psilocybin

plural psilocybins

1. countableuncountablebiochemistryA hallucinogenic alkaloid, C₁₂H₁₅N₂O·H₂PO₃, present in several species of Central American mushroom and producing effects similar to LSD. The prodrug of psilocin.

   The problem of the mushroom supply was solved straight away when Leary learned from a graduate student named George Litwin that a chemist at the Sandoz Corporation, Dr. Albert Hofmann, had recently synthesized the psychoactive molecule of the mushroom, calling it psilocybin.

   2004, Martin Torgoff, “Psychedelic Spring”, in Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945–2000, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 70

   1 more example

   It’s no stretch to posit that because human neurotransmitters respond to the platform’s iconic use of a certain shade of blue, and spark with dopamine upon receiving a “like” or “tag” notification, desperate children are now living in cages and a raving madman occupies the Oval Office. Not even Orwell, after a feast of psilocybin, could have predicted this dystopia.

   2019 January 29, Tom Bissell, “An Anti-Facebook Manifesto”, in New York Times