Safety of fly agaric
With its red cap and white polka dots, the fly agaric, reminiscent of a poisonous mushroom, grows wild all over the world.
Its Japanese name is Fly Agaric, its English name is Fly Agaric, and its scientific name is Amanita Muscaria. Although it is not very poisonous, it has a delicious flavor and eating too much can cause stomach pain and diarrhea.
In the United States, Amanita Mushroom has attracted a lot of attention for its use in products such as drinks, gummies, chocolates, tinctures, and vapes.
This blog covers the ingredients contained in fly agaric and its safety.
Ingredients contained in fly agaric
The nutrients contained in fly agaric vary depending on the environment, age, and condition in which it is grown, but it is rich in protein, fat, carbohydrates, B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, pyridoxine, pantothenic acid, niacin, niacinamide, folic acid, cobalamin), ergosterol, biotin, phytoquinone, tocopherol, and more.
The toxic components of the fly agaric are ibotenic acid, muscimol, muscarine, and muscazone. In fact, ibotenic acid has been used as an insecticide to repel and kill flies .
However, in recent years, the components contained in fly agaric that were previously considered to be poisonous have been attracting attention for their extremely beneficial properties.
Ibotenic acid and muscimol
Ibotenic acid functions as a prodrug of muscimol and is converted to muscimol by decarboxylation at approximately 10–20%.
Muscimol has psychoactive effects at doses of 53 mg and produces toxic symptoms, including severe nausea and vomiting, at doses of 93 mg ( Chillton and Ott 1975 ).
In human volunteer studies, effects began approximately 1 hour after ingestion of 7.5–10 mg of muscimol or 50–90 mg of ibotenic acid and lasted for 3–4 hours, although in some subjects the effects lasted for up to 10–24 hours ( Chilton and Ott 1975 ).
Muscarine
This ingredient was isolated in 1869 from the European fly agaric plant and was thought to be the main component of the mushroom (its English name, Amanita muscaria, is derived from muscarine).
Muscarine acts on the parasympathetic nervous system and is known to cause slow heart rate, low blood pressure, vomiting, diarrhea, bradycardia, bronchial secretions, tearing, bronchospasm (asthma-like breathing), salivation, constricted pupils, and blurred vision.
Muscazone
Muscazone is also an ingredient isolated from the European fly agaric. It is a substance produced by the decomposition of ibotenic acid by ultraviolet light, and has low pharmacological activity compared to other ingredients.
With the recent boom in fly agaric, a 2023 study looked at its uses and side effects in the EU. 5,600 comments on social media such as Facebook were analyzed, and the intended use (n = 250), form of ingestion (n = 198), and side effects (n = 236) were collected.
What is the use of fly agaric?
There seems to be a difference in the purpose of use between men and women.
In the female group, the main purpose of taking Amanita phalloides was to reduce pain and relieve skin problems, whereas in the male group, the main purpose was to reduce stress, reduce the severity of depression symptoms, and reduce insomnia (p < 0.001).
How to take fly agaric
Women were more likely to use tinctures and men more likely to use dried mushrooms (p < 0.001).
Fly agaric side effects
Regarding side effects, women primarily reported headache, while men reported nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and drowsiness (p < 0.001).
Ingredients that have passed the US FDA safety standards
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) explains "GRAS" as follows:
"GRAS stands for Generally Recognized As Safe. Under sections 201 and 409 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, any substance intentionally added to food is a food additive and must be reviewed and approved by the FDA before it is marketed unless a qualified expert determines that the substance has been sufficiently shown to be safe for its intended use or the use falls outside the definition of a food additive."
GRAS certification is proof that a product meets safety standards.
The only fly agaric product to receive GRAS certification is the proprietary extract "AME1" from Psyched Wellness, a Canadian life science company. I'd like to explain a little about AME1.
What is AME1?
After four years of research with doctors and scientists, Canadian company Psyched Wellness has completely detoxified the fly agaric and developed a unique extract called "AME1" that contains only the active ingredients.
AME1 contains trace amounts of the active ingredients from fly agaric - muscimol , ibotenic acid and muscarine - but a GRAS report indicates that AME1 is safe at up to 880 mg per day.
Each mL of product contains 27 mg of AME1, which is roughly equivalent to one 30 mL bottle.
In addition, the NOAEL* was determined through 90-day toxicity tests (animal experiments) .
The summary of this experiment is as follows:
- No adverse clinical signs of toxicity, mortality, or morbidity were observed during the study in both control and AME1-treated animals.
- No treatment-related adverse effects related to weight and normal weight gain were observed in all treatment groups across all genders during the study period.
- No treatment-related adverse effects related to intake were observed in all treatment groups in all genders during the study period compared to pretreatment groups.
- No treatment-related adverse effects related to hematological parameters, coagulation, clinical chemistry, laboratory tests, and organ weights were observed during the study. All parameters examined were within normal ranges during the study period.
- No adverse event levels were observed. This important information led to the determination of the NOAEL and therefore the identification of a dose that is safe and effective for human consumption.
This is the maximum amount determined through animal testing that does not cause harmful effects such as illness.
"CALM" tincture containing AME1
CALM is the world's only fly agaric extract tincture that has been certified safe by GRAS and NOAEL.
After four years of research and development, Canadian company Psyched Wellness has launched the product in the United States.
In the United States, there are many health foods containing mushroom ingredients, but fly agaric is becoming increasingly popular because it is federally legal (except in Louisiana).
However, if we actually look at the American market, we find that only Psyched Wellness has conducted a safety evaluation and has been officially approved by the FDA as a food.
Fly agaric has a long history of being traditionally consumed, but if you consume it without knowing how to detoxify it, it can make you sick. When purchasing a product containing fly agaric, we recommend that you make sure that the product has been detoxified before purchasing.
In my next blog I would like to tell you about the functions of fly agaric.
References:https://pharmacia.pensoft.net/article/56112/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7977045/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10142736/
