Could ergot alkaloids in Aspergillus species be responsible for some of its effects on people?

[Guest guest]

I recently read two articles that were linked from Medline on Aspergillus

" Abundant respirable ergot alkaloids from the common airborne fungus

Aspergillus fumigatus "

and

" Occurrence of indole alkaloids among secondary metabolites of soil Aspergillus "

and wondered, could the respiration of microgram amounts of these

ergot alkaloids be responsible for some of the effects Aspergillus has

on the ability to sleep spundly and the circadian rhythm.. (Ergot

alkaloids are related to the drug LSD, in addition to being very

poisonous, for example, ergot alkaloids on rye are theorized to be

responsible for many cases of whole villages being poisoned in the

past.. Its theorized that the era of witch burnings was a response to

the " St 's Fire " disease caused by eating fungi-contaminated

rye.. )

Ergot alkaloids are also very powerful...so inhaling just a few

millions of a gram (less than you could see) could cause effects..

Some Aspergillus fungus produce more than 1% ergot alkaloids by

weight... In this context, thats a lot..

[Guest guest]

Can you send me the link to the articles? This is good stuff!

Carl Grimes

Healthy Habitats LLC

-----

> I recently read two articles that were linked from Medline on

> Aspergillus

>

> " Abundant respirable ergot alkaloids from the common airborne fungus

> Aspergillus fumigatus "

>

> and

>

> " Occurrence of indole alkaloids among secondary metabolites of soil

> Aspergillus "

>

> and wondered, could the respiration of microgram amounts of these

> ergot alkaloids be responsible for some of the effects Aspergillus has

> on the ability to sleep spundly and the circadian rhythm.. (Ergot

> alkaloids are related to the drug LSD, in addition to being very

> poisonous, for example, ergot alkaloids on rye are theorized to be

> responsible for many cases of whole villages being poisoned in the

> past.. Its theorized that the era of witch burnings was a response to

> the " St 's Fire " disease caused by eating fungi-contaminated

> rye.. )

>

> Ergot alkaloids are also very powerful...so inhaling just a few

> millions of a gram (less than you could see) could cause effects..

>

> Some Aspergillus fungus produce more than 1% ergot alkaloids by

> weight... In this context, thats a lot..

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Sure, no problem.

This is another distressing item in a pretty distressing list for me

as I have aspergillus in my home. (among other things..)

____cut here_______

Panaccione DG, Coyle CM.

Abundant respirable ergot alkaloids from the common airborne fungus

Aspergillus fumigatus.

Appl Environ Microbiol. 2005 Jun;71(6):3106-11.

http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/full/71/6/3106?view=long

(Full text of the above article is free, and at the URL above, you can

also download a PDF to save)

Prikl Biokhim Mikrobiol. 2003 Mar-Apr;39(2):217-21.

Occurrence of indole alkaloids among secondary metabolites of soil

Aspergillus

Vinokurova NG, Khmel'nitskaia II, Baskunov BP, Arinbasarov MU.

Skryabin Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of

Microorganisms, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Moscow Oblast,

142290 Russia.

The occurrence of indole alkaloids among secondary fungal

metabolites was studied in species of the genus Aspergillus, isolated

from soils that were sampled in various regions of Russia (a total of

102 isolates of the species A. niger, A. phoenicis, A. fumigatus, A.

flavus, A. versicolor, A. ustus, A. clavatus, and A. ochraceus).

Clavine alkaloids were represented by fumigaclavine, which was formed

by A. fumigatus. alpha-Cyclopiazonic acid was formed by isolates of A.

fumigatus, A. flavus, A. versicolor, A. phoenicis, and A. clavatus.

The occurrence of indole-containing diketopiperazine alkaloids was

documented for isolates of A. flavus, A. fumigatus, A. clavatus, and

A. ochraceus. No indole-containing metabolites were found among the

metabolites of A. ustus or A. niger.

1: Prikl Biokhim Mikrobiol. 1993 Jan-Feb;29(1):44-50. Related Articles, Links

Fungal tremorogens

Cole RJ.

Fungi capable of producing tremorgenic secondary metabolites

represent species from taxonomically diverse and unrelated groups.

These fungi are capable of contaminating a variety of agricultural

commodities such as faragas, corn, silage, etc. Various animal

diseases suspected or known to be caused by fungal tremorgens are

paspalum staggers, ryegrass staggers, corn staggers, and Bermuda grass

tremors. Other syndromes with probable involvement of fungal

tremorgens were associated with corn silage contaminated with

Aspergillus fumigatus and beer, cream cheese, a hamburger, and walnuts

contaminated with Penicillium crustosum. The tremorgens involved in

these syndromes (with the exception of the moldy silage) although

produced by diversely unrelated fungi, contain the same basis

biologically active chemical nucleus derived from geranylgeraniol and

tryptophan. In some cases, such as A. flavus and Claviceps paspali,

the tremorgens appear to be associated exclusively with the sclerotial

stage (ergot).

http://jas.fass.org/cgi/reprint/70/5/1615