The term psychedelic comes from Greek meaning “mind manifesting,” Nichols says. There’s no scientific consensus on whether kambô, the name for the toxic secretion produced by the giant monkey frog, should be considered a psychedelic.
© BEASTMASTER/INATURALIST ( CC BY-NC 4.0) Habitat: The Amazon Basin in South America Some people who use kambô, the toxic secretion produced by the giant monkey frog, report having spiritual experiences. Giant monkey frog ( Phyllomedusa bicolor) Scientists aren’t yet sure why the Sonoran Desert toad produces 5-MeO-DMT, and why it is the only toad known to make it. It’s a way to say, “Please don’t eat me! I don’t taste good!” When swallowed in large quantities by a potential predator, the toxins can cause coma, cardiac arrest and even death. The toad, one of the largest in North America, secretes an enzyme that converts bufotenine, a compound also made by other toads, into 5-MeO-DMT, a powerful hallucinogen related to the psychedelic drug DMT.Ī frightened Sonoran Desert toad gushes its toxic mix, which includes 5-MeO-DMT, from its parotoid glands - located behind each eye - and from glands on its legs. Over time, the compounds, which can also act on the brain and affect heart muscle when ingested, came to aid in self-defense.īut the Sonoran Desert toad, also known as the Colorado River toad, appears to have taken evolution one step further. These secretions, whose specific compounds vary from species to species, probably evolved as a way to keep a toad’s body moist. HOLGER KRISP/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS ( CC BY 3.0)Īll toads secrete toxins from their skin. Habitat: The Sonoran Desert, in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico The Sonoran Desert toad secretes an enzyme that converts bufotenine, a compound also made by other toads, into 5-MeO-DMT, a powerful hallucinogen related to the psychedelic drug DMT. But we couldn’t help but wonder: What other amazing animals may have psychedelic potential? Join us on a tour, by land and sea, of some of the world’s mind-altering fauna.
We at Science News heard the PSA loud and clear: Just leave this toad alone. “If you relocate it outside of its home territory,” Villa says, which often happens when people collect a toad for its secretions, “it gets lost and its chances for survival go way down.” What’s more, collecting large numbers of toads increases the risk of disease transmission, like chytrid fungus, between toads. The drug’s growing popularity could be bad news for toad populations. “It’s a very powerful psychedelic sometimes called the ‘God molecule,’ ” says pharmacologist and chemist David Nichols of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. When inhaled, a compound within, 5-MeO-DMT, can cause auditory and visual hallucinations.
Instead, for decades, people have been collecting the secretions, then drying and smoking them.
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