Biosynthesis of Mescaline and N-Acetylmescaline by Mammalian Liver

Abstract

WE have shown that mescaline, a well established hallucinogen found in the peyote cactus, can also be formed by mammalian liver from an appropriate precursor. An enzyme can be extracted from various mammalian tissues (by centrifugation at 100,000g for 1 h), including human brain and liver that transfers a rnethyl group from S-adenosyl[Me-14C]methionine (14C-SAM) to 4-O-methylated catecholamine metabolites to form corresponding 3,4-di-O-methylated compounds1,2. One of the substrates for this enzyme is iso-N-acetylmethoxytyr-amine (i-NAMT), which is converted to N-acetyl-3,4-di-methoxy-β-phenethylamine (NADMPEA). An enzyme in the same fraction of liver can transform 4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxy-β-phenethylamine (4-desmethylmescaline or 4-DMM) to mescaline (3,4,5-trimethoxy-β-phenethylamine), and N-acetyl-4-hydroxy-3,5- dimethoxyphenethylamine (N-acetyl-4-des-methyl-mescaline or NA-4-DMM) to N-acetylmescaline.