Scientists Gene Hacked a Plant So It Grows Five Types of Psychoactive Drugs at Once

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From the psilocybin in magic mushrooms to dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in toads to the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in marijuana, a wide variety of organisms can produce psychoactive substances, despite belonging to entirely different kingdoms.

But what if a plant were to be able to bridge those gaps and produce several different psychedelic compounds at once?

In a trippy experiment, detailed in a study published this week in the journal Science Advances, a team led by researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, have genetically engineered super tobacco plants that can produce five natural psychedelics — psilocin and psilocybin found in magic mushrooms, DMT from the ayahuasca plant, and bufotenin and 5-methoxy-DMT, which is secreted by the Sonoran Desert toad — at once.

Besides possibly making for one hell of a trip if ingested — as far as we can tell, nobody has tried to eat the leaves of one of these plants yet — the achievement could lay the groundwork for more sustainable and scalable production of these psychoactive compounds, called psychedelic indolethylamines.

The goal isn’t to get high for recreational purposes, as co-lead and Weizmann Institute postdoctoral researcher Paula Berman told 404 Media, instead emphasizing how these substances could have “therapeutic potential.” Previous research has shown that psilocybin therapy, for instance, could be used to treat mental health conditions such as depression.

It’s a wild foray into the world of psychedelics, demonstrating how far modern genetic research has come.

“This combination of five psychedelics — I don’t think anyone has ever tried something like it,” senior author and Weizmann Institute of Science researcher Asaph Aharoni told 404 Media.

The research also highlights the need for a more sustainable way to source these compounds. As interest for these psychoactive substances grows for both recreational and therapeutic use, the organisms that produce them are often being over-harvested and poached. Conventional methods to synthesize them can also be complex and laborious.

For their study, the researchers inserted the active genes of five tryptamines, a class of hallucinogens, into the leaves of a tobacco plant.

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