither muscimol nor ibotenic acid appears in any federal drug schedule. That is why Amanita products can be sold in shops where psilocybin products cannot.
What was measured
Absence of muscimol and ibotenic acid from the federal schedules against the presence of psilocin in products sold on that basis
Effect estimate
No reviewed effect estimate exists for this record.
Limits
See the technical detail.
From the source
Neither muscimol nor ibotenic acid nor Amanita muscaria appears in any schedule of 21 CFR part 1308. Psilocybin and psilocin do, at DEA codes 7437 and 7438. The entire retail proposition of the Amanita product category rests on that difference, and it is the reason the Portland finding is so damaging: products sold on the basis of containing an uncontrolled compound were found to contain a Schedule I one instead, and one product explicitly labelled psilocybin-free tested positive for psilocybin. Louisiana controls Amanita muscaria under state law, producing the same patchwork seen with salvinorin A, kratom and tianeptine — federal silence filled unevenly by states.
Written into the record, not signed off as a reviewed claim
Traditional preparation is invoked as a safety practice without being measured
In plain words
The idea that drying or parboiling the mushroom makes it safer by converting ibotenic acid to muscimol is repeated everywhere. The conversion is real chemistry; how complete it is under any given method has not been established.
What was measured
That drying or parboiling converts ibotenic acid to muscimol completely enough to change the character of the exposure
Effect estimate
No reviewed effect estimate exists for this record.
Limits
See the technical detail.
From the source
Decarboxylation of ibotenic acid to muscimol on drying and heating is well established as a reaction. What is not established is the yield under the conditions people actually use: air-drying time, temperature, parboiling with or without discarding the water, and how much ibotenic acid remains. Authenticated samples still show ibotenic acid at roughly twice the muscimol content, which indicates the conversion is incomplete in ordinary dried material. The inference commonly drawn — that a preparation method converts the excitotoxin away and leaves a GABA-A agonist — treats a partial reaction as a complete one, and no published study reports the conversion as a function of a defined protocol. That is why this page's analytical workflow contains a step that would answer it, and it is why the claim is filed here as an inference rather than as a finding.
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What is not here
8 questions this page could not answer
These sections were prepared and left out because there was nothing to put in them. They are listed rather than hidden, so the gaps in this record are visible.
What was measured, goal by goal — found nothing in the sources checked.
How close this is to real life — found nothing in the sources checked.
Felt, measured, or meaningful — found nothing in the sources checked.
How long anything takes — found nothing in the sources checked.
What it may clash with — found nothing in the sources checked.
Other ways to the same goal — found nothing in the sources checked.
How this medicine reached us — found nothing in the sources checked.
What changed on this page — found nothing in the sources checked.
The record as stored
The full record, for auditing
Everything above is built from what is below. This layer keeps the technical vocabulary, record identifiers and every stored row, so a reader who wants to check the page can.
The older medicine-wide conclusion held in this record
Written for a clinical reader, and about the medicine as a whole rather than about one indication, population and set of trials. RNAWiki does not treat it as a programme conclusion and no reviewer has signed it off in that form. It is here word for word because it is what the record holds.
A mushroom containing an excitotoxin and its inhibitory decarboxylation product, neither of them federally scheduled, sold as gummies that in a Portland analysis contained neither compound — the two products labelled Amanita muscaria contained psilocin and tryptamine derivatives instead.
Recorded evidence blocks (0)
Where it is registeredIdentifiers, relations and other names
No approved product. Sold in the United States since about 2022 as Amanita muscaria gummies, capsules, chocolates and extracts marketed as legal or nootropic mushrooms
✗ required summary fields resolved: 4 required field(s) not terminal: Why people use it, Best-supported result, Biggest unanswered question, Human evidence
✓ public claims reviewed: 0 reviewed claim(s); drafts are never rendered
✓ source coverage passed: 1 source rows
✓ no critical contamination: no quarantine open
✓ canonical metadata passed: slug and display name present
✓ no raw internal fields: enforced by the copy-contract test over the rendered page
This is a record of evidence. It is not medical advice, and it does not say this substance suits you. Nothing here says any substance on RNAWiki is appropriate for a child.