Jochen Gartz

German chemist and mycologist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jochen Gartz (born 1 October, 1953) was a German chemist and mycologist who studied psilocybin mushrooms as well as other psychoactive plants.^[1]^[2]^[3] He was considered an expert in this field.^[1] Among other accomplishments, Gartz is known for discovering aeruginascin, which was originally thought to occur exclusively in Inocybe aeruginascens.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[3] He is also known for theorizing that an entourage effect may occur with the combination of different active alkaloids in psilocybin mushrooms besides just psilocybin^[2]^[8] and for reporting that baeocystin is active as a psychedelic in humans.^[3]^[9]^[10]^[11] He also wrote books about hydrogen peroxide as medicine.

BornOctober 1, 1953

Mansfeld, Germany

DiedOctober 15, 2020 (aged 67)

OccupationsChemist; Mycologist

Yearsactive1983–2020

Quick facts Born, Died ...

Jochen Gartz
Born	(1953-10-01)October 1, 1953 Mansfeld, Germany
Died	October 15, 2020(2020-10-15) (aged 67)
Occupations	Chemist; Mycologist
Years active	1983–2020
Notable work	Magic Mushrooms Around the World (1996)
Website	http://www.jochengartz.de/

Selected publications

Books

Gartz, J.; Appelius, C.; Taake, C.; Falk, B. (1996). Magic Mushrooms Around the World: A Scientific Journey Across Cultures and Time : the Case for Challenging Research and Value Systems. LIS Publications. ISBN 978-0-9653399-0-2. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
Gartz, J. (1999). Narrenschwämme: Psychoaktive Pilze rund um die Welt [Magic Mushrooms: Psychoactive Mushrooms Around the World] (in German). Nachtschatten Verlag. ISBN 978-3-03788-494-2. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
Gartz, J. (1999). Halluzinogene in historischen Schriften: eine Anthologie von 1913 - 1968 [Hallucinogens in historical writings: an anthology from 1913 - 1968] (in German). Nachtschatten-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-907080-48-1. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
Gartz, J. (2012). Salvia Divinorum - Die Wahrsagesalbei [Salvia Divinorum - The Divination Sage] (in German). Nachtschatten Verlag. p. 1. ISBN 978-3-03788-252-8. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
Gartz, J. (2019). Psilocybin-Pilze: Neue Arten, ihre Entdeckung und Anwendung [Psilocybin Mushrooms: New Species, Their Discovery and Application] (in German). Nachtschatten Verlag. ISBN 978-3-03788-584-0. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
Gartz, J. (2014). Wasserstoffperoxid: Das vergessene Heilmittel. Mobiwell Verlag. ISBN 978-3-9448870-7-4.
Gartz, J. (2018). Wasserstoffperoxid: Anwendungen und Heilerfolge. Mobiwell Verlag. ISBN 978-3944887487.

