psilocybin/psilocin "thermal death" - Advanced Mycology

there seems to be some confusion in the online mushroom community concerning mushrooms and temperature.

the thermal death of mycelium (from stamets) is 106 deg f (or is it 104? anyway one of those). you should never let your jars get to that point or their probably gonna be dead (unless its the "a" strain, maybe).

but because of this thermal death point for mycelium, people regularly advise others to beware of *drying* their crop above this temperature as well. as many of you probably know this is not true -- when drying a cubie it doesnt matter if the mycelium gets fried, what we are concerned with is the active chemicals psilocybin and psilocin. the main way in which these are destroyed is by oxidation.

i have heard a number of different opinions on what their comparative "thermal death" temperature is but i havent found a respectable reference to this. can anyone on here (i thought the advanced board would get more replies) tell me what it is? how worried should we be about what temp we dry our crops at? thanks.

--------------------
"habit is the ballast that chains the dog to its vomit" - s beckett

Extras:

Top

Here's my thought on the psilo-heat destruction thing. . .I think it's over-rated. I've purposefully tried cooking down the potency of some fresh cubes before; Dinty Moore Stew---let it simmer for about half an hour. Now I never took a temperature reading, but I know that the stew simmers at temps above 212 F/100 C [at least on the bottom of the pot]. That stew kicked my ass beyond belief, certainly comparable to just consuming them fresh, though that's a tough one to substantiate.
I've made pizza where the fruits were toasted brown after cooking. Doubly kicked my ass!
I think it's possible [someone probably has the work in front of them] that the degredation temperatures given in the texts are based on degredation observed in isolated/extracted psiloc[yb]in. Isolated alkaloids would no longer be 'protected' by binding proteins, organelles, the thick fungal cell wall, etc. They would thus break down easier under increased temperature.
In the real world, though, it's pretty tough to wipe out potency with heat. [IME]

Extras:

Top

I am a bit "out of it" at the moment, but I do think that the boiling point (and hence most reactive ) temperature for psylocin is around 220 degrees Centrigrade. Don't quote me on that yet though. Obviously oxidation can occur before this, but to a much lesser extent.

--------------------

Extras:

Top