The hallucinogenic activity of psilocin and psilocybin has 
been reported and reviewed (Cerletti 1959; Isbell 1959; and 
Weidmann et al. 1958). 
These two indoles may occur widely in Psilocybe and related 
genera. 
One or both have been isolated from a large number ot 
mushrooms from North and South America, Europe and Asia: 
from numerous species of Psilocybe (Repke et al. 1977a; Ott and 
Guzman 1976; Semerdzieva and Nerud 1973); from Concoybe 
(Repke et al. 1977a); from Copelandia (Benedict et al 1962, 
1967); from six species of Gymnopilus (Hatfield et al. 1978); 
from Psathyrella (Ott and Guzman 1976); and from several 
species of Panaeolus (Repke et al. 1977a; Rubbers et al. 1969). 
The occurrence of 4-substituted tryptamines (psilocybin or 
psilocin) has been reported from Panaeolus sphinctrinus, and 
this psychoactive mushroom also contains 5-hydroxytryptamine 
and 5-hydroxytryptophan; the closely related Panaeolus cam- 
panulatus apparently does not contain the hallucinogenic con- 
stituents (Tyler and Malone 1960). 
Early missionaries in Amazonian Peru reported that the 
Yurimagua Indians employed an intoxicating beverage made 
from a “tree fungus” (Schultes 1966a). Although no modern 
evidence points to the use of an hallucinogenic fungus in that 
area, Psilocybe yungensis Singer & Smith has been suggested as 
a possible identification of the mushroom (Schultes 1966a). 
Although psilocybin-containing mushrooms have been col- 
lected in South America, there is no evidence that they are 
employed as sacred inebriants today. It has been suggested that 
certain anthropomorphic archaeological gold pectorals with 
mushroom-like domes found in Colombia and dated from 1000 
to 1500 A.D. may indicate the former use of shamanic cere- 
monies of intoxicating mushrooms. Psilocybin-containing mush- 
rooms have been found in Colombia (Schultes and Bright 1979). 
The principal genera of hallucinogenic mushrooms of Mexico 
are small but widespread: Conocybe is cosmopolitan; Panaeolus 
is cosmopolitan, occurring primarily in Europe, North America, 
Central America, and temperate Asia; Psilocybe, almos: cosmo- 
politan, is distributed in North America, South America, and 
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