Psilocybin is not a very complex natural substance compared to some other drugs and therapeutics, but its intricate biosynthesis was only discovered in 2017 by one of us. As already indicated on the header image, the Psilo mushrooms uses five very specific enzymes (indicated by the colored dots labelled TrpB, PsiD, PsiH, PsiK, and PsiM) to step-wise synthesize psilocybin starting from a simple amino acid, serine, and the heterocyclic aromatic compound indole to make the amino acid tryptophan, from which in a series of 4 four more steps, psilocybin is synthesized.
Read more about enzymes in general and Psilo enzymes on the next page.