LSD: discovered by accident ?

LSD-25 (or diethylamide of d-lysergic acid) was first synthesized on November 16, 1938 by Albert Hofmann in the Sandoz chemical-pharmaceutical laboratories in Basle, Switzerland (now NOVARTIS). Together with professor Arthur Stoll, founder and director of the pharmaceutical department, he began studying the medicinal plant squill and the fungus ergot as part of a program to purify and synthesize active constituents for use as pharmaceuticals. In the course of the research on lysergic acid derivatives, whose main goal was to obtain a respiratory and circulatory stimulant (an analeptic), he first synthesized LSD. Though the substance caused excitation in some of the tested animals, these effects were not considered of sufficient interest paramaceutically speaking to be further explored, so that they first dropped the research on it.

Five years later in 1943 Hofmann was reviewing the results of early pharmacological tests on LSD and decided to investigate the stimulating effects on the central nervous system indicated in animal experiments. Working on the synthesis of a new sample of LSD, he accidentally absorbed a small amount of the drug ( theories vary about how exactly it happened) and serendipitously discovered its powerful effects. The following is Albert Hofmann's own description of the perceptual and emotional changes that he experienced as a result:


"Last Friday, April 16, 1943, I was forced to stop my work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and to go home, as I was seized by a peculiar restlessness associated with a sensation of mild dizziness. On arriving home, I lay down and sank into a kind of drunkenness, which was not unpleasant and which was characterized by extreme activity of the imagination. As I lay in a dazed condition with my eyes closed, (I experienced daylight as disagreeably bright) there surged upon me an uninterrupted stream of fantastic images of extraordinary plasticity and vividness, accompanied by an intense kaleidoscope-like play of colors. This condition gradually passed off after two hours."

To read further Albert Hoffman's depiction of the discovery process and of the now so called "bicyle day", see: http://www.psychedelic-library.org/hofmann.htm

Very precised and well documented history of the LSD discovery on: http://www.psychoactive.org.uk/LSD/history.htm

The basic Plant: Ergot

ERGOT or ergot fungi refers to a group of fungi of the genus Claviceps. The most prominent member of this group is Claviceps purpurea. This fungus grows on rye and related plants, and produces alkaloids that can cause so called ergotism in humans and other mammals who consume grains contaminated with its fruiting structure (called ergot sclerotium). Particularily in the Middle Ages, it poisoned thousands of people who ate rye bread infected with it. Ergot had also been used by midwives, who sometimes gave it to pregnant women to bring about and speed up labor. In the 19th century, most physicians deemed the practice too dangerous because high dosages lead to strong contractions and endanger the baby, although physicians sometimes still used ergot to stop a woman's bleeding after childbirth.

1907, English chemists G. Barger and F.H. Carr extracted from the ergot a very toxic preparation called "ergotoxine". 1918 the Swiss chemist Arthur Stoll isolated for the first time a purified alkaloid called ergotamine, which served as a basis for many circulatory stimulants. In the Thirties, the chemical structure of the principal alkaloid of ergot is established and the Americans Jacobs and Craig isolated the lysergic core of it, which constitutes the basis for the future discovery of LSD.

for more informations about ergot and LSD see: http://www.didier-pol.net/8his-erg.htm