Lanmaoa asiatica
| Lanmaoa asiatica | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Basidiomycota |
| Class: | Agaricomycetes |
| Order: | Boletales |
| Family: | Boletaceae |
| Genus: | Lanmaoa |
| Species: | L. asiatica |
| Binomial name | |
| Lanmaoa asiatica G.Wu & Zhu L.Yang (2015) | |
| Lanmaoa asiatica | |
|---|---|
| Mycological characteristics | |
 | Pores on hymenium |
 | Cap is convex |
 | Hymenium is adnate |
 | Stipe is bare |
 | Spore print is olive-brown |
 | Ecology is mycorrhizal |
 | Edibility is psychoactive or choice |
Lanmaoa asiatica is a species of bolete mushroom of the family Boletaceae.[1] It is reddish in color[2] and an ectomycorrhizal symbiote of Pinus yunnanensis. It is a type of hallucinogenic bolete mushroom and is notable for causing lilliputian hallucinations when eaten raw or undercooked.[3][4][5][1][6]
Range
[edit]The mushroom is found in Yunnan province (China) and the Cordillera Administrative Region (Philippines), where it is known as Jianshouqing (Chinese: 见手青; pinyin: Jiànshǒuqīng; lit. 'see-hand-blue', as the flesh oxidizes to a blue color when crushed)[a] and Sedesdem respectively.[3][5][7] There have also been reports of "mushroom madness" caused by a mushroom called nonda in Papua New Guinea, though Lanmaoa species do not inhabit that country.[5] Lanmaoa asiatica is mycorrhizal with Pinus and thus must be collected from the wild.
Biochemistry and psychoactivity
[edit]The bluing reaction observed when the flesh is bruised or cut is strictly due to a pigment being enzymatically oxidized and is unrelated to the bluing reaction observed in psilocybin-containing mushrooms (caused by an oxidized dimer of psilocin), as L. asiatica has not been shown to produce psilocybin or psilocin.[1][5]
Lanmaoa asiatica produces Lilliputian hallucinations, in which a person sees numerous extremely small yet fully autonomous people in their environment.[3][8] Reports of Lilliputian hallucinations across several Asian countries had previously been unexplained for many years.[3][4][8] In one Yunnan hospital, doctors treat hundreds of such cases a year that often manifest as visions of tiny elves going under doors, climbing the furniture, and scaling walls.[4]
Lanmaoa asiatica is considered a choice wild edible in China[2] and is rich in umami flavor compounds.[9] It is safe to eat when properly cooked.[5][3][4] "At a mushroom hot pot restaurant there, the server set a timer for 15 minutes and warned us, 'Don't eat it until the timer goes off or you might see little people,'" says Colin Domnauer, a PhD student who studies L. asiatica.[4] Yunnanese restaurants have developed a set of safety standards (including mandatory electronic cooking timers and a ban on consuming alcoholic drinks) to minimize poisoning risk, with some establishments going further to make sure to always save samples of the day's mushrooms for genetic analysis should a poisoning outbreak occur. The local government also sends public alerts during mushroom season to warn about the potential of poisonings.[10] Nevertheless, poisonings remain common and treatment thereof is a specialty of local hospitals.[11]
Lilliputian hallucinations have been documented as arising from many different disease states, including alcohol withdrawal, macular degeneration, and Charles Bonnet syndrome, among many others.[5][8][12] However, no disease can induce Lilliputian hallucinations as reliably as raw Lanmaoa asiatica.[5][8][12] The hallucinations with Lanmaoa asiatica have a peculiar time course, with an onset of 12 to 24 hours after the meal and a duration of 1 to 7 days or in some cases weeks.[5][8][13][12] The little people with Lanmaoa asiatica are said to be about 2 cm[14] or 10 to 30 cm tall[12] and anchored in one's environment, including being stable, realistically embedded in the environment, three-dimensional, rendered in fine detail, and generally obey the laws of physics.[5][8][12] One example is little people submerging themselves in a soup, resurfacing, and then being lifted out in a spoon.[5][12] Nothing else is said to be known that produces anchored Lilliputian hallucinations like Lanmaoa asiatica.[5] Due to the delayed onset, it has been hypothesized that the active constituent might be a prodrug or that it might act by altering the gut somehow.[5] People who are hallucinating on Lanmaoa asiatica are usually aware that they are quite intoxicated.[12] In addition to the Lilliputian hallucinations, Lanmaoa asiatica can produce gastrointestinal symptoms and alarmingly, occasional states of delirium.[5][8][12] People appear to recover fully from the intoxication, and no deaths have been reported.[8][15][12]
Chemical and genomic analyses indicate that L. asiatica does not contain the known hallucinogenic alkaloids psilocybin and muscimol,[3][1][5] suggesting that an unknown hallucinogenic compound or mixture of compounds is involved.[3][4][1][16] Chemical analysis of L. asiatica has identified numerous compounds with possible pharmacological activity, but as of yet, none are linked to the effects.[17][18][19][20]
