The pharmacological effects of lysergamides are assumed to come from their efficacy as a partial agonist of the 5-HT2A receptor, though they are known to have an affinity to a much greater variety of receptors than other psychedelic compounds.

The (surprisingly dark) History of Lysergamides

The first discovered lysergamides came from a fungus called ergot that can be found on rye and other grains. This fungus contains both lysergic acid and a precursor of LSD, ergotamine. Ingestion of grains containing ergot led to the condition called “ergotism”, which wreaked havoc around the turn of the first millennium. The worst incidence of this was one night in the year 944AD in France, where much of the population were unknowingly consuming rye bread that had become infected with ergot. Two hours later, people flooded the streets, assumed to be mad. Over 40,000 people died over the course of a few days in what became known as the “Ergot epidemic”. Interestingly, the term “werewolf” was first coined to describe people who were afflicted by ergotism.

It wasn’t until 1938 that Albert Hoffman first developed lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD while working with this same fungus and the psychedelics revolution of the 20th century began. 

Since then, a vast array of LSD analogues have been discovered and synthesised; some of these by Hoffman himself during the 60s (ALD-52 for example) and many in just the last 10 years by the Dutch based laboratory Lizard Labs (these include 1P-LSD, 1cP-LSD, 1B-LSD, 1V-LSD and 1D-LSD).