HaCKeRz KrOnIcKLeZ 3/HaCKeRz_KrOnIcKLeZ.iso/drugs/sleepy.grass

Text File | 1996-05-06 | 2KB | 52 lines

    BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Ranchers and scientists have long wondered why
horses grazing a certain grass (Stipa robusta) in the southwest stumble
around in a drunken stupor and then collapse into a state of
unconsciousness for days.
    Once bitten, twice shy. After the horses wake up, they never eat this
``sleepy grass'' again.
    Indiana University biologist Keith Clay has studied sleepy grass and
found it to be infected with an unusual endophyte, a fungus that lives
inside plant leaves. Alkaloids produced by the fungus are the knockout
culprits (caffeine, nicotine, cocaine and morphine are other plant-
produced alkaloids).
    Clay found that the dominant alkaloid in sleepy grass is lysergic
acid amide, a first cousin of LSD.
    A report of Clay's study will appear in the Dec. 18 issue of the
journal Natural Toxins.
    Clay's discovery sheds light on a widespread, but unexplained,
relationship between fungi and grasses.
    Here, as in many other instances, plants and fungi are involved in a
symbiotic relationship, Clay said. The grass provides a home and food
for the fungus. The fungus pays room and board by turning the grass into
an unattractive food source for hungry animals.
    So in this case, ``infection'' isn't such a bad thing -- it's what
keeps both partners alive.
    But for horses, the sleepy grass predator, eating this grass is
almost poison. A 150-pound man would become sedated by ingesting but one
milligram of the alkaloid.
    But a 1,200-pound horse eats 11 pounds of grass daily. And if that
fresh grass consists of sleepy grass, that means consuming 47 milligrams
of lysergic acid amide, or nearly six times the per-pound amount that
sedates man.
    It's no wonder that after this knockout the horses choose somewhere
else to graze.
    Clay does not fear that this discovery will send hordes of people to
New Mexico and Arizona seeking a buzz by chewing on some sleepy grass.
    Lysergic acid amide is a sedative, not a hallucinogen like its
cousin.
    And if the horses' subsequent aversion to the grass is any
indication, the experience isn't a pleasant one.
    Clay's sleepy grass research is merely the tip of the iceberg of his
plants and fungi research. His current research involves the
implications of this symbiotic relationship on agriculture and the
synthesis of new pharmaceuticals.

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Stephan Meyers | [e-mail]
(Art)^n Laboratories, inventors of the Stealth Negative PHSCologram
[phone]