Domnauer and colleagues are working on identifying the active constituents of Lanmaoa asiatica as of 2025 and 2026.[5][3][6] The work is said to be challenging as there are hundreds of compounds in the mushroom.[5] In July 2026, Domnauer shared that it was still unclear how far they were from the discovery.[5] He has stated that he thinks the active compound may be an unusual and rather large protein.[5] In addition, Domnauer has suggested that the active compound might not even fully enter the brain and may work via the gut or brainstem somehow.[5][12] According to Domnauer, the effects and time course of the mushrooms are highly peculiar, so the chemistry might be too.[5][12] In attempting to identify the active constituents, Domnauer is taking advantage of the fact that the active substance is thermolabile by comparing the chemistry of cooked and uncooked tissue extracts.[5] The researchers have been narrowing down the compounds by testing various fungal tissue extracts in mice and then observing if any behavioral changes occur.[3][8][12] Progress is slow as the mushroom grows in symbiosis with the roots of certain conifer species, and unlike psilocybin-containing mushrooms, is unable to be cultured in a laboratory and must instead be gathered wild.[5][8] Domnauer and colleagues have narrowed the possible active substances list to a small handful of candidates.[5][8][12] The active chemicals are said to be quite polar and easily extracted into distilled water.[12] However, the team needs more mushroom tissue samples in order to fully characterize these polar compounds and so will need to travel to China again.[5][12] In addition, it is unclear whether the compounds causing the bizarre behavioral changes in mice are the same ones causing the Lilliputian hallucinations in humans.[8]
Despite being tempted to dose himself, Domnauer has not done so and as a result has not experienced the characteristic Lilliputian syndrome. He cites several concerns regarding the unknown minimum effective dose, the potential for delirium and dehydration (due to gastrointestinal upset), and the long duration of action. However, he has stated that he enjoys cooking and eating this species.[8][15]
History
[edit]Lanmaoa asiatica and the syndrome it induces may have been described as early as the third century by a Daoist in China.[5][12] Bolete mushrooms producing Lilliputian hallucinations were observed and described in Papua New Guinea from the 1930s to the 1960s.[8] The phenomenon of undercooked Chinese boletes causing Lilliputian hallucinations was subsequently brought to North American attention by David Arora and others in the 1990s.[5][21][22][23][24] Domnauer and colleagues identified the famous Chinese hallucinogenic species as L. asiatica and described these results in 2025.[3] They also found L. asiatica alongside reports of Lilliputian hallucinations in the Philippines and described these findings as well.[3]
Society and culture
[edit]Notable cases
[edit]In 2023, L. asiatica received international media attention after U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was reported to have eaten a dinner that contained the fungus during an official visit to China. Yellen later stated that the mushrooms in the dinner were thoroughly cooked, and that she experienced no adverse effects.[25]
See also
[edit]Note
[edit]- ↑ Jiànshǒuqīng is a name broadly applied to boletes that turn blue on exposure to air. The academic name for this mushroom in Chinese is 兰茂牛肝菌 "Lan Mao's bolete", after Mr. Lan Mao, the namesake of the genus Lanmaoa.
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 Domnauer C, Dentinger BT (June 2026). "Phylogenomic systematics of Lanmaoa (Boletaceae) reveals cryptic diversity, resolves global evolutionary relationships, and suggests a novel psychoactive lineage". Mycologia. 118 (4): 732–742. doi:10.1080/00275514.2026.2670968. PMID 42247306.
- 1 2 "Home - Lanmaoa asiatica v1.0". mycocosm.jgi.doe.gov. Archived from the original on 3 February 2025. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Domnauer C (12 November 2025). "Experts Explore New Mushroom Which Causes Fairytale-Like Hallucinations". Natural History Museum of Utah. Retrieved 23 January 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Nuwer R (22 January 2026). "'They saw them on their dishes when eating': The mushroom making people hallucinate dozens of tiny humans". BBC Home. Archived from the original on 23 January 2026. Retrieved 23 January 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Dale J (16 July 2026). "Colin Domnauer: The Hallucinogen That Isn't There". Psychedelics.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 July 2026. Retrieved 17 July 2026.
- 1 2 Love S (15 December 2025). "Little people hallucinations: 5 Questions with mushroom researcher Colin Domnauer". Substack. The Microdose. Archived from the original on 2 July 2026. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
- ↑ Wong M (15 July 2023). "Mushroom diplomacy: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sets off culinary craze in China". CNN. Archived from the original on 1 February 2025. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Turner B (26 June 2026). "'It sounds so impossible': Student studying fungus that makes users hallucinate tiny people may be on the verge of a scientific breakthrough". Live Science. Archived from the original on 17 July 2026. Retrieved 17 July 2026.
