Attached link to very interesting research about presence and stability of tryptamine alkaloids in Psilocybe cubensis:

https://sci-hub.se/10.1002/dta.2950

Pubmed citation:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33119971/

I tried the link, it's not working for me right now so I'll try later. A friend came by yesterday and we were discussing how certain albino varieties seem to have a 5th mystery alkaloid in them, his friend had tested some and there was a 5th unidentified peak, without seeing the analysis for myself it lends to the idea that there is in fact another alkaloid specific to certain Albino varieties. I've been growing for years and have 1 variety out of over 20 that is 'different' if you don't count the P.E. which is stronger than normal but the same overall alkaloid profile, just in greater amounts. I will actually be investing in my own TLC setup as soon as I can afford it to test this on my own fruits. I have had access to testing for a while but there is always turnaround time and sometimes that's months because it's a 'hook up' deal on a less than legal source material. I would feel much more comfortable testing myself.

I didn't mean to derail this post, I'm looking forward to the read. Ethneogenics is my passion. I'm involved in psilocybin legalization efforts where I live and am soon to build a new "mushroom laboratory" for some people here that actually funded the legalization in other states. They're making me head of the project here. Pretty exciting deal.

Summary of the article is:

Storage of dried material (P. cubensis) at room temperature in the shows the best keeping properties.

Frozen actually keeps worse, because of cellular disruption. Freezing in liquid nitrogen would get around this.

Mushroom alkaloids are photosensitive - both drying and storage should be in the dark.

After 15 months, the degree of decomposition seems to be about the same for all storage methods although the room temperature dry material still came out on top for retained potency by a nose.

Fresh material contains much more psilocin, which on drying is seemingly converted into the various phosphorylated derivatives - principally psilocybin.

Caps are more potent than stems on a weight for weight basis.

Aeruginascin is present but only up to 0.01% of dry mass.

Methanol with 0.1% acetic acid proved to be the best extraction solvent, extracting 80% of the actives on the first pull, and practically all of the remaining 20% with a second wash. The second wash likely would be equally successful using pure methanol.

I'm surprised freezer storage was so bad. That's not what I have experienced subjectively, but my freezer doesn't got down to -80C (more like -20C).

The best thing I have found is dried mushrooms in food vacuum bags.

Damn that's pretty shocking, I always thought that the cooler the environment was, the more protected the substances were from degradation. I also had no idea towards the extend at which light damages the psychoactive constituents. I keep all of my special compounds in the freezer, don't know how much damage this has done to similar tryptamines like N,N-DMT.

That being said we seriously need a well-made, non-outdated thread that lists the ideal storage conditions for common psychedelic drugs like, DMT, LSD, psilocybin and mescaline in there freebase forms and various salts.

Edit:

Being that mushrooms are an organic food item, just curious if they'd go off / moldy being kept at those room temperature storage conditions over prolonged periods of time (months to years) is well?

P.S. Thanks for the well-put summary downwardsfromzero.

I wonder if it's worse in the freezer because the psilosin and psilocybin are still in the mushroom. I'm inclined to think that most freebase substances would fair well in the freezer. But I'm very much open to being corrected.

I too keep my lsd and some DMT in the freezer. Mushrooms stay in jars in a dark space.

One love

I wish this study would have compared dry powder vs. dry whole fruit bodies as well. I do store at room temperature in a dark environment devoid of moisture and air. I could speculate that keeping the fruit bodies whole after drying would limit degradation compared to powder, but who knows. Less air exposure and less light exposure I would think. Either way, I'm happy I didn't store anything in the freezer.