"Zein represents about 60% of the total protein in corn. Zein contains very low lysine and tryptophan percentages. Zein is comprised of 21.4% glutamine, 19.3% leucine, 9.0% proline, 8.3% alanine, 6.8% phenylalanine, 6.2% isoleucine, 5.7% serine, and 5.1% tyrosine." This low tryptophan content is interesting - the palnts will have to store their axin materials quite carefully.
Quote:"Maize contains... Np-coumaril tryptamine, N-ferulyl tryptamine"
Just highlighting a slight typo/mistranslation here - it should read "N-p-coumaryl" - in case anyone is planning on using this as a search term. Those two substituents are among the commonest phenolic acids found in plants, along with caffeic acid.
Back to the
first paper,
"Compounds 15, 16, 17, and 18 were classified as monoamine alkaloids (Table 5). Compound 15, at a retention time of 10.48 min, produced a molecular ion at 187 m/z, with fragmentation of m/z = 184, 169, and 127, characteristic of dimethyltryptamine from the group of tryptamines and derivatives. Compound 16 had a precursor ion at 366 m/z and was identified as isatidine (
Table 5)."
and another interesting thing was observed:
"Compound 24, at a retention time of 13.94 min, had a molecular ion of 313 m/z with fragments of m/z = 311, 287, and 216, and was identified as dronabinol, which belongs to the class of organic compounds known as 2, 2-dimethyl-1-benzopyrans. Dronabinols are used for the treatment of nausea and vomiting in cancer chemotherapy patients as well as for the treatment of anorexia and weight loss in HIV patients."
Dronabinol is of course a synonym for Ξ9-tetrahydrocannabinol.
One does begin to wonder if any of their equipment was contaminated or, indeed, what they may have been smoking, if not in the lab, then at least around the brewing vessel at the time. Let's not forget the case of Clement et al and the mysterious case of the mescaline acacias that was never replicated.
There's also the chance that the brews themselves were contaminated with unidentified plant material. The pyrrolizidine alkaloid monocrotaline is a clue in this direction. And as well, the spider toxin JSTX-3:
"Compound 23, with a molecular ion of 564 m/z and fragments of m/z = 353, 314, and 143, was identified as JSTX 3. This is a toxin isolated from spider venom, which could have resulted from an insect infestation on the maize."
10-Deacetyl-2-debenzoylbaccatin III is similarly suspicious.
Mostly this is instructive in the sense of saving one's reactions to an item of research until after a careful reading of the paper.
βThere is a way of manipulating matter and energy so as to produce what modern scientists call 'a field of force'. The field acts on the observer and puts him in a privileged position vis-à-vis the universe. From this position he has access to the realities which are ordinarily hidden from us by time and space, matter and energy. This is what we call the Great Work."
β Jacques Bergier, quoting Fulcanelli