- ↑ RD Mary Lee Chin, MS (12 August 2016). "Umami Flavor is Highly Valued in Asian Cooking". MSGdish. Archived from the original on 14 January 2026. Retrieved 22 January 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ↑ "见手青有毒也抢着吃！掌握3个技巧，鲜吃安全不中毒" [Rushing to eat Jianshouqing even if it's poisonous? Three tips to keep you safe]. www.163.com. 20 November 2025. Archived from the original on 19 December 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
- ↑ Li H, Zhang H, Zhang Y, Zhou J, Yin Y, He Q, et al. (January 2022). "Mushroom Poisoning Outbreaks – China, 2021". China CDC Weekly. 4 (3): 35–40. doi:10.46234/ccdcw2022.010 (inactive 2 August 2026). PMC 8796718. PMID 35586461. Archived from the original on 12 May 2025.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of August 2026 (link) - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 James W. Jesso (28 May 2026). "The Undercooked Mushroom Producing the Strangest Psychedelic Effects Known" (Podcast). Adventures Through The Mind. No. 208. Colin Domnauer (interviewee). Archived from the original on 7 July 2026. Retrieved 28 June 2026.
- ↑ "Scientists remain baffled as mystery mushroom triggers identical 'tiny people' visions worldwide". Dimsum Daily. 29 June 2026. Archived from the original on 17 July 2026. Retrieved 17 July 2026.
- ↑ Simons P (15 July 2026). "Plantwatch: Beware a tasty mushroom with a powerful hallucinogen". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2026.
- 1 2 Ruzanski W (8 April 2026). "U mycologists lead research on mushrooms that cause hallucinations of 'whimsical little fairies and elves' – The Daily Utah Chronicle". The Daily Utah Chronicle. Archived from the original on 18 July 2026. Retrieved 17 July 2026.
- ↑ Dai R, Duan Z, Han B, Peng Y, Zhu L, Shen Y, et al. (July 2025). "Untargeted Metabolomic Analysis Using UPLC-MS/MS Reveals Metabolic Changes Associated With Lanmaoa asiatica Poisoning". Food Science & Nutrition. 13 (7) e70583. doi:10.1002/fsn3.70583. PMC 12237617. PMID 40635726.
- ↑ Zhang X, Liu L, Luo J, Peng X (November 2022). "Anti-aging potency correlates with metabolites from in vitro fermentation of edible fungal polysaccharides using human fecal intestinal microflora". Food & Function. 13 (22): 11592–11603. doi:10.1039/d2fo01951e. PMID 36268605.
- ↑ Yang N, Zhang S, Zhou P, Zhang W, Luo X, Cao J, et al. (December 2022). "Analysis of Volatile Flavor Substances in the Enzymatic Hydrolysate of Lanmaoa asiatica Mushroom and Its Maillard Reaction Products Based on E-Nose and GC-IMS". Foods. 11 (24): 4056. doi:10.3390/foods11244056. PMC 9778328. PMID 36553801.
- ↑ Wang Y, Lüli Y, Li X, Yang ZL, Luo H (May 2024). "Pulvinic Acid Derivative Pigments in Lanmaoa asiatica and L. macrocarpa". Chemistry & Biodiversity. 21 (5) e202301996. doi:10.1002/cbdv.202301996. PMID 38509847.
- ↑ Zhang B, Yang L, Ma QY, Xie QY, Guo JC, Dai HF, et al. (June 2025). "Chemical constituents from the fruiting bodies of Lanmaoa asiatica and their anti-inflammatory activity". Fitoterapia. 183 106531. doi:10.1016/j.fitote.2025.106531. PMID 40204044.
- ↑ Domnauer C, Dentinger B (24 May 2022). Reports of Psychoactive Bolete Mushrooms. ESPD55 (Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs 55). McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy. Archived from the original on 2 March 2026. Retrieved 17 July 2026.
- ↑ Arora D (2008). "Notes on Economic Mushrooms. Xiao Ren Ren: The "Little People" of Yunnan" (PDF). Economic Botany. 62 (3). New York Botanical Garden Press: 540–544. doi:10.1007/s12231-008-9049-0. ISSN 0013-0001. JSTOR 40390492. Retrieved 18 February 2025.
- ↑ Stijve T (1997). "Hallucinogenic Boletes in China?" (PDF). Eleusis: Journal of Psychoactive Plants and Compounds. 7: 33. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 May 2025. Retrieved 17 July 2026.
- ↑ Linchu G, Kuang P (1991). "The Use of Psychopharmacological Agents in China: Historical and Current Perspectives" (PDF). International Journal of Mental Health. 20 (1): 4–11. doi:10.1080/00207411.1991.11449181. ISSN 0020-7411. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 May 2020. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
- ↑ Sullivan H (16 August 2023). "Janet Yellen inadvertently ate hallucinogenic mushrooms in China – and started a trend". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
External links
[edit]- "Experts Explore New Mushroom Which Causes Fairytale-Like Hallucinations | Natural History Museum of Utah". nhmu.utah.edu. 12 November 2025. – Colin Domnauer
