Then (1979), Plants of the Gods
The Psilocybin Pharmacopoeia: From Schultes's 91 Plants to Phase 3 Trials
Schultes and Hofmann documented psilocybin mushrooms as one of the most culturally significant groups of psychoactive plants in the Americas, used by Mazatec, Zapotec, Mixtec, and other Mesoamerican cultures in healing ceremonies. They provided the ethnobotanical and pharmacological framework; the clinical research infrastructure didn't exist.
confirmed
A psilocybin developer synthetic psilocybin psilocybin has completed two Phase 3 trials: the first Phase 3 trial (June 2025, n=233, TRD): -3.6 MADRS point advantage over placebo at Week 6, p<0.001; the second Phase 3 trial (February 2026, n=255, TRD): -3.8 MADRS point advantage, p<0.001. NDA submission planned Q4 2026. Australian TGA approved psilocybin for TRD and MDMA for PTSD in February 2023, the world's first regulated psychedelic therapy approval. Johns Hopkins has studied psilocybin across addiction, depression, end-of-life anxiety, and major depressive disorder with consistently positive results. The plant that Schultes documented in 1979 as a Mazatec ceremonial sacrament is about to receive FDA approval as a treatment for treatment-resistant depression. The ethnobotanical documentation preceded the clinical development by 47 years.
Sources
- Industry Phase 3 psilocybin trial data (2025-2026)
- TGA psilocybin approval (February 2023)
- Griffiths et al. psilocybin studies (2006-2022) [Source not found; under review]