References

[1]
Time Wave Zero (23 October 2016). "Interview with Jochen Gartz : Time Wave Zero : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive". Internet Archive. Retrieved 27 January 2025. Dr. Jochen Gartz is a German chemist and mycologist who has been researching psilocybin mushrooms and other psychoactive substances since 1983. He is an internationally recognized expert in the field. We interviewed him on the Entheovision Conference that took place in Berlin on the 27th and 28th of May. In this interview he is talking about the function of the drugs in the modern society , about the ritual use of drugs nowadays and about the best and the worst experience he made with drugs.The interview is in German.
[2]
Bauer, Barbara E. (8 October 2019). "Jochen Gartz". Psychedelic Science Review. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
[3]
K. Mandrake (1 March 2021). "Psilocybin Isn't the Only Compound in Magic Mushrooms—Here's What Else There Is". doubleblindmag.com. Retrieved 27 January 2025. Although little is known about the effects of baeocystin in isolation, Jochen Gartz, a chemist and mycologist at the Institute for Biotechnology in Germany, made anecdotal references to its psychoactivity being comparable to psilocybin in his book, "Magic Mushrooms Around the World" published in the 1997. In somewhat of a contradiction, famous mycologist Paul Stamets recently reported on The Joe Rogan podcast in 2019 that a pure baeocystin experience during a high state of anxiety didn't cause psilocybin-like hallucinations, but did dilate his pupils and cause his anxiety to disappear. [...] On the timeline of mushroom alkaloid discovery, aeruginascin sits somewhere in the middle. It was first discovered by Jochen Gartz in 1989 in Inocybe aeruginascens (hopefully you're noticing the trend of naming alkaloids after the mushrooms they're found in by now!), though recent research in late 2020 by Klára Gotvaldová and colleagues at University of Chemistry and Technology, Czech Republic discovered the presence of this alkaloid in Psilocybe cubensis, suggesting it may be more common than was once thought. [...] As well as being chemically similar to other mushroom alkaloids, aeruginascin also shares a similar structure to bufotenidine, a chemical found in the venom of some toads. In the same paper from 1989, Jochen Gartz analysed 23 cases of accidental ingestion of Inocybe aeruginascens and found that the effects always resulted in euphoria, however as with other alkaloids described here, little is known about the effects of pure formulations of aeruginascin.
[4]
Plazas E, Faraone N (February 2023). "Indole Alkaloids from Psychoactive Mushrooms: Chemical and Pharmacological Potential as Psychotherapeutic Agents". Biomedicines. 11 (2): 461. doi:10.3390/biomedicines11020461. PMC 9953455. PMID 36830997. Some magic mushrooms, such as those belonging to the Inocybe genus, do not have reports of traditional uses and instead were discovered by accidental hallucinogenic poisonings. For example, I. aeruginascens (Table 1) was described as psychoactive in the 1980s from unintentional intoxication in Germany and Hungary because of its similarity to the edible mushroom Marasmius oreades. Despite the unintentional consumption of I. aeruginascens, the user reported an extremely pleasant experience, described as a "good trip". This feature caught the attention of the German chemist Jochen Gartz, who discovered a new alkaloid structurally related to those found in other species of magic mushrooms, although in turn, has different pharmacological properties [30].
[5]
Jensen N, Gartz J, Laatsch H (June 2006). "Aeruginascin, a trimethylammonium analogue of psilocybin from the hallucinogenic mushroom Inocybe aeruginascens". Planta Med. 72 (7): 665–666. doi:10.1055/s-2006-931576. PMID 16673333.
[6]
Butler, Gavin (31 March 2020). "Scientists are Trying to Redesign Magic Mushrooms so You Never Have a Bad Trip". VICE. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
[7]
Bauer, Barbara E. (13 November 2020). "Aeruginascin Identified in Psilocybe cubensis Magic Mushrooms". Psychedelic Science Review. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
[8]
Bauer, Barbara E. (15 March 2019). "The Entourage Effect in Magic Mushrooms". Psychedelic Science Review. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
[9]
Gartz J, Appelius C, Taake C, Falk B (1996). "The Current State of Knowledge About European Species: Psilocybe Semilanceata: The Classic Species Among European Psychotropic Mushrooms" (PDF). Magic Mushrooms Around the World: A Scientific Journey Across Cultures and Time : the Case for Challenging Research and Value Systems. Los Angeles, California: LIS Publications. pp. 16–28 (27). ISBN 978-0-9653399-0-2. Retrieved 25 January 2025. Early controlled studies of the psychoactivity of various species in the former Czechoslovakia concluded that Psilocybe semilanceata is a more potently psychoactive species than Psilocybe bohemica, even though both species were found to contain the same amounts of psilocybin. Thus, researchers hypothesized that the mushrooms are likely to contain additional substances that contribute to the overall psychotropic effect. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that considerable amounts of baeocystin are consistently found in samples of Psilocybe semilanceata. I am also aware of an experiment whose results showed that 4 mg of baeocystin caused mild hallucinations for three hours, while 10 mg of baeocystin were found to be about as psychoactive as a similar amount of psilocybin.
[10]
Gartz J (1992). "Further Investigations on Psychoactive Mushrooms of the Genera Psylocibe, Gymnopilus and Conocybe" (PDF). Annali del Museo Civico di Rovereto. 7: 265–274. Psilocybe semilanceata is a species that blues inconsistently. The high levels of psilocybin and baeocystin making it one of the most potent species as well as one of the most constant in amount in comparison with other species (GARTZ & MÜLLER, 1989; Semerdzieva et al., 1986). In a self experiment a small sample of baeocystin from Psilocybe semilanceata (GARTZ, 1989b) (4 mg) has caused a gentle hallucinogenic experience. [...] GARTZ J., 1989b - Biotransformation of tryptamine derivatives in mycelial cultures of Psilocybe. Journal of Basic Microbiology, 29: 347-352. [Note: There was, strangely, no actual information in the cited paper (Gartz, 1989b) about the psychoactivity of baeocystin.]
[11]
Ott J (1996). Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History. Natural Products Company. p. 431. ISBN 978-0-9614234-9-0. Retrieved 25 January 2025. Baeocystin [...] Pharmacology: psychoptic in 10 mg oral dose; 4 mg threshold (Gartz, pers. com.); active in animals (Cerletti, Advances in Pharmacology 6B: 233, 1968)

Jochen Gartz

Selected publications

Books

See also

References

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