Tobacco plants engineered to produce 5 psychedelics
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- Asaph Aharoni and colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science used agroinfiltration to add nine genes to Nicotiana benthamiana tobacco plants, enabling them to produce psilocin and psilocybin (normally from mushrooms), DMT, bufotenin, and 5-methoxy-DMT (normally secreted by the Colorado river toad).
- The agroinfiltration method introduces genes via a bacterium without incorporating them into the plant's genome, producing a short-lived effect — Aharoni said permanent, inheritable changes are technically possible but problematic because "people will ask for seeds."
- Aharoni noted the same approach could be applied to tomato, potato, or corn plants, and argued tobacco-based production would be simpler than chemical synthesis while avoiding the overexploitation of wild populations already threatened by habitat loss.
- The study, published in Science Advances, builds on earlier "pharming" milestones: plant-produced protein drugs have been FDA-approved since 2012, and in 2022 a separate team used tobacco plants to synthesize roughly 400 nanograms of cocaine per milligram of dried leaf — about 1/25th the level in coca plants.
- Rupert Fray of the University of Nottingham, an independent commentator, noted that around 25% of prescription drugs are derived wholly or partially from plants and called the work a useful "technical accomplishment" showing researchers understand the pathways and can rebuild them in a greenhouse.
Why it matters: For psychedelic-medicine researchers, tobacco-based production offers a simpler, more sustainable supply of psilocybin and DMT without depleting threatened wild sources — but Aharoni flagged the recreational-drug risk, noting inheritable seeds would be a regulatory nightmare. The demonstration that one crop can produce five distinct psychedelics validates "green factory" pharma as a viable route to clinical-grade drug manufacturing.
