Tryptamine is 2-(1H-indol-3-yl)ethanamine, C10H12N2: an indole with a two-carbon chain ending in a bare nitrogen (PubChem, tryptamine). Members of the family keep that core and change what sits on the ring or the nitrogen. Add two methyl groups to the nitrogen and you have DMT; add a hydroxyl at ring position 5 instead and you have serotonin (PubChem, serotonin).
Living things make tryptamine from the amino acid tryptophan by removing its carboxyl group. In mushrooms the enzyme PsiD does this as the first step towards psilocybin (Fricke et al., 2017); in mammals the textbook route to DMT also starts with tryptamine (Barker, 2018).
Mushrooms hold a mix of tryptamines, not just psilocybin. A 2026 study grew 14 Psilocybe cubensis strains under uniform conditions and found total tryptamine content varied more than 7.8-fold between strains (Sharchaton et al., 2026). A shared skeleton does not mean shared effects: small changes alter which receptors a molecule fits, so one tryptamine’s effects or safety cannot be read from another’s.
Sources
- PubChem: tryptamine (CID 1150)
- Fricke et al., 2017, Angewandte Chemie
- Barker, 2018, Frontiers in Neuroscience
- Sharchaton et al., 2026, Journal of Fungi: tryptamines in 14 strains
Last checked .