Rye bread mould

I heard on TV a while back about this dubious theory that certain people during the 1500s believed that they were witches because of a certain type of mould that grew on rye and caused them to hallucinate, making them believe that they could fly.

I was just wondering, if you leave a loaf of rye bread out for a couple of weeks do you reckon you could grow your own hallucinogen? What do you reckon, guys?

 

i think its only a certain kind of rye bread?, but i am not sure as i havent done it myself. thats just what i heard

 

The fungus is called ergot, and a chemical from it is the main precursor for the most widely known hallucinogen, d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

 

http://www.erowid.org/plants/ergot/ergot.shtml

 

The problem is that ergot will not only make you hallucinate, but there those little annoying side effects like convulsions, gangrene, and limbs falling off....

 

ROFL... i know, I always wondered like wtf!?!?! limbs FALLING off?

 

Yeah. Some ergot alkaloids are powerful vasoconstrictors, or substances that cause blood vessels to shrink. In doing so, they can cause a loss of blood flow to the extremities, followed by gangrene and eventual loss of the affected limb.

Lotsa interesting info here:

http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/BOT135/LECT12.HTM

 

*

 

But at least he will be getting some penicillin....

 

Yea, but the scenario the original poster was talking about was from people cooking with infected rye grain, then eating the bread.


I hate when you open the bread, there's like two slices left.. you're all like "yessssss!"... you reach in and pull them out, blue freaking mold everywhere... trash.

 

Only BLUE bread mold and *I* don't advise consumption of it.

Interesting statement that to imply moldy bread is good for you! Wouldn't it be safer to say bread mold MAY contain penicillin?
It could also make you ill. Damn, kid, use your head! I'd hate to hear someone died from believing that your info may have more than a needlepoint of truth and trying it. There ARE poisonous bread molds...certainly more than one beneficial mold may be found growing on bread.


Damn...and ergot causes DRY gangrene-not true gangrene, Ellis.

The witches' brew contained scopolamine, not ergot. Ergot caused the black plague.

 

No Shit?

Uhhh, if somebody is stupid enough to consume moldy bread hoping to get high, maybe they SHOULD remove themselves from the gene pool before they have a chance to reproduce? If the populace has become so ignorant that boldface warnings not to eat moldy food are required, maybe it's time to just let nature start over again?

Seriously, you can't "idiot proof" the entire world, because trying to do so just encourages the production of bigger and better idiots!

And who are you calling a "kid", anyway? I'm older than you are, and I'm the moderator of this forum.

 

It seems you would be a bit more of a responsible leader then, right? No offense, of course...but you are wrong to imply it's beneficial to eat an unknown mold. Ignorance is different than idiocy. Some visitors here would try it. Shame on you, young man!

Please ignore him, people. There is nothing good for you in eating an unknown mold.


btw, you implied one would ingest a helpful dose of penicillin from eating moldy bread(which could get this site in serious shit if a naive member followed your lead)...not that it would get you high.

I'm not attacking you so just relax, don't be so defensive. Your age isn't in your profile and, pardon my assumption, but you post a bit rash at times-more akin to an angry young man with just a tad of a power trip than a trusted leader of a generally adolescent community.
Smile. I am your friend.

 

I just wanted to bring this around in case you forgot about it, neighbor.

**The above quoted statement is dangerously WRONG!!**

It isn't trying to 'idiot proof the entire world' by pointing out a dangerously false statement made by a trusted member of an online community. I just want to be certain noone gets themselves killed by remarks made here on the boards. That's part of a moderator's job too, right?

 

It's called a JOKE. You seem to be the only one who took it seriously. This particular forum is dedicated to drug chemistry (an inherently hazardous pursuit), and a somewhat higher level of common sense is assumed here than would be in the "random thoughts" or "young hippies" forums, for example.

What "witch's brew" are you talking about? The possible role of ergot in the witch hysteria was due to accidental ingestion coupled with lack of medical knowledge of the effects of ergot alkaloids. See the link I posted above, or this one:

http://www.luminet.net/~wenonah/history/ergot.htm

Yes, witches and others used scopolomine mixtures in divination ("flying ointments", anyone), but that is a completely separate issue from ergotism and the witch hysteria.

No, the black plague was caused by a bacterium, Yersinia Pestis, which is carried by rats and the fleas that live on them. Nothing at all to do with ergotism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yersinia_pestis

The historical disease associated with ergot is called "St. Anthony's Fire":

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=14891

 

I don't believe everyone that's read this thread has posted in it, do you?

I agree. it's also true that people may come to this particular forum to learn about drugs or drug chemistry. All bread molds do not penicillin.

You answer your own question below. Thanks for asking though.

You're right about the black plague, sorry if that bores you.
I'm not picking a fight, I simply stomp out deadly lies when I see them. It feels good to know I may have saved someone else's life from a fallacy here. I'll leave this thread in your hands now. But don't worry...I'll be back to quelch another one sometime.

 

You'll have to register a new nick to do that, though.

My suspicions about who you were are now confirmed, so you just got banned along with the rest of your aliases....

 

This goes for all forums..check the user velvet, for example...this is a good place to UTFSE, or "Use the fucking search engine," for you non-chemists out there. If you didn't read the forum FAQ, there's several resources for you to leech from until you get the balls to get into college...we all wish we could make LSD in our basement, but that's a moot point, now isn't it?

This hardly seems relevant...if you "want to save someone's life" hit up a rave with some chlorpromazine; we aren't saving lives here, we're preventing such stupidity from happening in the first place. As is discussed in the FAQ that you're supposed to read before you even post, you should check the standard resources, such as Erowid or Lycaeum before you even bother posting. Most of the regulars here are too busy discussing cutting edge compounds and current batches of <insert drug here> to respond to replies of "how do I make LSD in my basement?" Granted I can't say that I haven't asked this very question when I was once was a n00b, but several threads on ONE PAGE about the very same subject should oblige a simple read-through before posting inane threads about issues that have been discussed several-hundred times over on this very forum.

Maybe you should go register over at Bluelight?

 

... eh.. stumbled across this thread.. hehe.. what about me? What did I do wrong this time?

 

Isnt the mold that grows contain LSA?