This day in history - January 11, 1906 - Shroomery News Service

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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 18,854

This day in history - January 11, 1906

#11805955 - 01/11/10 01:02 AM (16 years, 7 months ago)

January 11, 1906

Albert Hofmann's Birthday

Albert Hofmann was born on January 11, 1906. Dr. Albert Hofmann was a prominent Swiss scientist and best known as the "father" of LSD. He was born in Baden, Switzerland, and studied chemistry at the University of Zurich. His main interest was the chemistry of plants and animals, and he later conducted important research regarding the chemical structure of the common animal substance chitin, for which he received his doctorate. Hofmann joined the pharmaceutical-chemical department of Sandoz Laboratories, Basel (now Novartis), studying the medicinal plants squill and ergot as part of a program to purify and synthesize active constituents for use as pharmaceuticals.

His research in lysergic acid, the central shared component of ergot alkaloids, eventually led to the synthesis of LSD-25 in 1938. It was five years later, on repeating synthesis of the almost forgotten substance, that Dr. Hofmann discovered the psychedelic effects of LSD after accidentally ingesting some through his fingertips on April 16, 1943. Three days later, on April 19 (later known as Bicycle Day), Hofmann deliberately consumed 250 µg of LSD, and experienced far more intense effects. This was followed by a series of self-experiments conducted by Hofmann and his colleagues. He first wrote about these experiments on April 22.

He became director of the natural products department at Sandoz and went on studying hallucinogenic substances found in Mexican mushrooms and other plants used by the aboriginal people. This lead to the synthesis of psilocybin, the active agent of many "magic mushrooms".

Hofmann also got interested in the seeds of the Mexican magic morning glory species Rivea corymbosa, the seeds of which are called Ololiuhqui by the natives. He was very surprised to find the active compound of Ololiuhqui chemically very similar to LSD.

In 1962, he and his wife Anita travelled to southern Mexico to search for the magic plant ska Maria Pastora (leaves of Mary the shepherdess), later known as Salvia divinorum. He was able to obtain samples of this plant but never succeeded in identifying its active chemicals.

He has been the author of over 100 scientific articles and has written (or co-authored) a number of books, including LSD, My Problem Child, which is partly an autobiography and describes his famous bicycle ride.

(The online version of LSD, My Problem Child is available at http://www.psychedelic-library.org/child.htm)

Albert Hofmann died on April 29, 2008. He was 102 years old.

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"Instead of all of this energy and effort directed at the war to end drugs, how about a little attention to drugs which will end war?" - Albert Hofmann

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